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After poking through posts and posts, I finally found Angela's story.

She and the girls are VERY active with Pony Club now and are still
head-over-heels in love with their horses and their lives! <g>

~Kelly

Kelly Lovejoy
Conference Coordinator
Live and Learn Unschooling Conference
http://www.LiveandLearnConference.org

-=-=-=-=-=-=-

unschooling horses...

Many of you may remember me posting about getting our first horse a
year and
a half ago after attending the Live and Learn Conference in MA and
participating in Barbara Sher's workshop. It seemed like such an
impossible
dream at the time but I was able to look at the reality of what stood
between us and our dream of horse ownership, then I was able to address
those issues and make it happen. It was the beginning of a wonderful
journey for us~ an incredible learning/loving experience.



I am not sure if I wrote about the purchase or our second horse last
summer,
but Leigh, my 11 yo dd, took ownership of Sugar, our first horse, and we
purchased a second horse for Lilly (8 at the time) named Snickers.
Unfortunately, over the next few months we came to the realization that
Snickers just wasn't going to work out. (she bucked and spooked and spun
and was just too much horse for Lilly once she got in shape) We ended up
putting her up for sale last fall.



In January, someone came to look at her. We explained the problems we
were
having with her. She asked us if we had found an appropriate mount for
Lilly
yet. We told her no we hadn't. She offered us a trade.our mare for her
older gelding. We went to meet Skippy and try him out and even though we
weren't positive that he would work out, we felt good about the trade
because he was at least a safe horse that we felt we could work with
and if
not, we knew we could sell him more easily because he didn't buck or
take
off on you, he was only a bit on the quick side and a little nervous.
And
we knew that Snickers was going to a good knowledgeable home where they
could handle her issues. It was almost too good to be true.



Anyway, Skippy is working out working out really well and we love him a
lot!
A couple months ago we tossed around the idea of building a small barn
and
riding arena at home and in the end we decided to do it. (it's always
scary
going further into debt but in this case, it's a win-win situation for
us.
Our barn loan payment will about equal our board payments and it'll
increase
the value of our property to boot.) I finally feel like I know enough
about
horses to care for them ourselves (it's amazing what hands on experience
will do for you) and I feel very comfortable with handling both of our
horses and their quirks.



The wonderful and latest news is that our barn is almost finished! Our
fencing is all up and in about a week our horses will be coming to live
at
home. Because we won't be working at the boarding barn anymore (we
shovel
stalls and water 16+- horses 7 days a week most weeks in exchange for
part
of our board) we will have a lot more time to enjoy our own horses.
We'll
be able to look out our windows and see our favorite furry friends at
any
time of the day or night. We'll have a lot more time to just enjoy them
and
hang out with them and we are really excited!



Our last name begins with an S and our horses' names both begin with an
S
and so we decided to name our farm "Big S Farm." Say that three times
fast!
LOL!



I made a blog to show some pictures of our new barn if you want to
check it
out. www.bigsfarm.blogspot.com <http://www.bigsfarm.blogspot.com/>