Life Lessons Take Root at Rocking Horse Ranch
by DEMI GUILLORY
Photos provided by Rocking Horse Ranch
For nearly a decade, Rocking Horse Ranch in Avon Park has served as a place where horseback riding means saddling up for a unique and meaningful life experience. Jessie Freire and her husband, Sam, own the ranch that welcomes people of all ages into the equestrian world.
“I always wanted to teach lessons and board horses,” says Freire, who grew up in Zolfo Springs. She pinpoints her passion back to childhood, when her father ran a cattle and citrus ranch and she spent a lot of time outdoors with the horses. It took one particular summer to know exactly where her career path would take her. “I worked at a summer camp in South Carolina, teaching horseback riding lessons and taking kids on trail rides,” she recalls.
The experience solidified her love for working with horses, further steering Freire on a path that eventually led to working at a therapeutic riding facility in Highlands County. When Sam proposed working closer to home, she had one stipulation: “If you build me a barn, I’ll do it.” He built it in 2017, and together they founded Rocking Horse Ranch in 2018.
Her goal was to reach as many in the community as possible, making sure to focus particularly on young riders. She sought to inspire them through horsemanship and provide the same kind of transformative experience she herself had as a child.
“Most of our riders are 8 to 12 years old,” she explains. And while students are sometimes as young as 2 or well into adulthood, they frequently share the same enthusiasm for horseback riding. “Learning how to maneuver a 1,000-pound critter is a really cool thing to do.”
Beginners learn the basics, such as walking horses, grooming, and saddling to prepare for rides. Freire says the program lays the foundation for the confidence gained through horsemanship.
“It usually takes from two to three months to even six months before a rider is confident and capable of [picking up] speed to a trot.”
Regardless of a rider’s individual pace, Rocking Horse Ranch prioritizes quality of a ride and the homan-animal connection over anything else. Horses, Freire notes, become friends to riders and the interaction can be therapeutic.
Each journey begins with an initial assessment by experienced instructors prior to lessons.
“Our purpose is to give them solid horsemanship to be able to read the horse’s body language and have a good seat so they don’t just bump up and down on their back and hurt each other,” she says. But more than the mechanics is the unique opportunity to build relationships with their riders and encourage them to find the beauty in the life lessons existing in nature.
Ranch Life 101
Ranch Life 101 was born as an extension from this idea. When lessons with younger generations revealed a lack of practical skills, the Freires realized there was even more Rocking Horse Ranch could offer. In fall 2025, they officially opened classes to the public with Sam at the rein.
With various hands-on activities, the children spend time away from the screen and get to experience the hard work it takes to operate a ranch.
“[Students] might get to help drag the arenas [and] drive a tractor to help prepare it for a riding lesson and get good footing,” Freire shares. “They’ll get to put out hay for us, or if we have a broken pipe or fence, they need to operate the screw gun and bring out all the materials to fix those things.”
Many are surprised by what they learn they can do, which Freire says is the crux of the program: Newfound confidence manifests from tangible affirmation of their work.
“They changed the oil in a tractor the other day,” she adds, marking a small but notable milestone for some of them who start at Rocking Horse Ranch never having been outdoors enough to do something as normal as sweat.
Freire is thankful for the new experiences the ranch offers, but she is most proud of the connections Rocking Horse Ranch makes for them in a world that can seem isolating.
“You have a village here that is there to back you up and support you and all your endeavors. Not just horses, you have friends ready to help make life happen.”