My Dream

I am learning to dream big. Dreaming big, means creating a vision of what it is you want in your life. Monty Roberts tells a wonderful story in his book of his dream when he was in 5th grade and how the teacher gave him an 'F' because it wasn't realistic. His mother told him not to re-write the paper, because no one could dictate to him what his dreams should be.

So in the spirit of sharing, living my dream and pursuing my life passion, here is what I dream:

I want to have a place where people can come and learn about horses. From beginner to advanced, I want to facilitate the learning by offering clinics, programs and partnerships. For now, my learning center will be on the web, but one day, I hope it is here in Oregon too, where people can come and learn, hands-on, about horses.

I will not be the teacher, I will, instead, be head of the student body. I want to find trainers to come and facilitate the learning process, to help us humans have better/stronger/more meaningful relationships with our friends. I hope to teach lessons myself and maybe do clinics myself, but I will also be in those spaces to learn.

I want to be able to make horses available to those who cannot afford them, especially young kids who have a passion that should be fueled. And I want to provide homes for horses that no one wants and give them a purpose, by letting them be the teachers for the student body and maybe finding them homes with their best students.

In my dream, I don't run a boarding facility, I run a co-operative, where we all participate in the upkeep of the barn and the property. Where top-notch care is affordable and the quality of the people around me is more important than the quality of their checking accounts. In my dream we are friends, helping each other, always open to new ideas and always (I mean always) willing to learn.

My dream has a few odd and very specific parts. In my dream, the trucks are all run on ethanol flex fuel, so we are not contributing to global warming when we take our equine friends traveling. We have a community garden where we grow food for humans and carrots for the horses. We practice sustainable ranching practices, always giving back to our land what we take from it.

In my dream, the dogs have their own place to play with each other while we ride. The right ones are taught to work with the horses, but even those who are afraid have their own safe place to play with each other.

In my dream, safety is key and everyone wears a helmet.

In my dream, we build community. We give. Freely. Passionately. Selflessly. I know my dream will soon be a reality. And you are all welcome to join.