I have been around horses ever since I was a baby. My aunt owned two horses, a gorgeous Paint X gelding and a trouble-making Tennessee Walker gelding.

I remember watching one particular home video, where my Mom sat me up on my aunts everything bombproof and everything wonderful Paint gelding, Kauzee. I was up on him for while before my Mom went to pick me up and lift me off. Well, guess what? I didn’t want to get off the horse. I held on for dear life and shook my head to exasperate the fact that I was quite happy where I was.  Eventually her and my aunt had to bait me with the chickens running around. Not sure why that worked, but it did and they finally got me to unglue myself from Kauzee. 

And that is where it all started.

My mom and aunt brought me and my siblings down to see the horses a number of times. My brother was to ADD as a child to notice the 1,000 pound painted animal and my sister was still quite little. My aunt brought me down by myself once. She took her eyes off of me for literally five seconds and I was standing underneath Kauzee. Walking a straight line from between his front legs and coming out between his back legs. The entire time his pinto head was between his knees watching me.

When I got a little older, I started to take lessons with a friend of my aunts. The same lady my aunt had gotten her TWH gelding, Ebony, from. Time has flown by since I started riding and I can hardly recall when I began

I took lessons for over 12 years with her. Starting when I was around seven or eight I think. I learnt everything from tacking and basic horse care and feeding to riding dressage, jumping and everything in between. When I was in Grade 8-9 I volunteered for her once or twice a week and mucked stalls and fed the horses. In exchange, she gave me a free lesson a month and a lot of confidence and skills with horses. 

I must have ridden a dozen horses of hers over the years, one in particular I spent a lot of time with. His name is Sunny. She got him as a five-year old and I started riding him practically day one as one of his regular students. I rode that horse for 10 years! He taught me a lot of things. He may have been a lesson horse, but he sure had spunk! I rode Sunny up until about a year ago, when my instructor retired from horses and giving lessons (for the most part). She still owns her favourite boy and mine, Sunny. Oddly enough, my boss actually leases Sunny, which is how I got my job. Never thought I would have gotten a marketing co-op job through my riding instructor, but hey! 

After she retired, I wanted to find ways to get back into working with horses so I started looking around and that is when I came across J&M Acres Horse Rescue and the rest is pretty much history! I have the self-appointed title of 'coordinator' and I deal with all of the online outlets and social media as well as running this site and keeping people updated on the horses that have been adopted. 

On any given day, you can find me on Facebook, Twitter or YouTube (not to mention, e-mail) finding horses homes and posting new pictures, updates, stories and anything else fun and exciting. I also run a blog, The Mare Diaries, that I do daily posts on about the horses progress, potential homes, adoptions, etc.