A New Beginning

From 1999, The Viking and I owned Tennessee Walking Horses and Spotted Saddle Horses.  During that time, we had a stallion and a ranch we called Silver Phoenix Ranch.  We also worked on consigning horses to find them good homes, and we helped people find quality horses to call their own.  I taught lessons and helped people with training issues with their horses.

In 2004, I learned about the horrific practice of soring TWHs and SSHs.  I began to dedicate my life to educating the public about this practice and make people aware of what was going on.  I created the blog For the Tennessee Walking Horse.  I worked with various advocates for the breed who were anti-soring.  I got to be a trusted source for information about what was going on behind the scenes.  Talking about soring and becoming an expert in how to stop it was an extreme part of my life.

Then last year, things changed.

I discovered that first, I was tired of the breeds and the stigma that goes with them.  It was amazing how many times I had to point out that we don't do THAT to our horses.  I will talk more about it later.

Second, The Viking and I have a true love for draft horses.  I've had it since I was a kid, and my husband had it since he started riding horses when he used to ride a giant Belgian mare named Ruth.

In 2009, I bred a TWH mare to a Percheron stallion to create a draft gaited horse for myself.  That was a disaster.  More about that in another post.

Things shifted.  We suddenly were looking at draft horses.  And now we have abandoned the gaited horse world.  We now have a Percheron/Friesian filly named Virga and a Belgian/Halflinger (we're guessing) gelding named Arcus.  We still have my very first horse, a SSH mare named Apache, aka my dream horse.  I will talk more about her as well.

*Edited 2-8-15: We added Alta, a Belgian mare, to our herd in the end of January.  She is the final member of our herd.

I discovered something very important, and I need to voice this here.  I realized I no longer needed to worry about everyone else's horses and concentrate on our own.  I need horses to be what we originally intended them to be: our hobby and our pets.  The shift has been hard, but the stress has dropped dramatically.  I'm nearing 40 years old...I need to stop and focus on my life and what I need to make it successful.

If you want to learn more about soring, here's my blog about it.  You can read about my retirement if you wish.  The blog is permanent, but the time has come to end it.

So I have restarted here.  I have a lot to talk about.  It might be boring, it might be interesting.  It might change the world, but mostly, it'll just change me.  And that's really what's most important.

Arcus, Apache and Virga, Christmas Eve, 2014.  The dog is Tesla, our white German Shepherd.