Susan Estes
Hi, my name is Susan Estes and I am honored to be elected as your Director of Education and Promotion. I would love to hear your ideas on how we can promote our club and I am especially interested in learning more about the types of seminars and events that would be of interest to you. Please feel free to email me your ideas. If you do not have access to email, I can be reached at (540) 439-2790.
I grew up in the northern Virginia suburbs with a passion for horses, playing with Breyer model horses while my girlfriends played with Barbies. I was lucky enough to have my first pony at the age of 10. Yes, believe it or not, there were still horse farms in Northern Virginia back in those days. We used to ride where I-66 is now! I quickly outgrew her, and then purchased my second pony – a large pony a few years later. We did a lot of local showing in those days in the large pony hunter division. I trained with Mike Rowe. I was introduced to the Andalusian breed at a boarding stable where I kept my pony. There was a beautiful Andalusian stallion there whose barn name was Spinner. There were also a few mares out in the field.
Flash forward a few years (well, several years and three children later), and I finally had an opportunity to purchase a small farm of my own. It was a small piece of property located in the Virginia countryside, just outside of Warrenton. My pony, Libby came with me and we purchased an old mare to keep her company. We were lucky enough to find a larger farm a few years later (with his and her barns, I might add – hubby was very happy) and we jumped on it. Well, since I had a seven stall barn I just had to start filling it up with horses! Can’t have all that space going to waste, you know. I found a cute little Andalusian/Arab cross gelding and finally started realizing my dream. Well, you know how the saying goes, “Andalusians are like potato chips, you can’t just have one”. I started collecting (sound familiar to anyone?)!
We now have four P.R.E.’s and call our farm Estes Acres (borrowed from the old TV show, “Green Acres”). I still have old Libby too. She is grandma of the farm. Our goal is to raise Andalusians and Aztecas (Andalusians/QH crosses) with excellent temperaments. We have a Paint mare that is our foundation broodmare for our Azteca breeding program. We are expecting our first purebred Andalusian foal in late May 2007. We are also expecting our third Azteca in July 2007 (full sibling to Margarita Sunrise, 2006 ERAHC Half-Andalusian High Point Horse). I mostly trail ride with my Andalusians, but do attend the ERAHC show each year. I also enjoy starting the youngsters under saddle.
I am looking forward to getting to know everyone better in the upcoming year, and I hope to see some of you out on the trails or at the events we will be coordinating.
Happy Trails!
Susan
