History of Divine Equine

History... I have always loved horses. Ever since I could remember, I was always pointing out all of the horses that we would pass when we drove to my grandmother's house for the holidays. I knew where each horse lived on that route and couldn't wait to see each of them. My first ride was on a shetland pony owned by a family friend. She brought her pony over one summer day and I rode him while she led him around our lawn. My second ride was on an appaloosa owned by another family friend - he was a huge horse, at least I thought so at the time. I finally took my first riding lesson the summer of fourth grade, I was 9 years old. A hunter/jumper trainer had moved into my neighborhood that summer, so she graciously took me to work with her one day and I had a lesson on a pony. I did not stop smiling the rest of the day. At my next lesson, I graduated to a horse and took a few more lessons that summer.

I begged and begged and finally toward the end of fifth grade, my parents broke down and bought me a 14.2 hand freckled gray mare named Gracie for $200. When I got home from school, I could not wait to ride her that first day. It didn't bother me that she hadn't been ridden in probably years and I had no tack. I jumped on her without a saddle or bridle. She ran down the fence line and came to a screeching halt at the corner. I, of course, was not prepared and slid right off of her, but I was still smiling! That would not be the last time I fell off of that mare, in fact it was the first of many falls. In retrospect, that was the absolute wrong horse for me as a novice rider, but she was also the absolute right horse for me because she taught me so much. I adored her and it broke my heart when I sold her to move to California - even though she went to a great home with two little girls that were going to spoil the heck out of her.

All through junior high and high school, I took riding lessons and showed in a few schooling shows. When I was in seventh grade we bred my mare (that I was starting to outgrow) to a bay quarter horse stallion. The following year we had a beautiful chestnut colt - Sir Dancelot. I learned all I knew about training horses by watching my neighbor and trained him all on my own. I started with haltering and handling as a foal, leading, longing, ground driving and finally riding and jumping him. I never got the chance to show him because we did not own a horse trailer and there were no horse farms near my house. However, while I was in college, I was on the equestrian team and I did more showing there. Once I graduated from college, I took a break from horses for about 5 years. I started riding again at a local barn in Southern CA and have continued riding since. I didn't buy another horse until 2004.

It wasn't until I started looking for a horse, that I realized that I missed it so much. I must have answered every ad in my price range and looked at and test rode about 20 different horses before deciding on Bill. Bill is an Appendix QH off of the track. He was seasoned enough to give me back my confidence with just the right amount of OTTness still left in him to give me a challenge.

How it all started... In 2003, while schlepping my tack back and forth twice a day between trainers and stables where Bill lived, I asked my husband if he wanted to live in S. CA for the rest of our lives. Surprisingly, he said he'd be open to living somewhere else. So in the spring of 2004 we moved to North Carolina with Bill, two dogs and two cats in tow and purchased a 34 acre horse farm outside of Charlotte.

Training, training, training... I want to be able to give something back to these wonderful animals. The fact is that a lot of horses go to slaughter each year. I firmly believe that most of them end up there because they haven't had enough training to be deemed worthwhile in our throw away society; and if a horse has had a quality education (not unlike humans), the likelihood of going to slaughter is lessoned. Therefore, I decided that I want to make sure every horse I put on the ground or take in has a quality education. So, I take in horses here and there (whether it be fostering for NCERL or other rescues or buying "cheap" horses that "need work"), spend lots of time with them, give them an education and purpose in life and find them forever homes so that they don't end up on the wrong truck.

Mission Statement... Divine Equine Stables is a small private horse farm that will bestow each horse on the farm with an excellent education.

Vision...Divine Equine Stables is recognized by trainers and riders as a facility where they can find quality horses with the schooling necessary to move forward with their careers.

Values...Exemplary horsemanship. Quality education.