McGraw SC hanging out in Nicole Tomlinson's pasture to breed a mare.
This morning I was out admiring McGraw's 2023 colt when I realized that it was this summer 31 years ago that I was first introduced to the Arabian horse. It was this year in September that for my birthday I spent four hours riding him through the 5 acres in Graham where he lived, to the point that my dad h ad to pull me off for cake and ice cream. I'm pretty sure after 4 hours of walking, he was ready for a break. I remember falling head first into flipping through what seemed like ALL the magazines possible about Arabians (the Arabian Horse Times, and Arabian Horse World magazines). I remember checking out any and all books on horses and reading them over and over again. It wasn't until two summers later that my dad bought two young horses. One a purebred gelding, and one a Paso-Fino Half-Arabian we named Rose, who would be given to my sister and I on Christmas Eve in 1994. By the time the next summer came, I'd created the biggest dreams every!
It wasn't until 20 years ago in the summer and fall that I purchased two Arabian fillies that were meant to be the start of a breeding program. Neither were registered come came with incomplete papers. I went into the horse industry with no mentors, and dove into the Arabian world with little to no advice. The first ten years of those twenty were brutal and I made plenty of mistakes with horses, trusting people and just the big pictures. I won't sit here and point the fingers saying they were all to blame because I know at a level I allowed them to do the things they did to me and run my name through the dirt. To be fair I believe this is the first time since my son was born and I attempted to "give it up" that I've even brought up those first rough years. Actually, funny thing, this month is the month I moved back to Buckley from the farm in Graham where I "officially gave up horses." Of course that's never the case when you're so passionate about something.
While I didn't openly talk about it, I still kept up with some of the Arabian horse information and continued window shopping for horses I was never going to afford during that time in my life. The need to breed and show something was still so strong that I switched to corn snakes (for the genetics) and rabbits while still hiding my general interest in the Arabian horse. During this time I continued to learn about bloodlines and farms, about their impact in the breed and the industry as a whole. As time went on, I found myself coming to terms with some of the poor decisions I'd made and decided that IF I ever decided to get involved again, I'd do it my way. It still took many years before I came across Eurespeciale's (Destiny) ad on Facebook going through the auction. I panicked seeing her in there and made the choice that if I could get her out of there I would. Unbeknownst to me, a friend of mine ended up buying her and bringing her home where the next year I was asked if I wanted her and of course I said yes. That was November 18th, 2018.
So as we head into the 5th anniversary of Guiding Light Arabians I'm really excited. I still stand in awe looking at the horses I have and the two foals that I've produced. Just where we are now is the start of the dreams I had as a child and the potential the program has to turn into something amazing is something that I had convinced myself at one point was out of my reach. Of all the things I've sat down today writing and planning though, there's one thing that stood out to me and one thing I'm really going to push for is mentoring. With proper, unbiased mentoring in the horse world I could've been further along in this process than I am now. Granted I'm a firm believer in all things happen for a reason and so I don't have to many regrets about the process but I want to make the vow today to be an open source of information for those that are looking for it. Information that I've gained over the years, and information that I continue to collect as my search for knowledge about Arabian horses is never complete. There's so many people who have an interest and get overwhelmed by the information on the internet and I want to help however I can.
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