In The Irons

Castlewood Farm, Inc. is primarily a show barn, but we are also a very active sales barn dealing with quality horse sales. I like this combination of both worlds because it keeps my life very interesting. Not only do I get to travel to most of the big horse shows, but I also get to  deal with some very quality horses that travel through our barn. As of this writing we have some pretty incredible horses living with us, owned by some amazing horse people.

I often receive horses after the winter show season because a lot of people are traveling north and don’t want to drag some of these horses with them all over the country.  Not because they are not solid, valuable horses, but more because I still have a solid buying audience even after WEF is over. Florida is becoming a very active place year round with many professional horse people calling Wellington home base, people are still shopping for mounts.

This does two things for me and my clients, the first being, that we often times get exclusive first shots at some fancy mounts, and the second is that my customers never know exactly what horses are at the barn on any given day.

“Who is that one,” is a very common question at our stable, “where did that one come from,” runs a close second. I like this because it keeps things fresh and exciting, it also reminds me that the next “great” horse in my life may show up the next day on my doorstep. It always pumps me up to try new horses, almost like I just got a new toy to play with, maybe this is why I really enjoy my job.

I never know when the next Grand Prix horse may show up at my barn, or the next great equitation horse may appear, or an amazing hunter may grace us with his precense.  My customers also benefit from this as well, because they may be the lucky one who might have a lesson on such a horse and get first “crack,” on his purchase. I can’t tell you how many times one of my students has fallen in love with a certain horse after a school and ended up buying that horse. I can also say that some of the horses that have come and gone have ended up doing some amazing things, and vice versa.

We have also had some duds that have  come to visit. Some may stop, or rear, or buck, or worse, limp. You never know exactly what you are going to get on any given day in this business, but you’ll never know until you try.  Like the funny cliche goes , “You have to kiss a lot of frogs before finding a prince or princess,” and horse professionals need to sit on a bunch of  regular horses before we find the champions. So we try and try and try, always wanting to give a horse a shot, because you never know what you may find.