100+ Years of Lessons at Olney Farm


By Katherine O. Rizzo We at the Equiery like to say


that Maryland is horse country, and it really is true. We have more than 400 lesson barns li- censed by the state and they ca- ter to all disciplines and levels of riders, from the beginner levels to the international levels. Some focus on one discipline while others focus on several. Many of our lesson stables are fixtures on the equestrian scene and have raised generations of riders. But none has seen more generations of Maryland riders than Olney Farm in Joppa, which can trace its roots all the way back to the 1700s. Te property was originally patented, in 1705,


as “Prospect” and was purchased by the Shriv- er-Howard family in 1855. “Te first home [around 1705] was four stories tall and built over a creek,” current owner Ami Howard said. “It was mainly just one room on each floor and probably used more as a meeting house than an actual home.” Te first brick house on the property was built in 1720 and portions of it still stand today as the main house. In 1855, the Shriver-Howard family estab-


lished a large dairy farm on the property and grew hay. It has remained in the family since then, adapting over the years to diversify and grow. J. Alexis Shriver (1872-1951), an amateur scientist who introduced several agricultural advancements to Harford County including the use of electricity in farm work, was respon- sible for much of the work on the property at that time. He also wrote pamphlets on agricul- tural subjects for the U.S. Commerce Depart- ment and published research on Maryland local history and historic preservation matters. His wife Hallie Shriver taught their children to ride including their daughter Harriet, who started breeding Shetland Ponies at the farm in 1920. Soon enough, she was teaching lessons on these


homebreds out of a barn she built from the re- mains of the dairy barn, which had been lost to a fire. Teaching at Olney Farm continues to be a family affair with Harriet’s granddaughters Kate Perri and Patti Fenwick both teaching there. Great-granddaughters Lia McGuirk Kelly and Sophie Perri also spent some time as instructors at Olney Farm before moving on to other pursuits. Te Olney Farm ponies were popular among students from the beginning of the breeding program, with Harriet taking students to local shows as well as the Maryland State Fair each year. “Getting the ponies to the fair was an ad- venture for sure!” Ami said. “Tey didn’t have a horse trailer so the kids would walk the ponies all the way to Timonium. My mother-in-law would find places for them to stay along the


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way to and from the fair.” Ami, who grew up in Towson,


Hallie Shriver introduced her chil- dren, including Harriet, to riding at an early age on the farm.


married into the family in the 1950s. “I was a bit more active in competing at the time and that’s when we started breeding our own competition horses too,” she said. Te Olney Farm lines started with two “drafty” mares named Emmy Lou and Josie. “It turns out they were by an imported German stallion that stood in Maryland in the 1940s,” she said. “Tis was before Ger- man horses really got popular in the states.” Ami bred these mares


to mainly Toroughbreds and produced and competed several top event horses. One of the farm’s most successful homebreds


was Olney Zoe, who was featured on the cover of the March 2020 Equiery after her death at 33 years old. Zoe, a Trakehner/Toroughbred


rated competitions. Te farm still has an active breeding program, particularly the Olney Farm Shetlands who are seen often on the pony rac- ing circuit. It is the lesson and camp program, however, that sustains the farm financially. “We have four instructors and a lot of great kids,” Ami said. “We run three summer camps that always fill by February each year, and our wait- list for lessons is huge right now.” Te summer camps at Olney Farm differ from others because they offer a “Farm Camp” as well as more traditional eventing camp. “I love the farm camp!” Ami said. “Te kids tend to be very young and learn all about a working farm.” She explained that they learn about caring for live- stock such as sheep, pigs and chickens, as well as working with the foals and other horses at the farm. “Tey of course get to ride too but the fo- cus is on farm life, not just riding,” Ami added. Te focus in the eventing camp, on the other


Three generations of Olney Farm instructors, from left: Ami Howard, Patti Fenwick and Harriet Rogers.


cross was a fifth generation mare through Ol- ney Farm’s breeding program. She was by the Trakehner stallion Zauberklang and out of the Toroughbred mare Amanda. As a yearling, Zoe was eighth out of nearly 50 entries when shown in hand at Dressage at Devon and then as an up- per level event horse, Zoe earned U.S. Eventing Association’s Mare of the Year title in 2000 with Ami’s coach Gayle Molander in the irons. She competed through the Advanced level in eventing. She was retired from eventing due to a knee injury, but in 2019 Ami hopped back on board to complete a Dres- sage Century Ride with their combined ages being 120. You can read more about Olney Zoe on equiery.com. Te sixth generation of


the family lives on the prop- erty today and offers board- ing,


lessons, and summer camps, and hosts local and


hand, is on the basics of the sport and develop- ing riders correctly at the lower levels. “Tose kids mainly are competing at baby beginner novice but the level doesn’t matter, they have fun learning about the sport,” she said. Many of these kids go on to ride in the farm’s annual starter horse trials. “I love hosting the starter event,” Ami said. “It is less hassle [than a recognized event] and really the level our cli- ents want.” In addition, the farm hosts a U.S. Eventing Association horse trials each sum- mer for Beginner Novice through Preliminary levels. “We started by offering little shows for our students but then it just grew from there,” Ami explained. “We did hunters for a while but there are just too many classes!” Ami started building her own cross-country course based on the courses she was riding as a


Olney Farm’s camps continue to be ex- tremely popular and also continue to fea- ture the farm’s Shetland Ponies!


competitor. At that point the farm got more in- volved with the USEA. “I really like the exper- tise that the USEA and USEF officials bring to our courses,” she said. Te farm also hosts Maryland Dressage Association shows as well as fun schooling shows for its lesson students and boarders. For Ami, it is the lesson program that she en- joys most. “I really keep the program going be- cause of the kids,” she said. “I grew up not having ponies in my back yard and I want to keep connecting kids with ponies and see them have this great experience.” She added with a laugh, “there is nothing cuter than see- ing a four year old kid learn how to pick out a hoof of a Shetland Pony!”


THE EQUIERY YOUR MARYLAND HORSE COUNCIL PUBLICATION | JUNE 2023 | 25


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