One of the hardest things for us about leaving NY was leaving our horses, especially Shawn, who we bought as a four year old, lived with for 16 years, and who taught us more about horses and horse sports than any single horse should be capable of doing. He got both of us started in eventing, took us on lots of great trail rides, and he and Tom were a very successful driving team. When we moved, we sold him to a friend who is involved in the Granger Homestead driving program, knowing he was going to a good home. Well, he’s doing even better than we could have expected, and we have to thank Geoff, his owner, Denett, our friend who runs the Granger driving program and keeps her horses at the barn where Shawn is boarded, as well as Dawn for working with him as part of Denett’s herd, Kim, who owns the barn where he lives, and probably a bunch of other people that I’m forgetting, including the supportive spouses of everyone mentioned above. Denett just emailed us this picture, which she photographed from the front page of the Geneva, NY, Sunday newspaper, of Shawn giving sleigh rides to students at Granger, with Geoff driving and his daughter Serica riding beside him. Tom and I now think that we were meant to move so Shawn could go where he belongs, since if he stayed with us we’d either still be working him competitively, probably too much for a 20+ year old horse, or we’d be ignoring him in favor of bringing Patrick along. Being owned by Geoff and living at Brock Acres with the rest of Denett’s herd, he’s still working, but not too hard, and he’s still being admired – which anyone who knows Shawn, knows means a lot to that horse!
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