Warp speeding ahead, We re re located back to Michigan with horses in tow. Struggled to find trainers. Had the sad sad day of having to lay my sons beloved horse to rest. The horse was near 40  years old and we could not ask him to suffer another winter. My son stopped riding after, his loyalty to his horse was heart wrenching . Then a very cute girl ask my son to join the  high school equestrian team. I will always owe that girl except to fulfill that request my son began using my dressage horse. It was not a love at first  relationship. My horse had only ever been ridden by me and truly disliked my son. My son’s confidence was weak;  yet there stood a very cute girl expecting them to be the schools star jumpers The horse and boy fought hard to come to terms with each other. Now to add burned to this quest my horse is a freak-n huge Spanish Normand and we were living in Quarter horse world. Yes they stood out BIG TIME!!! It took only one meet to get the word out . Bleachers filled with crowds of people to see the big black horse jump. The horse ate it up, the boy ate it up and better yet my son was the only boy on any high school team, girls were drawn to them like flies to honey.  They became an item, I did not get to ride my horse much during the high school years.


Some where in this time frame I injured my back and was put on medication for almost a year before the Doctor’s operated. The meds caused me to gain a ton of weight.  The first three months I gained 62 pounds alone. Hence the “Fat lady.”


Shortly after my son graduated high school, the time I thought I’d get my horse back,  he announced he was going to study Equestrian sports and need to take “MY” horse to college with him. Over the years I had been searching for a new horse for my son only to fail in every attempt. When It hit me I need to get myself a new horse. Not that I wanted to but I had to . A mom has to do what a mom has to do. My son was leaving and so was my horse, I’m not sure which hurt more. Enter the Marvelous Mare!!!

Weekly riding lessons improved school grades which turn into more lessons than once a week and by summer the boy was at the barn as much as possible. The barn he was at did not really care to have “a boy” around but he did not care. In group lessons he always got the horse the girls did not want, but he did not care. Between a skater and now another horse nut, I was on a dead run taking one kid here the other there. Since I was at the barn with my son I decided lease a horse there and began learning dressage while he was riding. A new partnership was formed; I also began to enjoy not jumping. Along this time my husband’s career required a re-location out west. He’s tool in convincing us (ok! we all wanted to move) was “we could buy our own horses.” We moved in April, found a barn within weeks of moving and by November we owned two horses.  Our lives have never been the same.