2009-2019 Decade in Review

If you had told me where I would be right now going into 2020, I would have laughed you out of town.  That's pretty fair I think as earlier today I sat on a semi retired 4* horse, pregnant with kiddo #2 watching kiddo #1 canter around on her own pony.  

The whole of it all is mind-blowing. 

Waaaaay back in December 2009, David and I were both just graduating with degrees from the University of Florida.  Our wedding was planned for June 2010 and we both had fledgling careers in our respective fields lined up and ready to go. 

Thanks to my undergraduate advisor, for whom I am forever grateful, I canned my thoughts about a masters degree and decided to get on with life and follow my "dreams".

Work started, David and I married in June and together, we jumped off the deep end of life.

By the end of 2011, my job as a marketing manager was winding down and I was gearing up to start my own business.  Enter Copperfield Farm LLC.  

We started Copperfield with the vision of all things horses and went forward full throttle from there.  I was actively competing and training over a dozen client and personal horses, loving every minute.  Teaching also took up a good bit of my time.  It was amazing!!  

April 2013 kiddo #1 made her debut and life took another major shift. 

In our first three years of marriage, we "rented" a 1920's cracker house in need of upkeep.  Let me tell you, it was less than glamorous - no central heat or AC (ugh!), quirky, ancient wiring and equally as aged plumbing.  It was barely a step above camping.  The glory of that, however, was multi fold - it enabled us to save, taught us a lot about each other (for better or worse, Haha!), taught us many valuable lessons about property ownership and tested our ingenuity.  

In any case, with a kiddo on the way, we needed a safer house which brought us to our current farm.  Oh and by the way, we bought it out of a foreclosure situation and aside from the house, the rest of the place hadn't been touched in ages!!!  Yehaw.

So, there I was, 7 months pregnant, mowing, hacking weeds, bleaching and digging out a filthy barn and tearing out random bug and vermin infested small structures.  It was awesome.  Thankfully, the house was more or less turn-key.  Whew. 

Eldest Kiddo arrived and within two weeks, we had our first boarder join us at the farm.  Sometimes I wonder why those first daring clients put their faith in my humble barn, but they did and it was the beginning of a great business that I grew for the next five and a half years.  

Part of the value in our new farm was the fact we were also able to enter into a five year lease with an adjacent property.  In 2018, that lease expired and caused yet another shift that required us to step away from the boarding and training business altogether. 

To be completely honest, it was and is a good change as I needed to recalibrate.  One of the biggest learning curves to owning your own operation is how much time and flat physical labor it really takes.  Burn out?  It's real.  Profit margin?  Pretty much non existent in the horse business.  It may look glamorous, but the reality is rather different when you are in charge.  

So, now as we enter into 2020, I have a bare minimum of clients, and the chance to refocus on why I ride and keep horses in the first place.  The "career" aspect is venturing off in another direction almost entirely.  

The plan for the next ten years is to play an active role in educating (homeschooling!?) my own two children, staying focused on my riding and the interests of the kiddos, and developing a working life with my husband around those broad spectrum goals.  

Easy peasy.  :)