(Or: Do they really grow mushrooms then?)
No, we don't grow any form of funghi, unless you count the occasional bout with Scratches we get from having so many horses with such thick feathers. Toadstool Farm is, in reality, the name of the owner's home, a cottage in the city of Los Angeles, California. Toadstool Farm began, literally, as a dream owner Jacqueline Collen-Tarrolly, who had grown up riding quarter horses and appaloosas, had one night of riding a glorious black horse! She vowed that if she still felt the rush she had felt in the dream when the new year rolled around, her New Year's resolution would be to find that horse. She did feel it, and she did find him!
That was Pagan, Toadstool Farm's premiere exhibition and liberty horse, at the time a semi broke, shockingly green 5 year old who wouldn't step out at anything less than a jiggy trotty passage for the first 2 years Jacq had him. Who has gone on to become famous...the kind of horse they make movies about.
Now our herd has grown by leaps and bounds, consisting of horses from several of the rarest breeds around. Breeds known for their beauty, brains and personalities. Friesians, Gypsy Cobs, Fell Ponies, and one cheeky Arabian to keep Jacq on her toes, all call Toadstool Farm home.
Located in Burbank, Toadstool Farm's horses have the best in training from day one with us. While the most important and vital thing our horses learn is love and trust, they are also all taught some classical dressage , high school movements, and many other exhibition or movie type "tricks". Foals are imprinted and handled from birth, young horses are broke using the gentlest, most loving methods, over time, by Jacqueline. Once the horse is ready to graduate to more than the basics, their further education begins. Gradually they develop into show horses that make people literally stop and stare as they ride past. Jacqueline handles and oversees their daily care through their life with us.
Toadstool Farm is primarily a stallion station, with a few, carefully chosen mares we breed to to satisfy our own urge for "baby love"! Our stallions have been chosen with a loving eye by Jacqueline from hundreds of horses around the world, and brought to Toadstool Farm to create the true fairytale horses Jacqueline dreams of! The stallions maintain only a limited amount of breeding contracts each year in order to maintain optimum health and condition throughout the year.
With a list of exhibitions, film and photo credits that grows longer every time we turn around, and a herd of happy, and healthy, much-loved and adored horses ( which in the long run is way more important--to us anyway.) that keep us guessing whats up their sleeves every day, Toadstool Farm is bringing the true Fairytale Horses back from myth and legend and making them a reality.
