Olsons bring farm animals to communities

EMINGTON, Ill. — Lena Olson’s love for animals is in her DNA.

Olson, who operates Oly Farms with her husband, Kris, fondly recalls spending time with her grandparents, Ken and Nancy Schroeder, on their farm where they raised and showed Shetland ponies and other animals.

Her parents, Mark and Penny Oldfather, raised award-winning dairy goats for decades. As a 12-year-old, Olson earned the Best Doe of Show honors in the Junior Dairy Goat Show at the Illinois State Fair in 1994.

Raised on a farm near Fairbury, she would eventually move to rural Emington, living on the farm where her grandfather grew up.

The family’s journey to what would become a destination farm for visitors and a traveling petting zoo with its broad mix of animals began with Clydesdales in 2009.

“Kris and I went to look at some Clydesdales. We just wanted to have a mare, stud and foal, and we came home with seven,” Olson said, adding they already had a couple of quarter horses on the farm.

“We had a lot of animals when I was growing up on the farm. My grandparents used to raise and show Shetland ponies. That’s where my interest in horses came in. My grandpa thought I was crazy wanting a Clydesdale.

“My husband had had prior experiences with horses, but not a lot of this stuff. He goes with the flow. He takes interest in it, too.”

The family took the farm to the next level during the 2020 pandemic.

“Growing up, I was always in a farm environment, whether at my parents or at my grandparents. I decided when COVID hit that kids needed something to do. So, my husband would go to work with Thorndyke Farms, and then he’d came home and I had added animals. As he worked, I’d take the truck and trailer and I’d bring more home,” Olson said.

“Then we opened on the farm as a place where kids could come and get on-farm experience, not just something like a petting zoo. It was actually a big hit. Kids were coming out and they had something to do during COVID.

“Still to this day, we’ll give rides on the horses so the kids can get that experience and just hands-on helping with chores and stuff like that, too, so they see some of the work that goes into it.”

Farm To Town

The family now brings the farm to communities with a mobile petting zoo that includes a few of the 150 different animals they have, ranging from emus to guineas to pygmy goats.

“We bring our petting zoo to a lot of local festivals. Once in a while we do carriage rides with our Clydesdales for Christmas parades,” Olson said.

“I would say our biggest hit is probably our horses. We raise, breed and show Clydesdales, and then we have a montage of probably 150 animals at home. It’s a lot of fun, but a lot of work.

“We ride Patrick, one of our Clydesdales, at the Dwight Trojan football home games. I dress up as the mascot and he carries me around.”

Another Generation

A wide majority of families are a generation or more removed from the farm, and some likely need to learn more about where their food comes from and agriculture in general.

“We bring the farm to them, which is a great thing. We’ve also went to Orland Park which is close to the city, and the kids, the adults, everybody was amazed. So, we go from something like in the more suburban areas where people can learn where their eggs come from and that the horse used to do the farm work,” Olson said.

“We also go to like the Central States Threshermen’s Reunion at Pontiac, where you have more of the antique tractor folks and older people. I’d say that’s another big hit with the horses because they reminisce about farming with horses back generations.”

Oly Farms recently brought its petting zoo to an assisted living facility in Dwight for the residents to enjoy.

“Usually when they come up, they’ll sit outside the horse gates and the horses will put their heads over and want to be petted, and they’ll talk about what they used to do, whether it be on their farm or with their parents or whatever,” Olson said.

“It’s always interesting and I like seeing the smile that it puts on people’s faces. That makes it worth everything.”