Gemara Farm has been in existence since 1980, but we started out with Arabians instead of fox trotters. It took several years for us to come to our senses, but once we got our first fox trotter, we were hooked. There's definitely some truth to the saying "To ride one is to own one". Actually, to own one is to own two, three, four.......uh, now the total is much higher.
Our MFT journey began when Bonnie traveled to MO and went to see a family friend who had fox trotters. She intended to come home with a trained mare but ended up with an untrained 18 month old gelding. After waiting for him to get old enough to ride, the training commenced with the help of Sandi Forester ( www.sandiforester.com ), Bonnie's dressage instructor at the time. Talk about the blind leading the blind! We had good long distance guidance though from Lee Ziegler who was very helpful with her articles and e-mails. The first time Char hit a flat foot walk going across the field, Bonnie was giggling. Since getting him going and moving the Arabians on to new homes, she has ridden nothing else other than fox trotters.
We have always believed in doing things as naturally as possible--horses living outdoors, training without gimmicks, and we have been doing the natural hoof trim since the '90s. In addition, Bonnie took several years of classical dressage lessons on the Arabians. When the switch was made to MFTs, she rode and trained a couple of them that way too. However, after discovering natural horsemanship and what it can do for horse and rider communication, that has become the way we start and handle all the horses. The dressage lessons helped learn rider/horse body control and equitation, and it ties in well with the natural horsemanship work that starts on the ground. The ground work then transfers to saddle work and has been our answer to how to develop a working partnership between horse and handler/rider. Our horses are a lot more fun, safer, and more responsive on the ground and under saddle with this kind of handling and can go on to do whatever discipline of riding anyone would want.
Our farm is not fancy, but it suits us. We grow our own hay and sell some of it. We have a few cows and calves, and several boarded horses plus cats and a dog that have adopted and now own us. Bonnie worked with Mario Rossi, a horseman (DON'T call him a trainer!) in Concord, GA ,and in turn she now helps a few people who want to learn more about natural horsemanship. We call it the "trickle down effect".
Both Bonnie and Gregg attend mentoring sessions and clinics to learn more Natural Horsemanship. A Brent Graef ( www.brentgraef.com ) clinic that Gregg rode in was VERY helpful to him and as soon as Bonnie recovered from surgery, she was joining in the next clinic that Brent came to do in GA. Since 2007, they have ridden every year with Brent, and also worked with the SE Buckaroo Association, Gary Townsend Sr. and Jr., and Scott Stokes. In 2010, they went to TX for a Young Horse Handling Clinic with Brent and Bonnie rode in 2011 with Mark Rashid when he came to GA. The more we do, the better we are sold on learning to read and respond to a horse in a way the horse can really understand.
Gregg has a pest control business and Bonnie, a retired teacher, is busy playing with the horses, giving a few horsemanship lessons, and working on spreading the word to others about a different way of dealing with horses. Son Reed graduated May 2007 with a degree in Civil Engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology . He was commissioned into the Air Force as a 2nd Lt., earned his wings at Columbus Air Force Base, Columbus, MS in 2009, and went through training to become an instructor pilot for T-6 students at Columbus Air Force Base in Columbus, MS. His new bride Megan is now teaching in Mississippi.
