A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. Mine began with a neigh. I’m blessed to have a loving wife and two wonderful daughters – Lauren (16) and Kristen (14), high school junior and freshman, respectively.
In less than 2 years, our oldest will be entering college, and we have embarked on that wondrous journey of searching for her college home. Our journey will be a bit more complicated, as she suffers from equimania.
From an early age, Lauren has been in love (some would call it an addiction) with horses. Her toys were always horses. While others played with Barbie dolls, Lauren was building fences out of Lincoln Logs and jumping toy horses over them.
At the age of 5, she begged for riding lessons. At age 6, her strong will continued. Finally, I picked up the phone and called the biggest ad in the Yellow Pages under “equestrian.”
“Of course we take young riders” said the voice on the other end of the line. She was hooked. Ten years and several horses later, she’s still in love.
Ben – short for Christopher Robin – is Lauren’s senior competition mount. A fierce competitor with the heart of a gentle giant, he’s taken good care of her.
Lauren’s sport is eventing. If you’ve watched some of the Summer Olympics, you may have seen it. Eventing is high-octane, combining exact sequences of movements, cross country obstacle courses and show jumping.
Tigger – a.k.a. Eye of the Tiger – is Lauren’s youngster. With a “bouncy spring” in his stride and with lips that can pick your pockets, he’s got quite the personality.
This brings us to one of our biggest dilemmas. While most parents are packing the mini-van as junior heads off to college, we’ll be packing a little more than the typical freshman – about 2,400 pounds worth. Yes, she’s taking the horses.
So, our college voyage has started! Join Lauren, Ben, Tigger and the rest of the gang as we ride into the sunset and see where our journey takes us. Let’s see how much my background in financial planning helps!
Stay tuned, because my next post will be about how our planning has helped us get to this point.
Great story, Joe! I look forward to seeing where your daughter & her horses take you!