Greetings from a very quiet Knollwood.  While we certainly never want to get used to the silence, we are pivoting and learning how to survive it in the short term.  Knowing that the more everyone complies with social distancing the sooner we can get back to doing what we all love with our favorite people. That makes this temporary normal a little easier to take. This will end.

The quietness has given us more time to think, and we’re working on some terrific things for our grand reopening.  While people at home are cleaning closets and watching Tiger King (which we HIGHLY recommend), we’re working on some projects that we have always wanted to tackle but never had the chunks of time needed.  So, we’re actually grateful for the gift of time we’ve been given.

Here are our lessons learned for this week:

The World Goes On.

Spring is coming, and the trees are budding. With the warmish weather, the trees of Knollwood are starting to look really beautiful..

Oh, and the lesson horses are shedding like crazy! Never fear, they’re enjoying spa treatments, and they’re looking fat and shiny.

Horses really miss their peeps.

If you can believe it, Klem is even more talkative in the stall, Dudley keeps giving all of us his slow blink, and even Joey is asking to be petted. They don’t understand why their world has shifted, they just want their humans back!

The show horses are missing their peeps, too. They're all looking fantastic, with their training routines ramping up for show season, whenever it may start.  These horses are  ready to get on the trailer!

Walking down the show barn aisle, we’re greeted with eager noses poking out looking for their riders. Heck, Tink even sent a selfie to Richie!

The pets of Knollwood are keeping us entertained. 

Hazel is doing great on some new thyroid medication, and has her old energy back. She’s enjoying walking the trails again with Carol, but misses all the kids at the barn.

Richmond and Holly have full run of the school barn during the day, and the results have been hilarious. Richmond has started riding lessons, and is looking forward to his first bareback ride soon. He’s also learning parts of the horse, and is identifying the parts by launching himself at the horse chart.

Most of all, we miss our customers.

We miss giving lessons, but we also miss the daily fun we have with everyone. Knollwood is about so much more than horses.  We miss hearing about kids’ sports schedules, achievements outside of the horse world, and horse show chat.  We miss the Tuesday parents enjoying wine while their kids ride, and we miss the kids' laughter in the barn.  We miss exchanging good books, hearing about vacations, and well, just joking around in the middle of the arena.

Some of our recent highlights have been customers driving by and stopping in the middle of Horseshoe Bend to have a conversation from a safe distance. It’s amazing who you meet in the road when you’re taking the recycling out to the curb!

This will end.

We’ll get through this.

And yes, we'll have quite a celebration when this is all over!

We’ve got this.

Tradition.

Honor.

Passion.

We Are Knollwood.