Calberry Farms
(434)466-4547
calberryfarms@gmail.com
275 Ipswich Place, Charlottesville VA 22901
Copyright 2013. Calberry Farms. All rights reserved.
Before your first lesson, please download, sign (ideally with an electronic signature), and return the following forms ideally through email.
The Barter System
***Currently on pause.***
If you are able to pay the rates for lessons, boarding, leasing, or even purchasing a horse, please do. However, at Calberry Farms we believe that everyone who wants horses in their life should not be prevented due to finances. To that end, Calberry Farms is open to the barter system. If you just want to interact with horses but don't really have interest in riding, you are welcome to volunteer by grooming or helping take care of the horses. If you are a beginning rider, feeding and helping take care of the horses in exchange for a discount in lesson prices is a possibility. If you are an experienced rider, teaching beginner lessons or taking care of horses in exchange for a discount in the prices of lessons, rides, or boarding are all possibilities. The same is true for the purchase price of a horse. If you would like to use the barter system, please be prepared to work hard.
Lessons
Calberry practices classical training as a foundation for all equestrian sports. One component of this is that lessons are structured for riders to progress slowly. We take the time to learn skills correctly.
Classical training involves understanding how a horse should move. Horses are not designed by nature to carry weight on their backs. When you put weight on their backs, it changes the way they move and not for the better. When horses feel weight on their backs, their tendency is to drop out their back and disengage their core. If you know anything about athletics or movement, you can understand that moving without core engagement over time will lead to chronic pain in joints and back and drastically diminish athletic potential. This is true for humans and it's the same for horses.
Therefore, as riders we must learn to ask the horse to engage their core muscles and proceed by riding them in a manner that strengthens their back and topline so that they can comfortably and happily move while carrying the weight of the rider.
All incoming students ages 8 and up begin with Intro to Classical Training classes. In these classes students will learn work in hand and lunging. These are not riding classes. Students will be working with their horse from the ground. Students will be introduced to how a horse should move and the aides to ask a horse to engage their core and topline. After taking four of these classes, riders then can move on to riding classes and learn how to implement these same aides while in the saddle.
Groundwork classes - $35 each
Lesson Package - $300/monthly
Includes one riding lesson and one independent ride weekly. The independent ride is for riders to practice what they worked on in their lessson that week in order to internalize the concepts and progress more rapidly.
Lesson Package - $180/monthly
Includes one riding lesson every other week and one independent ride every other week
Single Lesson - $65
One lesson a week - $230/monthly
Lessons have 1-4 people in them and can last anywhere from 45 to 75 minutes.
Calberry Farms' staff is very busy, so if you inquire about lessons and don't hear back in a timely manner, please feel free to send another text or email!