First Farm Inn Bed and Breakfast

10/23/2026

Beautiful fall day for a ride with Deena, Dana and Chris. Dana and Chris are from Arizona.

10/20/2026

Such fun to see Ken and Donna from Lexington again. Neither of us can remember how many years they have been coming to visit. We know it was early after the turn of the century! Their daughter had her first ever horseback ride here on the lead line when she was tiny. She's now past college age. Ken remembers our Australian Shepherd Odo and how much he loved to play soccer.

10/19/2026

Wisconsinites Matt and Patti stopped for a ride on their way to Tennessee.

10/16/2026

On a research farm in Norway, 23 horses learned to walk up to a white board and touch one of three symbols with their noses.

The question behind the study was a practical one, because owners routinely decide when a horse should wear a blanket based on their own sense of the weather, and nobody had ever asked the horse. The researchers designed a board with three symbols, one meaning put my blanket on, another meaning take it off, and a third meaning leave things as they are.

Training was short and gentle, with 10 to 15 minutes a day and small pieces of carrot as rewards. On average the horses reached the free-choice stage around the eleventh day, and every one of the 23 had mastered the task within 14 days.

Then the researchers tested them in different weather, and the horses' choices were plainly connected to the conditions rather than random. On cold, wet and windy days they were far more likely to ask for a blanket, while on pleasant days they generally preferred to go without one. A later study using the same board found the same pattern, with very few horses asking for a blanket once the temperature climbed above about 10°C.

The researchers described the board as a simple way for a horse to report on its own comfort, and in cold, driving rain the report from almost every horse was the same request for the blanket.

10/14/2026

Bill came in from San Diego where he started taking riding lessons recently, after having ridden as a child. Joel and Sharon brought him and Bethany for a ride with us. ride

10/13/2026

https://parks.ky.gov/events/42nd-annual-salt-festival-11936

10/12/2026

John is a ski friend (and was an exercise rider at the local Thoroughbred tracks when he was young) who ended up with a cancer diagnosis after a knee replacement. Of course, Medicaid isn't covering a lot of the expenses for his extensive medical bills. Friends (lots of pickleball players and skiers) have put together baskets for which you can buy raffle tickets for $5 to $20. If you love Kentucky bourbon, would like to get a free ride with us, would love to have one of your pets memorialized in a portrait, or would enjoy a week in FL, check out this info and bid to help John. Thanks so much!

Western Athletic Club 5490 Muddy Creek Road Cincinnati, OH 45238 Agenda Pickleball Check-In: 11:00 AM - 11:30 AM Pickleball Play: 11:30 PM - 1:30 PM General Admission (non-players): 1:00 PM - 3:00 PM Raffle Drawing: 2:00 PM - 2:30 PM

10/11/2026

Rebecca and Carissa came in from Colorado to ride Thursday. They too were headed to the Liberty Festival at the Kentucky Horse Park. Rebecca leads trail rides and trains horses at a ranch in Colorado. Carissa rides her own Polish Arabians. We swapped horses part way into the ride.