Current mood:

creative

Business stuff and stuff
This first thing I'm going to say will only make sense to fellow Project Runway watchers.

I CANNOT STAND SANTINO!!! I want him gone. I don't care if he's interesting, conceptual, whatever. He's gotta go. Three times he's basically said "Screw you" to the judges, yet they keep tossing out people who have actually LISTENED to the challenges. Of course, the producers keep him around because he Makes Good TV. Stupid. Grrrrh. He doesn't. He Makes Me Want to Throw Something AT the TV. This last challenge? I'm glad Zulema won, her dress was pretty, but I can't believe the judges didn't like Emmett's! It was so gorgeous! Of course that might be because I like sparklies, but hey. It definitely should not have gotten eliminated over Santino's...whatever that thing was. Just my opinion.

On to more pressing matters.



So I've been thinking awhile about what sort of things I want to do in the future, and one of my biggest ideas came out of childhood experiences. When I was little, we lived in San Jose and I couldn't have a horse. So to pacify me my parents got me riding lessons at the local stable. Not enough. You got on the horse for an hour and then got off. Then they offered a horse camp where you were assigned a horse for a week, and you had to take care of it 24/7. Better. I liked that camp alot and that really stuck with me.

I went to a few other "horse camps" over the next years, but they were all more like general camp with the option to get on a horse for an hour. I went researching camps where you got your own horse for a week, and they seem to be surprisingly few and far between. There are alot of 'riding only' camps, but it doesn't seem like that same intensive experience is there.

Part of my business then would be a camp aimed at the prospective horse owning kid. The child who is always told what a tremendous responsibility having a horse entails but never really grasps at what that means. Parents could send their kids to this camp for one week or two as sort of a test. The kids are then, pretty much literally, given their own horse for as long as they're there.

They have to do everything, from cleaning the stall and brushing and tacking up to the riding and the cooling down. And it doesn't stop there. If it's their horse's turn for the farrier (horse shoer) or to see the vet, then they're responsible for being there with their horse (and of course a staff member would be there). If the horse needs medication, then it's up to the camper to make sure the horse gets said medication. I mean, granted, there will be some supervision here of course, but it'd be like a test run. Now, this camp, like I said, is aimed at the child unable to have a horse for some reason or another. But it could also encompass the child who might be about to get a horse, whose parents have begun the search. Flying blind in that situation is never good, so after a week or two at camp, she'd be able to pick out a horse that would be good for her and know how to take care of it. I think a good age limit for this camp would be say, 8-14? Strong enough to do most of the work with the attention span to keep it all in.

In addition to the duties of horse care there'd be teaching sessions on all sorts of things from different breeds to how to put together a bridle (Western and English), how to take care of and train foals, to any number of things. Of course it'd be hands on so it wouldn't be so like school, but educational all the same.

Now for those who have their own horses, or the more advanced riders there would also be things to do. Not that camp, but perhaps two-day clinics in any number of disciplines or maybe a more advanced camp that focuses more on the riding and less on the overall picture. Like for instance, a two week camp devoted to learning how to jump and navigate a course ending with a little show. Here is where I'd need to bring in people who know more about jumping than myself. I'm not talking about like, Olympic level oxers here, but just maybe a small little 2' and under course. For that sort of camp participants would be allowed to bring in their own mount, or have a mount from the stable whose care they will be responsible for, just like in the horse care camp. And for the under 8 there'd be lessons and such.

That's part one of my idea. Part two involves where I'd get the horses for this endeavor. They'd be rescues, after a sense. What I like to call sane rescues. The horse the college student has to part with, maybe, or the first horse that is traded in for a better show model. Maybe (and this is how we got a few of ours in the past)Sparky just got too old for hardcore team penning or whatever. Of course, at 17 or 18 a horse still has so much to give. There are so many of these animals nowadays, so many reasons horses go astray. Horses that can be trusted with kids, who maybe haven't gotten the most one on one attention recently but love it. They could be donated to the farm for our use where they'd get the best of care year round. But I also know that sometimes those horses that need some rehab can make wonderful mounts too. We'd accept donations, and perhaps go looking for horses to rescue but we'd have to have a limit (you'd be surprised how many are out there). I had an idea that part of the farm could be a haven for horses needing to recoup, maybe from an injury or some such. Depending on the size of the farm there might be space for horses who would never be good for any sort of work again for one reason or another. But it's surprising how many of those Animal Cops-bound bags of ribs just need some feeding up to be good as new again.

So obviously this part of the business would have me needing some help. Well, all of it would of course. But I might need to have either a very small amount of paid staff (maybe one or two) or a network of people willing to help at first just to help. I entertained visions of getting big enough to attract volunteers, of course, but at the start we have to be practical. Of course at that start out, I might have to rely on people helping out from the goodness of their hearts, as taking care of horses is very expensive. The rule is start out small, don't take on too much. Set some limits. I myself can fully take care of six horses day and night without assistance. Beyond that, I will definitely need help. In the beginning, contacts and connections would be key. Finding a good vet, a good farrier, perhaps somewhere that might donate hay and feed to the cause. If I made the entire operation a non-profit, getting income from camps, lessons and clinics, I would most definitely need help. The horsey connections I've made over the years'd perhaps pay off.

Another consideration for this is where to base it. Someplace that doesn't have insane climate changes so that there can concievably be outdoor activities in winter as well as in summer. California is nice but expensive to get land in. And if it were someplace that snowed or rained devastatingly, provisions would have to be made, like a covered arena, all-weather footing, lots of concrete and stone walkways (or covered pens) and such. Of course, I plan on a covered arena eventually anyway because they rock. But I have grown to like the whole "horses turned out day and night" thing, and I know that some horses would rather be out all the time anyway. It's another consideration at any rate.

So yes, written out it sounds highly ambitious, but actually if I went about it right and with the right help, I think I could make it work. It would definitely have to start small and build as I went, but that's a given. So it'd sort of be a rescue/stable, really, that helped kids and helped horses. It won't happen for some time, but it's in my head and someday it may happen. I'm starting to like the idea more and more as I go along. Of course, it won't be the only pie I'll stick a finger in (wow that sounded weird) but it'll be the biggest.


So that's a rough sketch of my ideas, at any rate. If anyone has stuff to add or anything, go ahead. It helps me think it out.