The Next Generation At Foxwillow
Mood:  energetic
Now Playing: The prodigal daughter returns....
Topic: A little about our family

Foxwillow has always been a multi generational work of art. From its humble homestead beginnings to our current endeavors toward a more advanced equine facility, a total of five generations have now had a hand in keeping the family farm going.

 

Recently my oldest daughter returned home to begin living her dream of being a Riding Instructor and Trainer. Alexa has been involved with horses since before she was born...literally as I continued to ride right up to just days before her birth.

 

When I began the horse program here it was strictly a breeding program. Now we have evolved into a Lesson and Training facility as well as the "go to" place for solid trail and family horses.

 

Although we show, we havce limited interest in producing strictly show animals. We feel with the economy the way it is, it has become cost prohibitive for the average horse lover/owner to show and compete in the traditional sense.

 

Our goal is to train and promote good solid trail horses for the enjoyment of the average horse owning family. We feel thiswhere the industry as a whole is leaning. Horse owners are no longer content to stand on the sidelines as their horse is show by an expensive trainer and the only joy derived is from the big checks they right and the expensive photos hanging on the wall. Of someone else holding their horse and posing the win picture.

 

We want to offer our clients more. An experience that they can participate in. Foxwillow is very different from the traditional stables and barns that most are used to. At Foxwillow you become family and we work with you to achieve your goals in horse ownership. 

 

We are advocates of the American Competitive Trail Horse Association, the Trail Riding programs offered by several Breed Associations and the interactive new "sport" the Craig Cameron Cowboy Challenges.

 

Beginning in July we are opening up the farm to riding instruction and limited outside training. We hope to make a positive impact on our local horse community.  Currently, we are working on a type of "scholarship" riding program that would allow us to offer interested but less priveledged kids to learn about horses. Still very much in the planning stages at this point but very much on the agenda.

 

Stay tuned!    

Introduction
Mood:  caffeinated
Topic: A little about our family

I guess the best place to start is at the beginning. I have always enjoyed a rather unique lifestyle, because I have spent over 90% of my life living on this 100 acre piece of paradise now known as Foxwillow Farm. It is  nestled on a small plateau in the foothills of the aged but still beautiful Catskill Mountains. My grandparents purchased the farm in October 1959, giving it the original name of Violet Hill because of the multitudes of flowering periwinkles that they believed to be wild violets. They wanted a refuge for the members of their family who survived great hardship to become citizens of this great country as well as themselves and their children and grandchildren.

Established sometime in the mid to late 1700's, the farm has worn many cloaks- a homestead for the family that the road it is located on was later named after, a boys school, a working dairy, an escape from the fast paced city life, the original Violet Hill Farm which became well known throughout the metropolitan area as the go to place by highclass resturants for quality grass fed meats, as well as a small budding horsefarm. Throughout it all the goal has been to preserve the natural setting and the feeling of being in the "middle of nowhere" even though a major highway is less than three miles away.

Over the years I have learned a little (but not as much as I would have liked) about the original family who owned the farm when it was a part of a much bigger tract of land. I will expand on this in future entries.

 As the original family died off and suceeding generations took their place the property was sectioned off and distributed among them. Each generation seemed to lose more and more interest until several distinct parcels remained, only one owned by an original family member, who at the age of eighty-one still resides in the house where he was born. Most of the other tracts have since changed hands many times, all except the original homestead which has been my home for nearly forty years. Will it still be a part of my family when I am gone? Or will it finally succumb to the fate of the rest of the original farm, only time will tell. 

In this blog I will try and tell as much of the farm's history as I can, as accurately as I can. I will introduce you to those who came before and those that are actively keeping the farm going. Sometimes I will share a memorable day here on the farm or one from the past that helped shaped the woman I have become. Occasionally I hope to impart a bit of knowledge learned from my own trial and error. But always, I will tell a story of a place that has sheltered, inspired, and educated many. I hope you will come back often to read about the Adventures on Foxwillow Farm.