Welcome to River Song Farm and Stables

HI!  MY NAME IS BINGO.

I'm the oldest and best horse here.  I'm kind of a big guy, but gentle and very, very quiet.  I specialize in small children, big men, and very nervous beginning lady riders.  I ride English and Western both, but I guess you'd have to say at heart I'm a Western horse.  I neck rein beautifully, spin on a nickel, stop on a dime, slide stop, and I have all the cutting horse moves.  You can rope off me, herd horses on me, and I run a trail horse hack line like nobody's business.  However, I've taught many four-year old children to ride, English and Western both.  I jump too!  I also like cross country; last fall Lisa and I placed in the Hunter Pace at Rockefeller State Preserve in New York.  Out of hundreds and hundreds of entries from New York and New Jersey, me, the old guy, was in the ribbons!  AND I'M 28 YEARS OLD!  I was a little out of breath but the vet at the vet check said I was doing just fine, and he couldn't believe how old I was.

I have such a soft mouth that Lisa uses a big rubber bit on me, and all you have to do is touch my sides lightly with your legs to ask me to move forward into any gait.  I don't like it if you saw on my mouth, I'll give you three chances, and if you keep pulling on me I'll go to the center of the ring and just stop, and your lesson is over for that day.  I won't let you hurt me!  You will learn to have soft, soft, gentle hands when you ride me.  I also have the nicest, smoothest trot of anybody here, and everybody learns to trot on me.  I also have a really smooth canter.  Like I said, I'm the best horse here.

I like apples and especially carrots, but my very favorite treat is bran mash.  I LOVE a big bucket of nice hot bran mash, with molasses!  Oh, heaven.  Bran mash is just plain horsie HEAVEN.  And it's GOOD for me, too!

Oh, I almost forgot - BUTTERSCOTCH horse treats!  If you don't have a bucket to bring me bran mash in, stop and pick up some butterscotch treats or those little butterscotch candies for me on your way to the stables.  YUM!  THANK YOU! 

HI!  MY NAME IS CAPTAIN.  (ACTUALLY, MY REAL NAME IS "HE KEPT HIS PROMISE").

These aren't the best pictures of me, but Lisa says she's going to take more very soon so everyone can see what a beautiful and talented horse I am.  I'm REALLY big!  The earth trembles when I trot.  I'm a warmblood, and I have big dressage gaits, but I'm rhythmical and those gaits are as regular as a metronome.  I was a winning event horse on the East Coast when I was younger, and I haven't lost any  heart!  I'm particularly good at dressage (look at my hind leg reach under me in the collected canter in that first photo!), but I jump well too.  When you ride me, I go right on the bit and stay there, you don't have to ask me, I'm an old pro.  I collect and extend as easily as you breathe, my flying lead changes are to die for, and I have that beautiful dressage high knee action and perfect headset.  Lisa likes to use me to teach riders to have a strong and deep seat, and her hunter jumper riders do lots of work without stirrups on me.  NOBODY gets jolted out of their tack over a jump after they've spent time on me without stirrups!  However, dressage riders LOVE me, and wish they could take me home, because I teach them how to ride new dressage movements and I'm patient, forgiving and always obedient to the aids.   I'm their dream horse.  I do EVERYTHING right.  Everybody loves ME.

I like apple wafer treats best, but I've never been known to refuse a peppermint.  But you have to be careful, because I have a big mouth and peppermints are really, really small!  Why don't you just give me a HANDFUL?

HI!  MY NAME IS DAZZLE.

I think I'M the best dressage horse in the barn, and I truly am dazzling to ride and to watch.  I have one heck of a work ethic.  I have lots and lots of energy, and you have to be a pretty good rider to ride ME.  I was a lesson horse in an "A" circuit barn, and taught people how to ride dressage and hunt seat.  I jump really well too, and love it!  Of course I know the basics like collection, extension and flying lead changes, but I also perform flawlessly when asked to do leg yields, sidepass at the trot and canter, and even the piaffe and passage.  If you're a really good rider, I'm great fun on trail too - my favorite thing is to sidepass canter up hills (if you know what that is you KNOW how much fun I am now).  And that sidepass canter is so collected, it's almost like riding a circus horse gait, it's more up and down than forward.  After all those  years teaching in a New York lesson barn, I LOVE to get outside in Iowa and go have fun!  The first time Lisa took me out on trail, I was astounded at how much land there is to run around on out here, and was I ever joyous! 

I'm also quite curious and friendly,  and I've got my nose into just about everything.  I'm really, really smart.  I love people, and I love to play - with people or horses, I don't much care.  I wish the smallest children were bigger so they could play with me too.   But sometimes they can - I love to play all kinds of games, and one of my favorie things to do is play "Red Light, Green Light" or "Musical Stall Chairs" in Summer Riding Camp, and the littlest kids can do that on MY back!  I'm really CUTE too.  However, you have to be nice to me.  I like it when people treat me gently and with respect, I want them to LOVE me, not boss me around.  If you're nice to me there isn't anything I won't do for you.   You know, follow the Golden Rule - Do unto others as you would have them do unto you!

I like fresh green grass best of all, and my favorite time is when groups of children come to visit, pick grass and feed it to me.  I'm very careful with little fingers!  I want them to feed me LOTS more grass.

HI!  MY NAME IS DESTRIER.

I'm a Hanoverian warmblood.  I was a successful show jumper and event horse just last season on the East Coast.  I can do a full course of fences, very large fences, in or out of the arena, and can gallop for hours in the countryside.  I look really good doing it too.  EVERYBODY wants to know who I am when they see me working!  My name means "war horse" and "right hand," and is an ancient French word from the days when horses WERE knights' warhorses and right hands, and kept them alive in battle!  I'm really, really smart.  I'm head of the herd, and it's my job to look out for the other horses.  When you're the strongest and the smartest, all the other horses look to you to keep them safe, and that's what I do. 

I like to be scratched more than anything.  Some people are afraid of me because I'm so big and strong.  But Lisa found all my scritchy spots, and I like her long nails!  She can show YOU where my scritchy spots are, too, and you'll soon discover I'm just a big "scratch me" baby.  Lisa feeds me all kinds of treats too, and I like to eat EVERYTHING!  But my very favorite thing is GRAIN.  I LOVE LOVE LOVE grain.  But whatever else you have in your hand - I want some of that, too! 

HI!  MY NAME IS EL DORADO.

I've been Lisa's horse longer than anybody else.  She trained me, then rode me for five years before she finally talked my old owner into selling me, and brought me with her from New York.  I REALLY like it here!  I can be outside almost all the time now, and I have a girlfriend for the first time in my life (Eryka!) that I love very much.  Eryka tells me I'm the handsomest palomno quarterhorse in the whole world!

I'm the fastest horse in the barn.  I'm probably the fastest horse in the state.  I like to RUN for fun!   Lisa and I like to go out on trail together, where we can both fly free in the wind.  I'm a Western horse, but Lisa's been teaching me English, and to jump too!  We're going to go FOXHUNTING together soon when I jump a little bit better.  I can't wait!!  She says if I get really good at it, maybe I can help her teach other people to jump too!  I LOVE people.  That would be GREAT.  In the meantime, if you want to go on a trail ride, I'm your horse.  I'll walk along quietly if you want, OR if you want a trail ride LESSON where you can trot or canter, you'll have fun with ME!  I'm a really big ham, and if you want to take pictures of me, I'll stand there and pose all day.

I'll do just about anything for apples.  Mushy, yummy, sweet Golden Delicious apples are the best treats in the world!!  Lisa makes me give her a kiss for each slice, but I don't mind, I love apples and I love Lisa!  If you come to see me, please bring LOTS AND LOTS OF APPLES!  (Remember to cut them into smaller slices, though, because horses can choke on big chunks of apples or carrots).  I have plenty of kisses for YOU, too.

HI!  MY NAME IS ERYKA.

I'm a Trakehner mare, and the prettiest girl in the barn.  We Trakehners are known for our elegance, lovely heads, soft, floaty gaits and our incredible endurance.  I'm all that and more!  I'm tall, with a delicate build, and I'm truly a joy to ride.  You can sit my trot and canter all day long in the saddle, and I love to jump, I'll jump anything in the arena!  Lisa's been taking me foxhunting lately, and I'm learning to jump over or go through all those big, new, strange looking logs and streams and walls and things!  I've never been out of the arena before, and it's fun!  But Lisa lets me teach people to ride and jump all the time IN the arena, and I really like that too.   I'm gentle and I love people now that I'm not afraid of them any more.

When I first got here, I was frightened of everything and everybody.  An old owner had ripped my mouth with a wire bit, leaving a big hard scar in the corner of my mouth.  No one had floated (filed down) my teeth either, and they were razor blades in my mouth.  I couldn't eat, and I was so afraid of mouth pain, I carried my head really high.  But I like it here now!  I'm shiny and sleek and my head is down and my life is interesting and fun again.  And best of all, I've learned to love again - my new boyfriend El Dorado, Lisa, and Lisa's students and friends!

PLEASE, PLEASE bring me chocolate!

HI!  MY NAME IS MOZART.

I'm a very small horse, just an inch bigger than a pony, gentle and kind, and very, very quiet.  I'm kind of shy with other horses, but I LOVE kids!   I was owned by a little girl at a fancy stables in New York who grew too big for me, so now I live on Lisa's farm and teach many children to ride.  I like this much better.  There are MANY children who love me now instead of just one, and MANY children bring me treats, and I get to play with kids EVERY day instead of just once or twice a week.  I don't like to be left alone too long, I get lonely!  I love kids, and they love me back.  I stand very still while they groom me, and mount me, and I'm very careful once they're riding me.  I take care of MY kids!

I like to teach kids how to steer correctly.  I'm very patient and kind, and I won't react even if you hurt me (but Lisa makes sure I don't get hurt very often!)  I'm also great on the longe line.  Kids sit in the saddle, without the reins, because Lisa has me on a long rope (the longe line, pronounced "lunge") and she has control as I go around her in a circle.  Kids just sit in the saddle and do fun exercises at the walk to get them used to moving on a horse without holding on.  It gives them a good seat, which will keep them safe as they progress in learning to ride!  They do big arm circles, twisties, horsie hugs, heiny stretches, toe touches, and Around the World.  As they get better and better, kids can even learn to do these exercises at the trot!  Kids LOVE to play those games on me! 

I'm really good on trail too.  Most children take their very first trail ride on me, because I'm so quiet and safe.  Adults like to ride me too, though!  I'm VERY well trained, and will do whatever you ask me to do!  I also work a lot with Shadow in classes, camp and on trail, he and I are good buddies and we like to follow each other around.  We like to work together!

I love apple wafers best!  Some kids bring me carrots and apples, and I like them, but I go CRAZY for apple wafers!  Lisa keeps a BIG BAG around for the students to give me.  Every time I do a good job teaching (which is EVERY time), Lisa lets the student give me TWO wafers!  Every lesson!  I LOVE IT HERE!

HI!  I'M PING!

I'm the best pony in the whole wide world, and cute as a button!  I'm tiny and sweet ,and I come running to all the children who come to visit to say hello.  I always want to meet people.  I don't care if they bring treats or not, I just LOVE attention!  I do lots and lots of pony rides for the very littlest children.  They're not scared of me because I'm just their size.  Once they get a ride on me they usually want to take a riding lesson on me too!  If they take a lesson, they have to groom me first, and I just LOVE that.  I have a mane and tail that kids love to play with.  There's one particularly embarrassing photograph on this site of my with my forelock in a ponytail on top of my head, and I look SOOOO silly!  I do have SOME dignity, you know, and I wish Lisa would take that picture off this site!

I have a lot of fun doing pony parties too.  The barn staff gets me all gussied up with fancy blankets and hair ribbons to braid into my mane and tail for pony parties.  They make me look adorable and cute, so ALL the kids want to ride ME!  Sometimes people want to have me at a party at THEIR house, so I get to go on a big adventure out into the world, and meet a lot of new people at somebody's house or backyard.  I'm very curious, so I always want to look around and, as usual, meet EVERYBODY!  I'm just the FRIENDLIEST pony! 

I like cake.  BIRTHDAY cake.  Save me some!  But hey, if you have carrots, I won't say no!

HI!  I'M PONG.

I'm the MAN, baby.  I'm the PONG.  That's the PONY Pong.   Lisa thinks I must have been a circus pony once, because I'm so perfectly collected and in a good frame all the time.  Hey, I'm just GOOD, that's why!  I like all the kids that come here to visit me or ride me, and become my friends.  Pretty much anybody under age 6 has their first riding lessons on ME.  I'm the best, you know.  You can ride me English or Western.  I jump, too, up to four feet high!  (You REALLY have to want me to do that before I'll do it, though.  That's hard work!)  I love to be groomed, and stand really still for the little guys.  For a LOOOOOONG time, I stand still.  I've also got such a smooth trot, the tiniest children learn to trot on ME before they move up to those other horses Mozart or Bingo.  (But kids always want to ride ME again, even after they've outgrown me!).  Anyway, back to the subject at hand - me.  I'm the PONG.  The PONY Pong!  I'm your dream guy! 

I used to work in New York very, very hard, giving pony rides and at street fairs for hours and hours in the hot sun.  When I first came here, I was very hard to catch and kind of wild eyed, because I was afraid I'd have to work really hard again.  But after awhile, I realized that Lisa and all the kids here LOVE me!  They REALLY love me!  So I don't run from anybody anymore, in fact I come running TO YOU when you call me!

Bring me anything you want, I"ll eat it.   But mostly I like YOU (if you're under six, especially).  Just LOVE ME!  That's the best treat of all.

HI!  MY NAME IS SHADOW
(ACTUALLY, MY REAL NAME IS OTOE TRIPLES KING).

I'm the best kid school horse in this barn, and I don't care WHAT Pong, Mozart or Bingo say.  I've got the best pedigree, the best training, I'm the youngest and THE BEST!  All the kids fight over who's going to ride me!  Just look at me - have you EVER seen a more handsome horse?  Lisa likes to put me in that embarrassing silver hearts tack because she says it shows off my dark coat so nicely.  But I'm a GUY!  I wish she'd find some OTHER nice silver tack for me and give the hearts to a GIRL horse, Eryka or Lady or somebody!  LADY has a beautiful dark coat too!

Even though I'm young, I've been a school horse for a long time.   When Lisa bought me, a lady teaching at my old barn told her "This horse loves kids.  If you put a halter and lead rope on this horse, and a kid on the other end of the lead rope, this horse will follow that kid around all day long."  So Lisa bought me, and boy, am I glad she did!  I like living outside in all but the worst weather, and I've made all sorts of new horse and kid friends!  I'm kind of small, just a little bigger than Mozart (14.3 hands, exactly).  But I've got a BIG heart!  And a LOT of energy - it's hard to wear me out!  So I can work and work and give LOTS of lessons every single day, and I don't get tired or lame.  I'll teach you how to ride Western or English, since I do both really well!  And I've been teaching kids to ride pretty much my whole career!  I'm only 9, and I'm the best school horse you'll ever ride.  And I've got a LOT of good teaching years ahead of me!  I come from the best stock - the first foundation quarterhorse, Otoe!  I've also got six of the other foundation quarterhorse bloodlines in me.  I'm about as good as it gets in the quarterhorse world. 

I'm also a great trail horse, for kids or adults.  EVERYBODY loves me on trail!  I do what you ask, and I'm fun to ride without being scary.  Kids love me, adults love me, EVERYBODY loves me.  You can depend on me!  I'll get you home safely, and with a great big smile on your face. 

I like carrots best.  Bring a BIG BAG!  A really, REALLY big bag.  Once I get one, I just can't stop, and I WILL be pesky, I promise you, bugging you for more.

HI!  MY NAME IS ZAZU.

I'm a thoroughbred from the Virginia Hunt Blood Stock Sale in Virginia, and I'm a GREAT horse.  I do it ALL.  I'll be your best friend on a trail ride, gentle and quiet and safe.  I'll ride well in a Western saddle, too, and do whatever you ask on trail or in the arena (I've even had trail riders pay to take me on a trail ride, then bring me back to the arena and ride me DRESSAGE, still in a Western saddle!).  But I truly shine when I see you coming with an English saddle over your arm.  Then I know it's time to WORK.  I collect under myself and the WORKING trot comes out, not that nice easy Western jog.  I like to work, that's my fun.  I'm a HUNTER, and that's my joy.  I like to go fast and jump large, tall objects at speed!  In the arena or cross country, I don't care, as long as we're running and jumping.  However, I'm getting older (a very young 16) and because of all the jumping I did I have a little foot problem which doesn't let me jump much anymore.  That doesn't matter - I can still jump a LITTLE, enough to teach a beginner!  Maybe you? 

I'll get you used to that thoroughbred stretch and speed.  If you plan on showing hunter jumpers, eventing, or foxhunting, you'd best learn on ME.  There are a lot of thoroughbreds in those disciplines all over the world, because we do it better than any other horse!  Those upstart warmbloods (and there's a couple of them in THIS barn too......) think they're all THAT, when in reality we thoroughbreds were BRED for that kind of riding!  We set the standards!   And I come from VIRGINIA.  You can't get any better than that. 

I like hay, and grain, and apple wafers, and carrots, and peppermints, and green grass, and sugar cubes, and chocolate!  Bring lots of EVERYTHING!  (I'm always first in line for treats!)

THERE ARE MANY MORE OF US HORSES HERE AT RIVER SONG FARM AND STABLES, BUT LISA'S ONLY GOT SO MUCH TIME AND SHE HAS TO GET BACK TO WORK NOW, TEACHING, RIDING, TRAINING, PAYING THE BILLS AND TAKING CARE OF US.  BUT COME BACK SOON, BECAUSE SOME OF US JUST GOT HERE (SEPT 2007), AND SOON WE WILL HAVE OUR PICTURES AND STORIES HERE TOO!

WE WISH YOU PEACE, HAPPINESS AND GREAT RIDING!