Rumple Ranch Lessons with Independently Equine

Great time at a beautiful barn with phenomenal horses. It was a pleasure getting to know such wonderful families and lesson students. On to new adventures! In honor of Brooke and her mantra, cheers to compassionate horsemanship 💜

As of March 1, 2025 the Rumple Ranch will no longer offer riding lessons to individuals. It’s been a great 19 years and 9 months of fun and enjoyment but all good things must come to an end. Thanks to everyone who came, rode, laughed, cried, loved, enjoyed. God Speed to Michelle & Brooke until we all meet again. ❤️

We are still boarding horses so you’re always welcome to stop by and brush a horse. ❤️

A huge, love filled congratulations to our wonderful Kc Brown and her husband, Kyle on welcoming Kirby Jean into the world on 2/9/24. We are so excited to meet our tiniest new rider 💜😍💜😍

Hickory being adorable. And also ridiculous 😂💜. Come ride!

Buckets of water. Aka are my stirrups even?

It’s really important to keep your ears open and listening. When I was teaching today at Rumple Ranch Lessons, a very new, very young student was trying to figure out if her stirrups felt even. She said, “it feels like this stirrup has a bucket of water on it and this stirrup has half a bucket of water.” For her, that meant the half a bucket was too short. I’d never considered it feeling like that. What a thoughtful comparison.

Now, how do we interpret it? As an instructor (or as a rider) I had to figure out which one needed to change. As we know, nothing in horses is simple 😂, so how do we figure out what to adjust? This little rider is doing a great job learning to go with the horse. Being small, a full bucket of water is probably what a foot in a stirrup should feel like. So we adjusted, she decided it felt even and we continued with a nice lesson. What if she were a more tense rider or more adult sized? Perhaps we’d try adjusting to the half full bucket. When I’m riding, I think I’ll try shooting for a quarter full bucket. Regardless, a great comparison from a hopefully soon to be great rider. And the picture? From warmer and very missed weather. Cheers to compassionate horsemanship! 💜

Finally a little nice weather!

It’s with a heavy heart that we announce the passing of Poncho, one of our beloved lesson horses. A gentleman to the end, he absolutely earned the title of “best boy” and will be deeply missed.
No one had quite as much fun in lessons as Poncho did. Whether he was figuring out the games, playing with the ball or entertaining us with his unending willingness to wear whatever we wanted him to, Poncho loved his job and all the kids. He would meet anyone at the gate and really loved making people laugh.
The summer won’t be quite the same without Poncho grazing by the arena or hanging out in the aisle. I think he knew how special he was with his free range priviledges and eventually he insisted on them. He was truly an irreplaceable horse.
Please feel free to leave any pictures or memories of Poncho that you may have in the comments. We’re taking the weekend for our farm family to grieve and then lessons will be back on Monday. Everyone thinks they have the best horse and no one is wrong. Poncho was absolutely the best horse.

We managed to stay warm today even with the cold temps! Plus Hickory and Izzy are hilarious. The cones are never in the same spot after they play in the arena 😂. Come ride! 💜

Best boy Poncho doing what he does best, taking care of our little riders 💜. We love him! Come ride!

Wait. Someone looks off in one of these pictures 😂. Come ride!