Marjorie & Richard Gilmore are the owners of Wellgreen Farm located in Downs, Illinois.  They are pictured here with their youngest son, Adam (age 16) and they are the parents of Ryan Gilmore (age 20). The farm's name came from Marjorie's great grandfather, who in the early 1900's, named his own farm Wellgreen Stock Farm, after the area in Scotland, where his family had originated from.  The name was then adopted by her parents, James S. & Clarabel S. Riddell, but later changed, to Riddell Polled Herefords and is still owned and operated today by Mr. & Mrs. Riddell, their two sons Bill & Jim and grandson Jay in Marshall County, Illinois.  Wellgreen Farm was re-founded in 1992, by Marjorie and her husband Richard, to establish a high standard in the Equestrian and Hereford cattle industries with an emphasis on quality.  Marjorie started riding at the age of 9 years, with her father. He used horses to drive cattle in and out of the pasture. Marjorie has many memorable times, learning to ride with him. It wasn't until 1992 that Marjorie started focusing on expanding her knowledge of horses and she went on to educate herself in the skills of equine management, conformation, horsemanship, equitation, showing, and optimum horse care.

In 2001, Marjorie decided to expand the equestrian program and formed Wellgreen Farm Adventures on Horseback; a program which offers professional adult and children's riding lessons, our very popular horse leasing program (horse ownership without horse ownership), boarding, challenging trail rides, parties for both businesses and children or adults, children's camps (including a Christian camp each summer) and horsemanship classes, support for the Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts to earn horsemanship merit badges.  At Wellgreen Farm, they take pride in providing top quality horses, that receive the highest standard of care.  We have hand selected the riding horses for temperment, conformation, ability and performance. Wellgreen Farm also incorporates into their programs the Paso Fino horses that are known for their smooth, natural gait and bonding nature. Marjorie has shown the Paso Fino horses competitively, winning first place in Paso Fino Performance at the Illinois State Fair and demonstrating her Paso Fino at the Abraham Lincoln Memorial Library Fund Raiser. She has shown competitively at numerous high level AQHA and IQHA horse shows in WP, HUS, and all around classes.

Marjorie is currently a certified instructor with North American Riding for the Handicapped Association (NARHA), which she earned in October of 2004. Marjorie founded and directed Well Child Association, a non-profit therpeutic horseback riding program for children with disabilities, which sadly had to close to financial solvency issues. However, Wellgreen Farm continues to flourish with an abundance of horseback riding lessons, leases, boarding, and training programs which it has done since 1992 and continues to be very successful with a determined focus on youth, college interns, and adults who want to learn more about the full spectrum of equine programs and management!

Following is a horse that Richard and Marjorie raised on their farm. The young lady, age 12, in the picture below, earned over 400 points on this mare that was born and raised at Wellgreen Farm! This mare is a one of a kind and will be bred in 2007 to a working cow horse stallion!