White Horse Farm

In December of 2015, Woody and I purchased a ten acre farm. Construction of our home and barn began in January, and we moved into our new home in July of 2016. So at the time of this post, we've been here about six months.

As of December 1, 2016, I am now a professional. No longer an adult amateur, there are many divisions I can no longer compete in. But now my job is teaching riding lessons to kids and adults, and training horses. As I've said before, on my previous blog, horses are the one constant throughout my life.

2016 was a great year for me. I didn't really know it at the time, but it was my last year showing Roanin regularly. We had many championships and wins and great rides, and I can't think of a better way to end our official career together. He will ALWAYS be my horse, and will live out his days on my farm. We competed at 3' for most of the season, but he started having soundness issues toward the middle of the summer. We missed two months of showing, and after a lot of vet visits, we finally got him sound again. We ended up with four end of the year awards in CHSA and one in VHSA. My most successful show season in my life.

But the decision was made to end his 3' jumping career. Besides, I've put years of work into turning him into such a wonderful horse (with credit to his previous trainer, of course) but it's time for him to retire from the big stuff. This year, 2017, he will be showing in the Childrens/AA 2'6 divisions with my friend Catherine. It will be a good job for him, he can handle the fence height easily and will hopefully have a great year with her.

So this year, I'll be working with my new horse Bowie. He came to me last summer, right when we moved to the farm, an OTTB. We spent most of the summer trying to get him sound for various reasons - we worked a bit in the fall. Then he had most of the winter off as we didn't have an arena and the footing was never good enough to ride. But our arena was finally built this January, and he's now back in official training. I'm really looking forward to what we can accomplish together. He's a really special horse and I'm so thankful to have him.

We've only just started jumping, and will be showing this year. He's never shown before so it will be an exciting adventure. I am sure there will be setbacks and green moments, but I think it'll be another good season. I don't think we'll ever top 2016 in terms of riding/showing success - but that's okay. My goals for Bowie are not to win blue ribbons and championships and end of the year awards. I just want to bring him along and progress his training as best I can, introduce him to the show horse life, and enjoy our time together.

Bowie and I schooling over jumps at home, 02/12/17