"I've discovered we're never too old or too young to share the pleasure of riding."

~ Catherine Buckland Orth

 

 

 

My Dear Visitor,

You love horses but perhaps it's been a while since you've ridden. Maybe ten years. Maybe twenty. How about thirty?

That was me a few years ago - nurturing an almost forgotten love, a forgotten passion, a forgotten skill. A buried treasure.

As a child, horses had been my everything. Among my earliest words, tape recorded by my father in the early 50s, were, "I love horses."

But as a busy adult, horses had long been wistfully retired to the back of my mind. I wanted to go back to them, re-experience them, but felt I couldn't.

Six years ago this summer, I walked into a jewelry store in a town near here. The owner was a woman in her forties and I overheard her saying that she had recently bought a horse. She'd been determined, she said, to own a horse by the time she was forty. An intense mixture of emotions - anger, regret, indignation - swept through me. A moment later, I shot through those feelings into a region of blue sky and sunshine as I realized that this woman - a stranger - was my link back to horses. In less than a minute, she'd given me the name of a local stable. I left the jewelry store, drove home and booked a lesson for the next day.

A year later, I bought my first horse: Cygnus, a beautiful, large-framed chestnut gelding. I have continued my riding lessons in earnest and am now a Certified Horsemanship Association instructor.

But I couldn't stop at that. I wanted to make horses easily and safely and comfortably available to people who felt as I did. If I'd become disconnected from the pleasure and excitement of riding and horses, if I could be so instantly reconnected after thirty years, others could too.

A friend leased me a fine old farm near Lansdowne, complete with barn and stables. Over time, I acquired nine wonderful horses and tack for them all. My husband, Jim, who grew up on the plains of North Dakota, has joined me in our venture.

Whether you hope to recapture a lost interest in horses or pursue a present love, you're welcome at our farm. Whether you're a little tot, a kid, a teenager, an adult or a senior, come ride with us!

Is your ambition simply to learn to groom horses or perhaps just to be around them safely? Lessons can be as simple as that, or I can take you right through to your first jump. Whether you're an experienced rider or have never been on a horse, I extend my warmest welcome to you to join us. From Another Time is here waiting for you.


Yours truly,

Catherine Buckland Orth

---