Riding and Driving Lessons, Field Boarding and Training

Horseback Riding Lessons
Mahalo Farm offers private and semi-private riding lessons for children and adults. All lessons are taught by Patty Swygert who is trained in natural horsemanship, carriage driving, hunter-jumper and western. Patty has been riding for 50 years, starting out in the hunter-jumper discipline. Later she fox hunted extensively and became an accomplished singles carriage driver, competing successfully at Fair Hill in the Open Preliminary Division. For the last 20 years she has focused on natural horsemanship and some western riding and more recently has begun the study of classical dressage. Patty studies postural disciplines such as Alexander Technique to assist riders in finding that often elustive, "perfect seat."  Her continuing education includes hosting clinics with Chris Cox and Curt Pate and Mari Monda Zudonic.

Most of the horses can be ridden in halters, even by beginners. Bridles are also used for more precise manuevers.

Lessons may include ground work, riding on the lunge, bareback, trail riding, fun games, barrel racing and pole bending and of course, JUMPING.

A lunge lesson comes in handy to secure your position.

Focused concentration.

And now for the fun part -                 JUMPING!!!!!!

Patty has trained all of the lesson horses herself. She has adopted and trained wild mustangs as well as countless other breeds. She specializes in all-round horses that are fun to ride and able to perform the diversity of activities her students like to do.

Private lessons are $38 for 1 hour and $20 for 1/2 hour.  Semi-private lessons (usually two riders, but up to 4 riders) are $33 per hour. Half day and full day lessons, shows, fox hunting, trail riding and hunter paces are available during holidays and on weekends.

                             Sometimes a group hug is in order  ->

Shown below, the Mahalo Farm team goes to the nearby Farmington Hunt Club fun hunter pace.

Mahalo Farm Team at the November 2009 Hunter Pace.

Returning after our fun and sweaty ride.

Even after our long ride, this little rider is still full of glee, or is she simply wondering what happened to her horse's head?

Carriage Driving Lessons and Training
Mahalo Farm offers carriage driving lessons and training for pleasure drivers and those interested in competing in combined driving. This past summer we taught little Elvis, the 10 hand pony, and his 13 year old owner, Morgan, to drive. Elvis' lessons have been videotaped and are being put on youtube. If you want to learn the process of training a horse to drive from start to finish, tune in to Elvis' videos. So far, I only uploaded lesson 4 part 1  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dzg8XjSBYaM . The rest of the videos are to follow.

Boarding
Mahalo Farm offers pasture boarding (stalls are available for emergency use) for a small number of horses.  Board is $197/month for April through December and $240-$260/month for January-March, depending on hay prices.  Board includes hay when grass is not available and daily checking of horses. We provide organic flax seed, organic Icelandic kelp, Redmond Salt, Himalayan Salt (on occasion,) plain white salt and triple cleaned whole oats.

Photo above: Two boarders lounging in the driveway paddock.

Training
Limited training is available on or off site.

The photo at right was taken on Bode Miller's first day at Mahalo Farm.  She was WILD and right off the range. See her above a year later at a local horse show standing quietly and being shown in a halter!