It All Started with a Groupon
Black Horse Farm at Sunset
How Black Horse Farm started with a Groupon
This is probably one of my favorite stories to tell so this might be a longer post than normal.
I was always a horse-crazy little girl. Every birthday, all I wanted was to go on a trail ride. My dad would take me to a local ranch where he and I would saddle up to celebrate my birthday. Growing up on Maui we had some beautiful rides through the mountains and when we moved back to WA we would go to Sultan or Lake Wenatchee for our annual trail outing. I wanted nothing more than to have a horse. My parents never discouraged me by telling me no. Rather, they always said, “When you can afford one”. So, I had a metal box that I decoupaged with lots of horse images that I put my allowance in and it was my horse savings. A family friend also gifted me a saddle that I kept under my bed as I dreamt of my future horse.
One of my trail rides with dad in Hawaii
Fast forward many birthday trail rides to 2008 and I found a Groupon for 10 riding lessons at a stable in Clearview. I snapped up the Groupon and scheduled my first lesson. The first lesson was all about grooming and tacking up a horse (putting on the saddle and bridle etc) and there was no riding for this first lesson. I came home and told John-Paul how dirty horses were and how much work was involved with getting a horse ready to even ride. He chuckled at me and told me he didn’t think I would even finish my 10 lessons as I “Didn’t like anything that was that difficult”.
Well, I proved him wrong! I savored my first 10 lessons soaking in every tidbit of knowledge I could glean from my instructor and the barn owner as well as the other wonderful people at the barn that boarded their horses there or took regular lessons. After those 10 lessons, I ended up leasing a horse, who I purchased about 3 months later. This horse is my wonderful Quarter Horse mare Sis who is now 28 and living out her retirement life on the farm taking care of all the minis and setting a high bar for everything a first horse should be. As a 30-something-year-old horse-crazy girl, I could not have dreamed of a better first horse or barn experience. Some of my dearest friends to this day are friends I met at Graystone Stable as part of that Groupon. I learned so much and enjoyed so many fun experiences from schooling shows, to Halloween parties, to “ladies’ night” drill team practices, clinics, and so much more.
After purchasing Sis, I decided my dream of owning a Friesian was ready to become reality and I purchased Galahad as a yearling from Alberta, Canada, and had him shipped to the boarding facility to join Sis. Sis and I participated in schooling shows, took weekly dressage lessons and built an amazing bond while Galahad and I did in-hand groundwork and desensitizing work until he was old enough to be started under saddle.
I learned so much from my trainers and barn friends and eventually added a 2nd Friesian as John-Paul needed his own horse too. Heidi joined Sis and Galahad and now we had 3 horses boarded. The cost of boarding is not inconsequential and when you have 3 horses it adds up quickly. I convinced John-Paul that with the cost of board, we could add that to our mortgage and have a farm of our own and bring the horses home to our own property.
We were able to purchase our first farm in Bellevue at Bridle Trails and have never looked back. Having the horses at home has been a dream come true. The work of having your horses at home has been totally worth the trade-off of the quality time I can share with my equines and being able to offer consistent care in exactly the way I choose.
We were able to purchase a much larger farm in Woodinville in 2020 which has allowed me to add more horses as well as mini-Scottish highland cows, geese, and chickens. Black Horse Farm is my own little slice of heaven and it all started with a Groupon.
