Four Star Farm

02/07/2026

28/06/2026

So adorable!

Welcome to the world Ren’ai Chudoku FSF (Virginian Sky *Pb* / Roisen Moon / Silvermoon)! Congrats to owner/breeder Natalie Brady!
📧 Email [email protected] within 30 days of foaling to receive $15 off registration
✍️ Include a photo, name, breeding, DOB, breeder, and owner
🚨 The ATA is the only North American Trakehner Registry recognized by and affiliated with the Trakehner Verband. The ATA is a member of the World Breeding Federation for Sport Horses.
🎉 Foal registration includes USEF Lifetime Recording, bio-thermo microchip, DNA, and optional USEA Lifetime Recording

14/06/2026

https://horseandrider.com/blogs/kids-parents-both-benefit-from-horses/?fbclid=IwY2xjawSb09hleHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETFFdE95akJ1d2cwbno5ZjFCc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQQMjIyMDM5MTc4ODIwMDg5MgABHsehppLDRRkHj-JojdmD7eHYiPrWvWWN7RAhBqrVkxRZh4hqC7SmFfkRpRwG_aem_TmMbaUAhIyEu685WtLnkWg

Kids benefit from horses, but so do their parents. See our list of reasons why “the horse thing” is a terrific investment.

14/06/2026

https://horseandrider.com/blogs/kids-parents-both-benefit-from-horses/

There is still space in our July and August camps!

If you're looking for an experience that builds confidence, responsibility, resilience, and genuine joy, this is it. Horses have a remarkable way of helping children discover strengths they never knew they had.
By the end of camp, kids don't just learn to ride. They learn courage. They make friends. They unplug from screens. They gain confidence that follows them home, into school, sports, and everyday life.
The summer is flying by, and these weeks will be gone before you know it. Give your child, grandchild, or favorite young person an experience they'll remember for years. It will change them in ways you won't expect and in ways worth 100x's the cost. Guaranteed! Text (707)312-1119 for more information
or visit https://fourstarfarm.com/what-four-star-farm-offers/riding-camps/ to register

13/06/2026

Every Adult rider should read this!

Learning to ride as an adult is harder than learning as a child. Adults come to riding with something children do not have yet - a fully developed sense of how their body is supposed to work and what being competent feels like. When riding challenges both of those things simultaneously, the adult brain does not just only struggle with the skill but it struggles with the struggle. That second layer is what nobody warns you about before you sign up for riding lessons or get back into riding after a long respite.

For adult riders:
You are going to feel awkward for longer than feels acceptable. Your body has decades of established movement patterns that riding asks it to override and that does not happen quickly or gracefully. The child in the next lesson who has been riding a few months and is already cantering is not your benchmark. They do not have your movement history, your self consciousness, or your understanding of what falling off a horse actually costs a person with a job and a family and a life. Stop comparing, you are not in the same race.

Your fear is legitimate and owning the fact that you are nervous does not make you a bad rider, it makes you an honest one. Adults understand consequences in a way children genuinely do not and that awareness belongs in the saddle with you. Pretending fear is not there has never helped anyone get better faster. Remember, your progress is real even when you cannot feel it. The balance that is slowly becoming automatic. The contact that is quietly getting softer. The horse that is starting to respond to lighter aids because you are finally giving them consistently. You cannot always see these changes from the inside but the horse can and your instructor can. Trust the process even when the mirror is not showing you what you expected.

For instructors who teach adult riders:
Your adult students need more from you than your younger ones in specific ways. They need the why behind every correction, not just what to change but why it matters and what it will feel like when it is right. They need their progress named out loud because they are giving themselves almost no credit for it. They need their fear acknowledged, not minimized. An adult who says they are nervous is not being dramatic, they are being accurate. They need an instructor who genuinely expects them to improve because that expectation is often the only thing keeping them in the saddle through the weeks when they cannot find it themselves.

Adult riders are some of the most committed students you will ever teach. They chose to ride and they keep showing up. They work harder between lessons than most of your younger students do because they are thinking about it all week. Meet that commitment with instruction that takes them seriously because they deserve it and they will absolutely notice if they are not getting it.

Then there is the adult who is not starting from scratch. The rider who rode as a child or teenager, stepped away for years or decades, and has now returned to something they never fully stopped loving. This rider comes with a unique set of challenges that neither a true beginner nor a current rider fully understands. Their muscle memory is there, just buried somewhere beneath years of a different life, but their body is not the same body that rode before. They remember what good felt like but they cannot yet access it and that gap between memory and current reality is one of the most frustrating places a rider can be. Be patient with returning riders. The expectations they carry for themselves are almost always higher than what their body can currently deliver and the emotional weight of coming back to something you love and finding it harder than you remember is significant. Give them time, give them grace, and remind them that the feel they are looking for is still in there. It just needs time to come back to the surface.

Adult beginner riding is humbling, unglamorous, and one of the most genuinely rewarding things a person can take on. For the riders doing it, keep going. For the instructors teaching it, thank you for doing it well.

17/04/2026

Sarah has taught Johnny to "Fist bump". 🤣

02/04/2026

Parents, why should you be excited if your kid wants to ride horses?

This is why……..

As Carl Jung wrote, “The privilege of a lifetime is to become who you truly are.” Settling moves you away from that becoming

Why chasing the dream with horses is a great journey either way

Chasing the dream with horses is powerful not just because of where you might end up — but because of who you become along the way.

Whether you “make it” or not, the journey reshapes you.

1. Horses Demand Presence
You can’t fake confidence with a horse.
You can’t lie about fear.
You can’t rush connection.

Horses live in the moment. To work with them, you have to drop your ego and distractions. That kind of presence is rare in modern life — and incredibly grounding.

As riders from FEI competition levels often say, the horse is the ultimate mirror. It reflects exactly what you bring into the arena.

That’s personal growth in real time.

2. You Learn Resilience the Honest Way
Horses are humbling.

You fall.

You get back up.

You think you’ve mastered something.

The next day proves you haven’t.

There’s no shortcut. No hack. No algorithm.

Even legends like Charlotte Dujardin didn’t skip the grind. The journey builds grit, patience, and emotional control — traits that transfer into every other part of life.

3. Partnership > Control
The dream with horses isn’t about domination. It’s about partnership.

Building trust with a 1,200-pound animal that could overpower you at any moment — but chooses to cooperate — teaches a deep lesson:

Respect creates power. Not force.

That lesson shapes leadership, relationships, and self-awareness.

4. The Lifestyle Changes You
Early mornings.
Cold barns.
Quiet routines.
Hard physical work.

There’s something grounding about mucking stalls before sunrise. It builds discipline without needing applause. You learn to love process over praise.

That’s rare.

5. Even If the “Big Dream” Doesn’t Happen…
Even if you never win big titles, never go pro, never reach the level you imagined:

You still gain:

Confidence

Emotional regulation

Work ethic

Community

A deep connection to an animal that changes you

That’s not failure. That’s transformation.

As riders in events like the Olympic Games often say, the medal is a moment — but the journey is a lifetime.

6. Horses Keep You Honest About Why You Started
Unlike many dreams driven by status or money, horses strip things back.

If you’re doing it, you’re doing it because you love it. Because something in you lights up around them.

That kind of dream feeds the soul — not the ego.

Chasing a horse dream is rarely linear. It’s messy. Expensive. Emotional. Exhausting.

But either way, you don’t walk away unchanged.

And sometimes, becoming stronger, softer, and more grounded is the real win.

31/03/2026

Time to enroll in camp. We have a few remaining spots.

03/03/2026

Horsey summertime fun is only a few months away! Register now for riding camp at Four Star Farm in Dixon. CA. Dates for 2026 are June 15-19, July 6-10, August 3-7, ages 6-12. Tuition is $695 per rider per week.

Riding instruction is in English riding, and campers are immersed in everything horsey! In addition to riding, they learn about equine veterinary care, anatomy, grooming, tack, and, yes, barn chores!

Detailed information and sign-up at https://fourstarfarm.com/what-four-star-farm-offers/riding-camps/.

See you at the barn!