Bowen Creek Farm LLC

10/11/2024

Cool stuff!

09/25/2024

05/26/2024

Rainy days at the barn. A time to clean, a time to ride, and a time to be silly, do your thing. It’s always a good day at the barn, regardless of the wet weather.

05/16/2024

Celebrating a year of hard work, dedication, awesome customers and a tremendous amount of love and support!
Happy 1st birthday Bowen Creek Farm!

05/02/2024

Use the link below to check out our new website! It has information about camp (schedule, classes, registration), upcoming events, and an online payment option.

https://sites.google.com/wvstateu.edu/southerndistricthorsecamp/welcome?authuser=1

04/29/2024

It was a beautiful day for a Sunday social and fan installation at the barn. Thank you to everyone who came out. We have the best little barn family. 🤎

04/13/2024

Barn work is never done. But, we sure do count our blessings!

04/10/2024

With 68 days until camp and registration now open, we want everyone to know why SDHC is the best camp in WV. We are going to do weekly camper highlights so you can hear from campers that have attended for years. If you still have questions, send us a private message. Don't delay on registering because spots are filling up quick! (link in last post)

First up: Zoe

Tribe: Mingo 🐻
Class: Contest 🛢️
Years at SDHC: 3 years
Favorite camp memory: My favorite memory is getting the Spirit Award last year!
Fun fact: A fun fact about me is that I rodeo and I am the 2023-2024 Miss West Virginia High School Rodeo Queen!
Must have item at camp: An essential to bring to camp is Snacks not only for you but for your horse! 🥕

04/08/2024

When I Am An Old Horsewoman
I shall wear turquoise and diamonds,
And a straw hat that doesn’t suit me
And I shall spend my social security on
white wine and carrots,
And sit in my alleyway of my barn
And listen to my horses breathe.

I will sneak out in the middle of a summer night
And ride the old bay gelding,
Across the moonstruck meadow
If my old bones will allow.

And when people come to call, I will smile and nod
As I walk past the gardens to the barn
and show instead the flowers growing
inside stalls fresh-lined with straw.

I will shovel and sweat and wear hay in my hair
as if it were a jewel.

And I will be an embarrassment to all,
Who will not yet have found the peace in being free
to have a horse as a best friend,
A friend who waits at midnight hour
With muzzle and nicker and patient eyes
For the kind of woman I will be
When I am old.
- Patty Barnhart

📸 Marie Media

04/07/2024

Recipe for raising a “horse girl”…….

You bring them home from the hospital and instead of keeping them home you let them breathe in the smell of horses every chance you get….

Then at a few months old you prop them up in the saddle and hold them there to just sit in the saddle….

When they are 3 they say they can’t pick up the horse’s hoof …you help them but then tell them they need to finish themselves…..

You let them lead the 23 yr old faithful gelding because leading the big horse makes them feel so proud….

At 4 yrs old you teach them that the horse depends on them for water, hay, grain….Dinner might be almost ready in the house, but ponies eat first …..

At 5 years old, when she falls off for the first time, you check to make sure nothings broken, wipe her tears, then you give her a leg up and tell her to get it done, because you KNOW she’s a great rider…..

At 10 years old when she doesn’t place in her class at the horse show and she’s falling apart, you ask her if her horse worked hard for her, and then you tell her that to her horse she is #1, and to keep riding, because her horse depends on her……

At 12 years old she comes home from school and tells you another kid said something mean at school to someone she knows. She then tells you she told that kid to shut their mouth and keep it to themselves…. Then she walked off with the kid that was being made fun of……

At 13 years old her friends at the barn are as close as siblings……they support her in her wins and her falls…..the barn has created relationships that are thicker than blood….

At 15 years old her first “boyfriend” breaks up with her ….. you can tell she is upset so you both head to the barn. She wraps her arms around her horse’s neck, breathes him in, and the tears flow. But you can see that resolve emerge when she’s cantering around the ring…. She tells you her horse is better than that boy any day.

You heard others say over the years…..

“Horses are too expensive!”
“She’s going to get sick from all the germs.”
“She’s going to fall off and get hurt.”
“She spends too much time at the barn.”

When she is a young woman and leaves your home, off on her next adventure, you head out to the barn. You thank her horses, you breathe them in, you wrap your arms around them because ….

Horses helped you to create a confident, self-assured, responsible, kind, nurturing, outdoors-loving, tough as nails, throws her shoulders back and stands tall, strong woman.

To all the parents raising “horse girls” keep going, you are giving them more than just riding lessons…..

Written by Kara LaBrie

Photo - Getty Images

04/01/2024

Happy Easter!

04/01/2024