When I think back over how I got here, I guess I was like any horse-crazy young girl. At the age of nine or so I would save up my money to have enough for a “trail” ride. In our area, Essex county, there were three stables that would, for $2.75 an hour, let you take a horse out to ride in the country woods. Most of the creatures were rough around the edges and well used, but to me, they were magical steeds.
I constantly begged for a horse of my own and hoped to enlist my grandfather – who had racehorses – in my cause. I thought he’d convince my mom, but instead he said Thoroughbreds weren’t for kids, and neither was The Track. Foiled, but not discouraged – and far too horse crazed to give up, I saved all my babysitting money and began my own search of local stables for horses for sale on my bicycle. Finally, at the age of 11½, I bought a half Morgan-half Quarter Horse for $350 from one of the local stables and walked him home through the woods. Imagine my parents’ surprise.
In those days, riding consisted of walking, trotting or galloping through the woods using a cast-off racing D snaffle and a bareback pad. Diagonals, leads, collection…we never heard of them, and we rode for happy hours. After I moved away from my parents at 16, the horse was sold to the next horse-crazy 12 year-old girl. With travel and college, I didn’t touch a horse again till I was 23 when I took part-time work at Miles River Stable. Eventually I managed this barn of 40 horses for seven years.
Miles River was mainly hunters, fox hunters and hack horses, and I was responsible for every aspect of barn management — tacking up horses for clients and cooling them out, mucking, feeding, all vet care, assisting farriers, ordering grain, hay, sawdust. In the middle of all these horses, I was so busy I didn’t have a chance to ride, but in all the 40 horses, there was one grade Morgan named Brother who quickly became one of my favorites. A little high-strung, he was chestnut, typey and the way of my future, although I didn’t know it then. The long hours and hard labor took a toll and I decided to get a “real job” which took me away from horses again, for almost eight years this time.
Real job or not, I found I missed horses and being outside, so I decided to find a way to make a living at it. I knew several farriers from my time at Miles River, so I asked around to see if someone needed an apprentice. Three years later, after “pulling and glinching” hundreds of horses for someone else, I was finally on my own. I was known in the local horse community and picked up work fairly easily; wonder of wonders, I could make money while working with horses.
At one of the farms I visited to shoe, there was a handsome Morgan, Birchwood Jim Dandy. The client’s daughter had grown up and lost interest, and the client could tell Jim liked me. Well, it didn’t take too much convincing and I purchased my first Morgan. Now twenty, Jim is the oldest horse on the property and the only gelding, and still handsome.
That was the start of something bigger for me, and without question, my future was with Morgans.
Our farm is located in North Berwick, Maine, a small, quiet New England town with a number of horse farms. There wasn’t even a barn here when we began, and over the past seven years, we’ve built two barns and the run-in sheds, cleared trees to make pasture and fenced the whole place. Establishing our own breeding program was a natural next step, and we selected a few mares who I feel are lovely examples of the breed. They are proving to be fine producers and good mothers.
Over the last few years, I’ve sold a number of horses, some made as show horses, such as SVF Midnite Raven, who was NEMHA Circuit Champion Reserve 3 Year Old Pleasure Driving, NEMHA Circuit Champion Reserve Junior Horse English Pleasure, among other titles, and some as weanlings, like Owlwood’s Nascere Fortunato. Her name means “Born Lucky” — in a tribute to my grandfather, our own bred horses are named in Italian. We prize versatility in our horses, and believe that they show us the areas in which they will excel; Owlwood Pietra Preziosa has gone on to pursue a successful combined driving career while her half-sister, Owlwood Prima Ragazza, concentrates on dressage. Both are enjoyable trail riding horses as well.
We are proud to own the stallion Equinox Toy Soldier — or “Rooster” as we call him — the last son of Courage of Equinox, out of a Grandmaster, Pepperlect daughter. I was very happy with the broodmares and starting to think about beginning the search for a high quality stallion, when, on one of our trips to East of Equinox, we saw Equinox Toy Soldier and our search was over. We’ve been delighted with the Equinox horses we’ve had so far, SVF Midnite Raven and Equinox Empress. I’ve known Ivan since 1998, when, after reading an article about Courage of Equinox in the August 98 Morgan Horse, I visited the farm and bought Ray. I found I shared some of Ivan’s ideas in breeding and have valued his friendship since then.
We purchased Rooster to show because of his great bloodlines. He has shown very successfully as a three and four old – he was second last year in OKC in 3 Year Old Classic Pleasure Driving and Third in the Championship. He has won at New England, as well as many other ‘A’ Rated shows.
