My Background
How I Started in Horses
My education in the world of horses started when I was a child, the tender age of 7. Dad went out of town on business. So my mother took it upon herself to ask for forgiveness rather than permission to get me my first horse. When my dad got home he wasn’t pleased because now he had fence to build.
Mom immediately put me in lessons, found a 4-H group for me to join so I could go to the fair. My life in horses started to take off. I learned more in those formative years because of the instructors and 4-H leaders that I had than many horse owners will encounter in a lifetime.
Getting Back into Horses
I am almost a half century old now and I have to say that I was blessed with the childhood I had with horses.
As an adult I wanted to get horses myself again. I bought my farm at 22, where I moved my house to and moved an old shed to as well. There I began my adult life with horses and adopted two Standardbreds from American Standardbred Adoption Program in Viroqua, WI.
I worked with them, fostering among other things for a few years before striking out on my own with my now ex-boyfriend. We founded the Midwest Horse Welfare Foundation together and when we parted, I let the program go with him, where it thrives.
Furthering My Equine Education
During that time I became Certified in Equine Sports Massage Therapy from the Institute of Equine Therasage, in Janesville, WI. This was 2002 and Equine Massage was barely a service people even realized was possible in the local Wisconsin equine community.
Needless to say my massage business never took off like I’d hoped, maybe if the timing had been different. Although I believe that it was just the preparation for where I am now.
After 15 years in Information Technology, where I loved what I did and the people I worked with, I have changed careers once again. Actually something that I have grown to expect after all these trips around the sun. While it all seems drastic, when you add it all up, it appears to me that every learning experiences you have had only prepare you for these big changes. Change is inevitable, roll with it, it just might be better than you could have ever expected.
If you love what you do, you’ll never work a day in your life. I did not coin that phrase, but it has been my life for a long time. I loved my work in the IT world. It was because again, I was never going to know everything and there was always going to be something new to learn.
That the equine industry, never going to know everything, and that’s OK. You’re always going to have something new to learn, which will keep it interesting and engaging. That is what I loved about IT, that is what I have always loved about horses.
When I am working on a saddle or working with a horse, it engages all of my being. There are no thoughts of the troubles that are going on in life, no worrying in that moment about things you cannot change. There is just me and whatever I am working on. Satisfying to say the least!