PLENTY Spring 2020 Plenty Spring 2020-WEB | Page 22

Jane Thery with Quattro au Lait at
Wyndham Oaks Farm, a dressage and
boarding stable located in Boyds, MD.
barns where owners enjoy recre-
ational riding, horse sports, horse
breeding or just keeping horses
for equine company. You’ll find
stables offering riding lessons and
trail rides; stables specializing
in therapeutic riding for physi-
cally and emotionally challenged
children and adults; and western
riding stables providing competi-
tive reining instruction.
Are you ready to ride?
PHoto: Rafa Cruz
training of the horse, now more
akin to horse ballet, which at
the highest level is performed to
music; eventing horses practicing
the triathlon of the horse world—
dressage, cross-country jumping
at a gallop over open country, and
show jumping over poles in a ring;
and trail-riding horses who carry
their riders through the fields and
woods along Bucklodge Road and
into Seneca Creek State Park. There
are also horses there that follow
the hounds in the historic Potomac
Hunt, galloping over hill and dale
tracking the scent of the wild fox.
Quattro au Lait and I practice dres-
sage, mini-jumping and trail riding,
and he gets plenty of treats for his
efforts! Throughout the Reserve,
you will also find older horses,
retired from sporting activities but
still a great pleasure to their own-
ers who oversee their care.
There are about fifty boarding
stables in the Reserve. These range
from small back-yard barns to big
facilities like Wyndham Oaks. The
monthly price of boarding a horse
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plenty I Spring sowing 2020
ranges from $500 for simple field
boarding to $2,000 that would
include full training, grooming and
competition coaching. Many of the
owners of the horses boarded in
the Reserve live inside the Capital
Beltway, including Washington,
DC. A typical owner will drive to
the barn several times a week,
stopping to run errands, have
a meal, buy horse equipment
and supplies at the tack store
and becoming very attached
to the beauty and open
space of the Reserve. These
boarded horses also need
farriers services to trim and
shoe them, veterinarian ser-
vices for shots and treatments,
feed and hay from local provid-
ers, barn managers and staff, blan-
kets and blanket cleaning services,
as well as special services such as
horse massage. So, the board fees,
the horse services and the owner
expenditures all add up to a big
boost to the economy of the Re-
serve and the County in general.
There are also many private
Calleva Farm offers riding les-
sons and horsemanship educa-
tion. Waredaca Farm has pack-
ages with trail rides followed by
beer sampling. The farm has very
well-trained trail horses and their
The photo was taken during the Mystery Trail
Ride to benefit Great and Small, a nonprofit
based in Boyds, MD, that provides equine as-
sisted therapies to children and adults of all ages
affected by physical, developmental, emotional,
and learning disabilities. Photo: Austen Gage