Spring is always a great season. The season where people get excited for better weather, to graduate university, start summer sports and much more. At MRS, it was all about spending money and taking risks. By April, I had three horses, one of which was out of commission. Sunny's job was just to eat for the following few months. Midnight was in training to be a great trail mount. Until Easter weekend, there was not much going on due to terrible weather. It literally rained through April and it was cold. Easter weekend, however was fabulous. At that point I had only done a handful of trail rides. One of these was my chiropractor and her kids. They had a blast. It was one of those experiences that happened at the beginning, so you always remember it.
On Easter Sunday, my friend Brittany and her husband Matthew came out for a trail ride. That was the first warm weekend we had all year and we most definitely had a great time. Mind you, I walk these trails on foot, so I was pretty beat after the hour. I was not used to the heat and at that point really didn't know if I could make it through this summer (lol).
May was a stressful month. At this point, I was feeding three-four horses and the only business I had was the lessons I was teaching. I had about 6-8 regulars at that point. It was a financially difficult month and I got extremely lucky with Cheyenne, being able to lease her. It took a fair amount of time to get insurances sorted as well as all the registration paper work. Within the first week of May, I was all ready to go. As a Grand Opening we did $5 Pony Rides. This event was advertised on Facebook for a few weeks prior. I guesstimated 20 kids or so. Holy, was I wrong. At 11am sharp, cars piled in the driveway one at a time. Midnight and I walked four hours non stop and we ended up having 50 kids. It was an amazing day! Just the kind of day one needs when they're not sure if what they're doing is even going to work. It really gave me something to work with. From there, June came around and the weather got better as well.
By the middle of June, I was mostly teaching and promoting the business. I had printed 2500 brochures which were delivered to restaurants, shops and visitor centers all around the province. At this point, my friend Kirsten who is one of my regulars, was amazing. She helped me advertise around town and she is now one of my biggest fans! I adore her and her daughter. They have been fantastic supporters.
June also became a very expensive month. The vet came to do shots and teeth. It seemed like all that was happening was spending money. By then, it really hit me, what kind of business this is. Basically it requires a ton of work, a ton of responsibility and a lot of overhead costs. Those three points summarize this entire operation. Taking care of six horses is almost worse than kids(they're a 12 hr/day job), but nothing could ever make me turn back now. There are things we sacrifice as humans and to me, I wouldn't trade the sweat and tears for anything. My siblings have also been fantastic helpers around the barn and I wouldn't be able to do it without them.
April, May and June were by far difficult. With any business, it takes a long time for the word to spread and for things to get moving. I was looking forward to the summer. Sunny had his first ride on May 16th, so in the middle of June I had four horses ready to work and that's all that I could have asked for at this point :)
I was excited for July and low and behold, I met some of the best people ever!
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