Fire Fly Stables is a riding academy, dedicated to the well being of the horse and rider. We offer day camps to suit the horse enthusiasts in your family. Our stable offers a safe and positive place for riders to excel. We offer weekly lessons for children and adults, beginner/advanced. We balance learning new skills, achieving goals, from grassroots to competition.

The Our Kids review of Fire Fly Stables

When we think of camps, we often think of activities and stuff: the things that kids will do and the resources available to help them do them. Fire Fly has all of that, offering riding in a compelling setting. Still, what we don’t think of often enough is the people that kids will come into contact within camp settings. At Fire Fly, that’s Jenn Bruner, owner and head coach. As she notes, the program is a labour of love for the sport, but also for what it can bring to young people. Her life was changed through an opportunity to grow into riding, and that’s something she set out to offer with Fire Fly. The fees are absolutely reasonable, and the environment geared around mentorship, compassion, and personal development. Kids enter a setting populated with coaches and peers of a like mind, of similar passions, and who experience the same challenges and the same joys. That, very rightly, is what draws families here, year after year.

• December 21, 2019:  Stall Decorating Contest
  Fire Fly Stables, 1374 5th Concession West , Flamborough, Ontario
  Join us Saturday, December 21 from 12:00 pm

  It costs $25 to play, that money goes directly into the horses fund, in previous years it was put towards rescues but this year it will be put towards items our current horses need.

  What you get is a stall front of your very own to decorate, there are 13 stalls currently occupied by horses but if we have more than 13 people wishing to play we will allow outdoor horses to have their own "stall" for competition purposes. This is a contest so entries will be judged by the coaches on Saturday Dec 21. To sign up put your name and the horse's stall you are doing down on the sheet in the front hall of the barn. Entry fee must be paid before decorating may begin, but the contest starts... now! (perhaps I am selfish for loving when the barn is festive, but I really do love this time of year!) First and Second place will receive a $60 gift certificate that can be put towards a private lesson on a horse of their choice, a liberty lesson, or towards upcoming clinics (we are hosting at least three this coming year which will be announced shortly). 

   

  Judging Criteria:

  • -Joy it brings
  • -Personality (you and/or the horses)
  • -Creativity and Originality 
  • -Safety (Very important no fire hazards or choking hazards, horses are like toddlers)
  • -Cleanliness (careful, cobwebs won't generally get you extra points)

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Jenn Bruner, Owner/Head Coach

My name is Jenn Bruner, I am the owner, the full time barn staff, the head coach, a horse rescuer, a horse trainer, classical dressage rider (and student of course) and basically the sticky glue that holds this barn together. I’ll admit it, it’s all me, this is my dream, and my passion. I started out as a kid taking weekly riding lessons at an affordable barn. If I hadn’t found that affordable barn I wouldn’t have been able to start back then. I wouldn’t have made it to where I am today. I am thankful for my parents for getting me involved, and for the barn that was able to offer lessons to kids who really couldn’t afford this luxury sport. This is why, regardless of the quality of lessons I bring to the table we aim to keep our prices as affordable as possible. Many of my clients are young students who pay for their lessons themselves and are just thankful to their parents for driving them each week. These are the students who try the hardest and who get the most out of riding, they try so hard and they want to be there.

Riding is excellent exercise, and it is a great confidence builder. Often when you get on a horse it feels like nothing else matters, the worries of your day are gone and you are able to focus on the now. I want everyone who wants to experience it, to be able to.

I am passionate. In many ways. I want to bring along students who understand the horse, and who are able to think like trainers themselves and help the horses they ride improve with each ride. I strive to bring up great horses as well. I teach my horses manners and ground work so they know what is expected of them, they understand their role thoroughly and they can be happy and enjoy their job, just as I enjoy mine.

Sleeping Accommodations

Amenities

Washrooms Facilities

Sports facilities

Landscape

• Stalls.

  I will never be able to describe the power of time spent cleaning stalls.

  During this time I have made some of the biggest decisions in my life. I have silently thought my way, step by step, through some of the biggest disasters of my life. I have ugly cried my way through heartbreak all while cleaning stalls. I’ve thrown bags of sawdust in range as I thought about all of the shitty things going on in my life. Each stall has oddly given me a place of comfort as I stood, fork in hand, feeling empty during the times I’ve felt so alone. It has taught me to appreciate the serenity of the quiet. Realizing the ones in my life I can count on and the numerous fake people who are only present when convenient for themselves. I’ve enjoyed a free gym membership, as I’ve sculpted my back and shoulders into “he man”, just sifting away. I’ve stumbled my way, dry heaving, with sunglasses ....cleaning stalls through last night’s hangover, because god forbid my best friend be forced to stand in a dirty stall. Today I spend my morning, cleaning stalls and processing my life. I’m mentally making life changing decisions, as I write this post, knowing that whatever I decide, it will be the right one, as it was made in a stall.

  I understand that there are those who think us horse people should get “real” jobs. And that all we do is spend our days “playing” around. I’m genuinely sorry that you have never been exposed to a lifestyle that teaches you discipline, how to love unconditionally, put something other then yourself first, bust your ass for the things you want and need, kept humble by a 1200 lb animal, the real meaning of “hard work”, early mornings and late nights spent caring for something other than YOU. Those are things a “real job” will never give you.

  Some of you haven’t cleaned stalls .....and it shows.