Schuyler called many places “home.” He started his life in 1987 on my childhood farm in Durham – Shamrock Farm. He was born in our small shedrow barn on a dirt floor. As he grew, he frolicked through our pastures and escaped many times. He could always tell when the hotwire wasn’t working and would sneakily get out of his enclosure. There were tons of trails back then, and he and I wandered through all of them. I also taught him to drive on this farm. I remember a specific instance when my dad was cutting branches from trees in the back pasture, and my brothers and I were tasked with the job of dragging the branches all the way through the back pasture and middle pasture, up past the house, to where the burn pile was located. I had the brilliant idea to use my newly trained driving pony! I harnessed him up, and we piled the branches all together and attached them to Schuyler’s harness. What would have taken the three of us multiple long trips dragging those heavy branches up to the burn pile, only took my strong pony two trips!
As I became a teenager and the circumstances of my life changed, I had to move to a new home in Raleigh, but Schuyler stayed on Shamrock Farm. He stayed there as I graduated from high school and went to college at NC State. When I garnered one of my first real jobs on a horse farm, I was allowed to bring my two horses with me. So, Schuyler (and Marti) went to live on Pleasure Horse Farm for a time. It was mainly a Saddlebred farm, but they also had a few Morgans and Arabians. My two ponies were a little out of place! This farm only taught Saddleseat riding, but the basics of riding are the same, so I figured it out pretty quickly. I found out that the “Academy” classes at Saddleseat shows were primarily for lesson kids and lesson horses, so any breed of horse could be used for those classes. So, for a time, Schuyler did a few Saddleseat shows and even won his riders some ribbons!
I eventually left Pleasure Horse Farm to establish my own teaching business, and of course, Schuyler came with me. Castle Farm was born at a farm not far from where I grew up in Durham County. We leased a few stalls, and the owner allowed me to teach lessons there. Schuyler got to go back to being a hunter pony and got to jump again – one of his favorite things! We were only at that farm for about a year when we found this little property out in Knightdale, NC, and in the summer of 2000, we bought the current location of Castle Farm. Schuyler made the last move of his life to this farm, where he spent 22 of his 35 years.
