Monday, September 1, 2008

What is SkyBar Farm?

Dreams are illustrations... from the book your soul is writing about you. ~Marsha Norman

SkyBar Farm was born of a little girls dream many, many moons ago. Okay, suffice to say I'm old. I was honored with my first horse when I was 8 years old.

From Blogger Pictures
His name was SkyHigh Mr. Borr.

Borr was a dream come true, not at first though. Borr was only 4 when he came to me, but he had had a very rough past. Needless to say we had a lot of issues to work through. Not something an 8 year old girl with no experience should really go through, but I was determined to save him and make an honest horse out of Borr. Where I grew up, there were no trainers, no mentors, not even a local stable. Everything I learned was through the school of hard knocks, as the local hospital can attest to. I devoured every book and magazine I could put my young hands on. My poor parents had no idea what they had started by giving in to my whines and pleas that I harassed them with for years. Borr, Glory and I tore up the countryside on a daily basis. I look back now and think it's amazing I didn't get killed or get poor Borr or Glory killed. Everything I learned during those years with Borr, have brought me to where I find myself now, the good, bad and all the stuff in-between. Without the School of Hard Knocks, I would not have searched out for a better way to understand how to improve my horsemanship skills. Over the years, I have made plenty of mistakes and I will make more, but what is different now is that through those mistakes, I will learn how to do things right. My horses are my teachers, my mentors.

Bar B Nite Trouble was my answer to not having to have my childhood best friend ride double with me anymore. She was a gorgeous bay Quarter Horse mare, who came to me when I was 11 years old with some hoof issues. I learned so much from Glory as well. On her back I grew wings. My childhood friend and I did the craziest things on those two horses. Borr and Glory defined me, they defined my childhood. They gave me freedom; they were sentinels for me when I was going through those horrible teenage growing pains. They were my confidants and best friends. The best way I knew to honor them was to name my future farm using their names. So "Sky" comes from the first part of Borr's registered name and "Bar" comes from the first part of Glory's registered name, hence the "SkyBar" and why the "B" is capitalized. So now you know how I came to use SkyBar as my farm name.

What is SkyBar Farm about? It is about making dreams come true and helping people achieve their goals. Over the years I have tried to bestow upon the people that come to me for guidance, the lessons I learned without the hospital visits, whether it is better riding skills, or how to learn to take care of their first horse or whatever we might find they need along the way. I strive to keep them safe first and foremost and to never forget to think of the horse first.

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