About Me and Mine

There are so many aspects to my life. I will write about each of them separately although they all happened in one lifetime. I will start with my history with horses because it goes back the furthest.

I was born in Martinsburg, WV and grew up on the family farm in Falling water. When I was 3 I decided that I wanted a pony.I may never understand what made me decide this. My parents got me one for Christmas when I was 4. He was a bay pony that had no definite breed and was trained to drive. We didn't drive him and never had him trained. Eventually my mom gave him to my aunt because she didn't want the responsibility. As I grew I became more and more interested in horses and started walking the 1/4 mile between our house and my aunts to ride him.
I was being home schooled by this time and would ride daily weather permitting. My mom decided to get me a month of riding lessons for Christmas and started looking for a barn in Oct. This was when I was 11 years old. She found a Merry Mount. The lessons were english, but the trainer would let me do barn work in exchange. I started working two mornings a week. When Christmas break started for the college students she suddenly needed more help and I started working five days a week. I never went back to twice a week.
The money I earned was literally put under my mattress. A year later I had $1000 saved and my parents matched that so I could buy a horse. I found a Thoroughbred that was 10yrs old. I ended up working more and my mom even worked a bit to pay for her to be trained. When I was 15 I was asked to be a counselor in training at the summer camp. When I was 16 I was a junior counselor those two years I only worked 2 weeks in the camp, but continued working for my lessons.At some point around this time I started helping with training horses and I would give lower level lessons. When I was 17 I spent the whole summer at Merry Mount and that is where I met Casey.
Casey was there to be trained and sold. He was a beautiful Chestnut Appendix Quarter horse. He was sweet, but he had been through 12 owners in 9 yrs and they had each tried to have him trained in a different discipline. He had so many emotional problems it was sad. By this time I was doing 2nd level Natural Horsemanship. I was fairly confident in my abilities so I contacted his owner and bought him.
I had to work a lot after that so he could stay there. I worked with him daily. He became my project. We spent the whole summer there for camp that year and I started taking on my own clients that I trained at their homes. In 2005 my parents surprised me with 12 weeks at the Parelli International Study Center in Florida. I was to go for 6 weeks in March and 6 weeks in October 2006. I went in March with Casey and came home for the summer and to plan my wedding. I decided not to go in October so I could plan my wedding and not get back the week it was planned for.
I can not describe the amount that I learned that year. I started taking private lessons as well as the group lessons.
In 2009 I did a little less in camp than I had been so I could be home in the evenings with my husband. My horse was incredible and I was working on jumping him as well as dressage. My first horse died that year and shortly after that I found out that I was pregnant. I continued to work and take lessons till I was 4 months pregnant at which time I started having cramps when riding so I dismounted. I continued to teach and train on the ground for about a month after that.
I haven't done much serious riding since, but I have gone on trails with friends and play with Casey on occasions. I don't have the heart to sell him.
Casey was

I first met my husband when I was 11yrs old. I had gone to Pilgrim Presbyterian Church my whole life and his father came to be our new pastor. We grew up in the same youth group. We were all good friends, but most of us were not overly interested in finding a life long partner. Although the entire group was fairly close we were divided by gender. I had my friends he had his. When I was 18 my best friends left. One of them moved to another state and the other went to college on the other end of the continent. I was 18 and had already decided to focus on horse training instead of going to college.
One day Geoff approached me about riding lessons. It took me by surprise, he didn't seem like the type to ride. I agreed, after all it was my passion. We set his first lesson up for Friday evening. After the lesson my brother came out to tell us that the former youth group was going to a movie. So we went and he paid. Our first unofficial date. Our second was a bout two weeks later when I was invited to a picnic with a Merry Mount client. Several others from Merry Mount were going and taking either there husbands or boy friends. I invited him to join me. Our second unofficial date.
Our first official date was September 30, 2005. We went to see Serenity. There was only one other couple in the theater and strangely I knew them from Merry Mount. Our dates consisted of him watching me clean stalls and teach lessons or the two of us hanging out with my parents, after that. On February 28,2006 he proposed and on December 30,2006 we were married. March 28,2008 we had William.