When I was young I wanted to be a jockey. I wanted to ride fast and hard and be part of that boy’s club. Julie Krone was my idol. When I was 12 we looked up “jockey camp” which was in California. Unfortunately the camp was too expensive for my parents to manage so the idea quickly turned to dust. When I was 14 I decided I wanted a pony farm. I wanted to breed Welsh ponies and have high-quality, gorgeous ponies – I can still see the acres of paddocks with white fencing in my mind. By the time I was 16 I was more practical. I was going to be an accountant. I loved math and numbers and took accountancy as a high school elective. The teacher was excellent and she had a full class of would-be accountants at the end of the school year.
Fresh into college I was absolutely sure that accountancy was my path. In my sophomore year I took basic accountant classes and sailed through. First semester of my junior year saw the “theory” of accounting melt my brain and give me panic attacks. I didn’t get it. None of it made sense. I started struggling with my grades, and with my destiny. Being ever-practical, late into that semester I changed track and dived into business management with gusto. Ahhh, this was easy. It all came naturally to me and I could easily bullshit my way through essays at the last minute. I began to get all A’s again.
I graduated in December of 1997 with a degree in Management, a Bachelor of Business Administration. Securing a job was easy. I had been working in a Continuing Medical Education (CME) office at a hospital in Bryan. Continuing on that career trajectory, I was employed by the University of Texas-Houston Health Science Center as an Event Planner in the CME office. For three years I worked in Houston. Hating it, I soon decided to move to Dallas, to be closer to my parents. Again, with career goals in mind, I took a job as an Event Planner with Physician’s Education Resource. For a year I flew back and forth to Hawaii, to Canada, to New York, to Santa Fe and more.
The good Doctor who owned that company was a real tool. 9/11 happened. On a Tuesday morning. I was meant to fly to Orlando on Friday. Not ONE HOUR after the twin towers fell he called all 30ish of his employees to the conference room. After some spiel of fake concern (he was not from America, I will tell you), he looked around the room and said “life must go on.” Maybe true, but not in that moment! He locked eyes with me and said “you’ll still go to Orlando on Friday.” It wasn’t a question. I responded with “I doubt the planes will be flying, and I am not going anywhere.” I had already put in my resignation and Orlando was going to be my last hurrah. I left that day and didn’t look back.
(The planes were not flying by Friday, and nobody went to Orlando).
I had said an immediate YES to a the owner of the barn where my horse was stabled when she asked if I wanted to teach lessons and manage the barn. My mother was concerned. I told her I had been handed a dream on a silver platter and I wasn’t going to turn it down.
And that’s where my life changed forever. I left the glittery world of traveling and catering to physicians behind (and the income) and fell headlong back into the world of horses.
It wasn’t easy. I lost thirty pounds in a matter of months from spending 10+ hours at the barn each day. Cleaning thirty stalls did me in. Then they’d immediately not be clean again. It did not sit well with my OCD heart. I’d try to make sure they were all perfect as often as I could but there were too many other things to capture my attention. Taking care of the horses, teaching lessons, holding for the vet or farrier, cleaning tack, managing parents and owners, amiss a variety of other chores. The barn was owned by three ladies, one of which was meant to be my friend. But I remember one day I was sitting on a bench, taking a break and eating an apple. She came by me and I remember almost panicking because I was not working. She was a hard-ass and wanted everything to be in her control at all times. She was not fun to work for. I swear she did not know how to have real friends. I tried hard, but by the time she sold out and moved away, I was relieved.
The money wasn’t great. I started out with more than I left with. The other two ladies who owned the barn kept changing the details of our agreement until I left because I was not making enough money to stay. I had completely changed the atmosphere and energy of that barn in the six years I was there. It was a thriving hunter jumper barn with mostly good lesson horses and a huge student base. Even as the Head Instructor, managing the lesson program, going to horseshows and teaching nonstop, I was not being compensated fairly in my opinion. In one sense they were a GREAT six years. I had awesome kids and parents and a super fun “show team.” I have extremely fond memories of those horseshows and banquets. Those parents and kids will always be in my heart.
In 2007 I was offered the opportunity to come to Aubrey. To start my own business. I had long decided this was my new dream. I did not want to breed ponies, but I wanted to OWN them. And so Abingdon Park & Pony Farm was born.
To be continued…
