“Being raised with horses, I grew to realize their love, their majesty and their stubborn behavior. But, I learned most what a horse can bring to a child’s small world.”

I have grown up with horses all of my life but did not have the normal experience of owning my own horse from a young age.

Rather, I went to my grandparents house in Michigan as much as possible to learn about horses through grooming and caring for their racing Standarbreds. I loved going to the track and watching my grandpa race every summer. We would take at least four horses and travel to Travers City and Ludington for two weeks. I learned a lot about life and patience when it came to controlling twelve hundred pound animals.

When I was about ten years old, I convinced my mom to let me take English riding lessons. I took lessons for about two years and went to a few local shows. Of course, as the story goes, I was paired with the most beautiful Palomino mare that had the biggest attitude problem of all the horses in the barn. I guess I have always had an eye for aggressive horses because I was the only child allowed to walk into her stall by myself. Sandy would charge the door of her stall when people walked by and turn to kick when you opened the door. She definitely had an interesting personality. If you were able to get her out of the stall, she was amazing and gave you 110 percent every time you asked her.

When I was about sixteen, I bought my very first horse. His name was Maxwell Muffin and was a young OTB. I bought him with my own money when a track in Michigan was closing down. I was told that he was only lame and like a naive teenager, I trusted the people who sold him to me. I only owned him for about a year and after numerous vet bills and different medication and x-rays, it was determined that he was raced extensively with deteriorating cartilage in his front knee. He was given a 15 percent chance of being a comfortable pasture horse with medication. As a sixteen year old child, I was way over my head and did not know what to do. I regret it to this day, but I decided to put him down and swore never to come back to horses.

Fast forward a few years and out of high school, I was twenty years old and just found out that I was pregnant. I did not know that my son had Down Syndrome until he was born, all of the normal tests that are done during pregnancy were negative for any sort of abnormalities. I was asked and even suggested by doctors that because of my age, I should give up my son for adoption. I did a lot of crying, being angry and wondering “why” as I suspect a lot of new mothers do when they learn that their child has special needs. After my son stopped breathing at home, open heart surgery, medication to keep his heart pumping, multiple ear tubes, RSV, Phenomena and Bronchitis every year and genetic counseling, my son has been my best teacher. He is an amazing little boy who faces every thing in life with a smile. He knows exactly what he needs to do at the doctors office and never cries when they prick him. We as a society could learn a lot from these kids.

In 2007, I was working in a nice comfy cubicle making good money and was working towards a Masters Degree in Human Resource Development. I was happy with the money, but working so much that I never saw my son. I have lost jobs in the past due to my son getting sick so often and saw it happening again. In the winter of 2007, my son became very ill, I rushed him to the emergency room with a 104.7 temperature and it turned out that he had pneumonia. He was in an oxygen tent and on an air tube for a full week. My nice comfy cubicle job told me more or less to choose between my son or my career… gee, I wonder which I chose.

I decided to quite my full time desk job to be with my son and to work on my dream of running a Therapeutic Riding Center. I am a big believer in changing your path if you are not happy with your life and the fact that you are never to old to be happy.