If you happen to be driving along Palmer Road near the edge of Plympton, you may notice tucked among the quaint farm stands and antique houses, an idyllic-looking farm with a sign that easily hints at the name: Rocking Horse Farm. Always tidy and seasonally dressed with cheerful blooms in planters or pumpkins and mums tucked in every corner, Rocking Horse Farm is the epitome of countryside charm. Goats laze on wooden spool tables, two resident canines run about, toys in mouth, looking for someone to play fetch with. There are picnic tables, gardens, and white wooden fences, but what really makes this place special is what goes on inside the barn, stables, and arena: children and adults learning the beautiful sport of horseback riding.
Rocking Horse Farm was started in 1983 by Lillian Gilpin. Her parents, Paul and Dorothy Gilpin, purchased the land for their daughter immediately following high school so she could embark on her dream of running a barn. It began as a small garage and chicken coop and has grown into a 28-stall barn with a thriving teaching program. The program is now run by Katie Alemian Flannery, Gilpin’s niece. Flannery’s love for and involvement with horses began early in her life. “I began riding as soon as I could walk. My mom and dad were very involved with the horses when I was born. Once I started showing, my father took a back seat and let my mom and I continue to show.”
Flannery’s natural talent in the sport was nurtured as she spent nearly every day of her childhood on the farm where she quickly became one of the top students. She began to show at local shows such as Briggs in Hanover and at the South Shore Horsemen’s Council. Flannery then began to compete in leadline and walk trot classes at larger shows in the New England area. Gilpin was there for her niece every step of the way. “Lillian coached me throughout my junior exhibitor career, guiding me through new horses and new challenges almost always!” Flannery recounts. She then went on to compete at the Worlds Championship Horseshow in Kentucky multiple times and always came home with ribbons.
Showing and riding for fun were just the beginning for Flannery. She left Rocking Horse Farm to attend William Woods University in Missouri where she majored in Equestrian Science. Flannery worked with many top trainers during her academic years and loved it so much that she only came home for Christmas breaks. Although she enjoyed school in the South, she knew she wasn’t meant to stay there. “As much as I loved the South, I really missed New England and wanted to come home after school.” Flannery moved back and worked with Gilpin for several more years until she took over the business in 2019 -right before the Covid-19 pandemic hit. “This was so hard for me just staying on my own and many show clients moved when she (Gilpin) retired but my lesson program was what kept me going.” Flannery’s resourceful nature helped keep the barn afloat. She asked her students for continued financial support in lieu of tuition during lockdown. “Even though lessons couldn’t happen, horses still cost as much to care for,” she said. Once people were comfortable holding activities again, many found horseback riding and being outdoors cathartic and thus the barn recovered from this setback.
In keeping a barn and lesson program intact, in spite of such a huge disruption as a pandemic, Flannery has managed to take the business from surviving to flourishing. Being one of the only Saddle Seat barns on the South Shore, Rocking Horse Farm specializes in American Saddlebreds, horses known for their high stepping gait and powerful front action. “We do not jump, we do not do individual dressage patterns, but I like to say we put on a show!” Flannery explains, “Our horses perform their gaits in a ring and are judged on many specifications depending on division, to earn ribbons.” Flannery says there are sometimes as many as three judges in the center of the ring looking for techniques of the horse and rider working as a pair.
There are currently 50 lessons a week at Rocking Horse Farm and the riding program spans all ages starting at age six. The students are taught to be proficient in basic riding techniques and once they are deemed ready Flannery begins to take them to shows, beginning at local levels. As riders advance, Flannery has them show at larger horse shows throughout the Northeast. This summer Flannery is charting new territory as a teacher. “I am taking my very first student that I started from the beginning to our Worlds Championship Horse Show in Kentucky!”
Competitive horseback riding is a sport that demands stamina and the mastery of many skills, athletic and mental, of both human and horse. “Any student that wants to compete typically rides 2-3 times a week. Just like any sport the more you practice the better you get,” Flannery points out, “A lot of riding is the use of the core and the leg muscles, so the more you ride the stronger you become.”
Of course, it is not just the human athletes that put in hard work. The horses of Rocking Horse Farm are beloved, healthy, and trained to be at their peak. All of Flannery’s students who compete at higher levels own their horses and keep them at the barn. These majestic animals demand constant top of the line attention and care. “They are maintained just like athletes. They have an exercise routine that I maintain throughout the week and they are individualized for each horse,” Flannery explains. The students ride their particularly trained horses on Saturdays and use the Rocking Horse Farm lesson horses during the week. Flannery allows lesson students to take the lesson horses to shows to make sure they are enjoying the sport enough to make the commitment of purchasing a horse.
When asked what unique lessons riding horses teaches young (and grown) people Flannery replies, “Riding horses is so amazing for our youth because I feel like it teaches a responsibility that no other sport can teach. No matter how you’re feeling or how long of a day you have had, the horses still need you.” Flannery also models and teaches respect and admiration for the horses at Rocking Horse Farm. “I am thankful for the amazing group of lesson horses that I have and if you ask anyone that works for me, my expectations of their care is to always go above and beyond. They are the heart and soul of my program and I think it is important that all of my students know that.”
In addition to learning how to ride and show horses, students at Rocking Horse Farm are taught to care for them. They get their horses ready, clean their tack, and even clean their stalls. Rocking Horse Farm also runs a program called Paddock Pals where students come once a month and learn different aspects of horse care and farm maintenance, in addition to riding. Paddock Pals is open to anyone age six and above even if they are not enrolled as a student at the barn.
Rocking Horse Farm students also hold fundraisers to help purchase items the lesson horses may need such as blankets, new sheets, tack, etc. The farm also hosts two weeks of summer camp and day camps on holiday breaks.
In addition to a full schedule at the barn Flannery keeps busy with her family -including her twin sons, Joseph and Jameson, who will be two in October. Flannery’s husband, Nick, is also an intricate part of Rocking Horse Farm in spite of having no previous experience with horses or barn maintenance. Flannery remarks with gratitude, “He has put more than his blood, sweat, and tears into helping me almost completely rehab and maintain this older barn and I can’t thank him enough for it!” Flannery also makes sure to take time to work on goals for her own riding ventures. “I still show if we have new or young horses at the farm. This year I have been lucky enough to show my mom’s new horse, TickTock! He has been so much fun and now it’s time to turn the reins over to her.”
Flannery’s passion, not just for her career, but her way of life is easy to see and feel. Her positive enthusiasm sets the tone for Rocking Horse Farm and is a great benefit to the students and horses there. “Teaching is my passion,” Flannery says, “I love introducing kids to horses and watching them grow and learn with them.” Rocking Horse Farm’s success goes well beyond the collection of trophies in the viewing room and ribbons on the walls. Its success story is found in the many lives enriched by the life lessons learned and bonds forged between horse and human in the picturesque farm just off the side of Palmer Road.

When my daughter Heidi was grown, she was the first one out of our four children to give us a grandchild. When she was five months along, one day by chance we both happened to be at the Kingston Mall at the same time. Heidi had been concerned about her baby being deaf as both she and the baby’s father are deaf. In the center aisle of the mall that day was a display of very big wind chimes suspended from a metal rack. Heidi and I spotted each other at the same time and walked towards one another. When she was under the rack of chimes, a little boy ran through them hitting the clappers, which caused both melodious and clashing sounds simultaneously. Heidi turned her hearing aid off and put her hands on her stomach to protect the baby and was staring at me wide-eyed. She grabbed my arm as we stepped out from under the wind chimes. I asked if she was okay and she told me the baby was kicking and moving and didn’t stop until the chimes stopped. I was as thrilled as she was because she realized it meant the baby could hear.
In April of 1994, Heidi presented my husband Dave and I with our first grandchild whose name is Alisha. I felt honored to be in the delivery room with Heidi and her husband Chris when Alisha was born. She was beautiful and perfect and has extra sensitive hearing. The day after her birth when I went to the Hospital to visit, Alisha was laying down on her tummy beside Heidi on the hospital bed. When Heidi went to move her, her little fist went up in the air and her bottom lip jutted out, as if to say, NO! Heidi let her stay in that position and down went her little fist and her little mouth relaxed as well. Heidi and I looked at each other smiling as that told us she was already her own person, which has held true.
The first day she was home from the hospital, our kids (her aunts and uncles) came to visit. Grandparents on both sides of the family and great-grandparents took turns coming a few days later. Alisha’s grandfather Frank, on her dad’s side and Dave, my husband, were in competition when it came to buying pajamas, bibs and other articles of clothing for the baby. Frank had graduated from Holy Cross College and Dave from Boston College. They both got her clothing from their Alma Maters and were hoping she’d attend the colleges they did; which she didn’t. Dave and I loved taking care of her and she often stayed overnight at our house.

My husband Dave and my stepdaughter, Donna (Dave’s daughter), are Alisha’s God parents. Dave felt a need to be more involved with his church which was The Lady of the Lake Church in Halifax where we live. Because he was one of Alisha’s God parents, he felt it was important and he went to talk with the Priest, Father Murphy, several times and was asked if he would be interested in working with the teenagers who attended Saturday classes. He decided to give it a try. Starting in the Fall of 1997, Dave was also a therapist and dealt with all kinds of personalities in his work. This also helped him deal with the young people in the Saturday classes at the church, keeping them focused and interested. All through the winter he led his class at church and became friends with some of the other adults who were also educating, leading and guiding the classes. Throughout the Holiday Season, all went well, and he felt he was making progress when the students asked questions about some of the teachings of the Bible, the Catholic Faith, sacraments, prayer and beliefs and faith in Jesus the Christ. The more questions the young people asked and the deeper the discussions the happier Dave was as he felt he was truly reaching and helping them.

In April of 1997, Alisha had her third birthday. With the coming of Spring, the students were restless. Dave and some of the other teachers met privately to discuss what they could do to be more effective with the teenagers to hold their interest. They came up with some good plans and even some games centering around personal choices, helping others and being a power of example. That was successful for a while. Every few weeks they met again to change things to keep the classes going. By June Dave had decided he was not going to stay teaching the classes. He was glad he did it as he would have regretted not doing it. He had an opportunity to teach college classes and wanted to take the job. He also looked forward to having his Saturday mornings to himself once again.

On his last day at the church Dave forgot a book Father Murphy had loaned him and called me to ask if I would bring it to him as he didn’t want to leave without giving it back. Alisha was spending the weekend with us, and we got in the car and drove to the church. No one was in the rectory except Dave and the priest. I brought the book in and gave it to Dave. He and the priest were talking, and he introduced us. Alisha was walking around looking at the several blackboards on wheels that were in the room. I was wearing a full skirt and a summer top. Alisha was very shy around strangers at that age. Dave was very proud of her and picked her up to introduce her to the Father. She buried her head in Dave’s neck and looked away. Dave put her down and she ran behind me for a minute before looking around again. When Dave and Father Murphy finished their conversation, they shook hands and wished each other well. Father Murphy called out to Alisha, blowing her a kiss and calling her sweetheart. Alisha ran to me, grabbed my skirt, hiding in the folds of it, sticking her head out and yelling out to the Priest in a voice I didn’t know she had, “I NOT YOUR SWEETHEART!!” She grabbed my hand, pulling me outside, the three of us adults unable to keep a straight face.

Once we got home, Dave picked Alisha up and asked her what she wanted to do and she said, swim. She was in her bathing suit and beach jacket before Dave could change into his trunks so we could go to Stetson Pond. Alisha is now full-grown and happily married with a young daughter of her own – who also speaks her mind.

Driving along bustling Plymouth Street in Halifax you might take easy notice of the big box store, the food establishments, and the local businesses lining the main road in the town. But if you slow down a bit and look around you will not be able to miss spotting the picturesque Nessralla Farm stand tucked into the town scene. With a storefront flanked by two large Paperbark Maple trees, dozens of rows of long tables bursting with colorful flowers of all kinds, a sign advertising a local Lebanese festival, and hanging baskets heavy laden with curtains of cascading blooms, it is impossible to resist pulling in to further investigate such a cheery sight.
The inside of Nessralla’s Farm stand is no less charming and stocked with all the jewel-colored produce delights one would expect to find grown on a farm, as well as more preserves, jams, jellies, sauces, and handmade, local gifts than could be accounted for in one trip. Honey from their own hives, fresh local bread, baskets tipped on their sides to display an abundance of onions, garlic, and sweet potatoes and fridges packed with local meats, more produce, and fresh juices leave one inadvertently planning dinner for the evening.
All of this local bounty is the legacy of John Nessralla, who alongside his brother Mansur, are the head farmers and proprietors of Nessralla’s Farm in Halifax. If the beautiful farm store isn’t inspiring enough to visit, then learning about the family behind the operation will quickly make Nessralla’s Farm your favorite local destination. Nessralla immigrated to America in 1968 from Lebanon where his father and uncles were passionate farmers growing fruit, flowers, and vegetables. When his uncle and father came to Halifax they built their greenhouses on the site of the old Sturtevant Farms, at the intersection of Routes 58 and 106. Little by little they began to expand. They started Nessralla’s in Marshfield and took over Penniman Hill Farms in Hingham. Other members of their farm-skilled family have similar businesses in Wareham and Avon. Nessralla spent his youth following his uncle and father around their farms, observing their techniques and soaking up all the knowledge he could. “I learned from my father. Not by a book but by watching him and being out there every day.”
Nessralla certainly gleaned a wealth of knowledge enhanced by what must be a dash of inherited genetic instinct for farming because today Nessralla offers just about everything on the farm’s 55 acres on Hemlock Lane -from annuals and perennials to a wide range of produce and honey from the hives on site. “We grow about 80% of the flowers we sell here. We use greenhouses as that environment is easier to control.” The crops are further enhanced by the farm’s ten beehives kept on the growing fields. “We need the bees to grow this much. We make raw, natural honey, a light and dark honey, with nothing added,” Nessralla explains, “It will crystalize sometimes and that means its real.”
Nessralla is not only dedicated to farming, but dedicated to turning out top quality products with more than a price tag connected to them. It is easy to see in every voluptuous flower pot and the nearly picture-perfect produce displayed like an edible rainbow that nothing less than wonderful gets past Nessralla’s discerning evaluation. “We are not like one of the big stores. I won’t sell you something that I would not take home with me,” Nessralla says, “We offer people the best of what we have.” When asked what sets his grocery- filled store apart from others in the area, Nessralla points out that the quality of small-scale farming can’t be matched in mass-produced goods. “Our products look visibly different. You have to care about what you do and you can see that in what we sell -we care about it very much. We try to get things as picture perfect as we can. You can’t find this kind of quality in a store.”
Nessralla’s enthusiasm for offering only the best is not just a good business tactic, but downright enjoyable. When asked if there is any other profession he would have considered had farming not worked out he quickly says, “No. Farming is all I have ever known. I would not want to do anything else.” Nessralla also says he does not have a favorite crop to grow. “Everything. I like to grow everything. I also like to experiment growing new things.” One crop Nessralla is particularly proud of, “Mums. I grow 10-12 different colors of mums,” he says showing a picture on his phone of a tidy, black landscape fabric field with hundreds of healthy-looking young mum plants in pots being watered. Nessralla also explains that they used to grow pumpkins and corn, but have since stopped for crops less subject to nature’s harsh dealings.
If there is one life lesson Nessralla has learned from farming it is that farming is not a sure thing. “Farming is a gamble. One day it’s nice, the next day its 100 degrees or flooding rain. It is like rolling the dice. One year we had six inches of rain in August, and another six inches of rain in September – our pumpkins were out floating in the field. We lost them all. It is a huge investment to plant, say corn, and then lose it all. You have to adapt to what nature does.”
Still, Nessralla says that farming is not to be shied away from. Considering that Nessralla’s foundation for farming was built on the example of his family before him, he realizes that farming is something that must be passed on to the next generations. Nessralla’s also aims to show what a local farm can offer in a community. “It is where our food comes from. We need it. Everybody should learn about farming.”
Nessralla sees modern day habits coming between the required hands-on experience that farming requires. “Society is too into gadgets. You can’t watch a video or read something online and learn to farm. You have to be out there -weeding, watering, picking produce -if you aren’t out there in it you won’t learn it.”
Nessralla is certainly one to learn from as during the interview I am given several tips and recommendations for various gardening woes and profitable crop ideas with visible joy in the exchange of his freely shared knowledge. It is apparent that Nessralla truly loves what he does. “I don’t ‘go to work’. I enjoy it. Sometimes I am up at 1 a.m. to go to Boston to pick up produce and then at 5:30 a.m I am out in the field watering the mums. It is hard work but I enjoy it. If people come into the store and they see what we have and they like what they see, that makes me proud. That is what I love.”
As summer winds down, Nessralla says to be on the lookout for his beautiful mums for fall but also says he has plans to eventually bring back a tradition that Nessralla’s used to offer to the community. “I am hoping to do the corn maze again. It is a lot of fun and it’s located in an isolated, beautiful area that is quiet. I just need to be able to find help in running it. But I would like to do this again.”
Whatever the endeavor Nessralla and his family undertake, one thing is sure -it will be done remarkably well, with passion and purpose, and with a true love for the community. What can the community do for Nessralla’s? “Participate in our farm and business. We are not like the big stores. It is all done by us and we can offer quality that they can’t.”
As I leave with an extraordinarily large and vibrant pink Mandevilla plant in a hanging basket and a mental shopping list for next week’s dinners based on clocking several tantalizing jars of sauce, Lebanese bread, and stunning produce grown minutes away, I can’t help but feel that I am also bringing home a bit of Nessralla’s joy because his love for his life’s work in embedded in every product found at Nessralla’s Farm -and that is something that mass production and money can’t buy.