I often get told ‘you’re living the dream’ - but the truth is, I’m working it, every hour of every day. There is no such thing as a lie in, a weekend or a public holiday. But you won’t hear me complaining, I love the life I have carved out for myself even though it has definitely involved a huge amount of hard work and sacrifice (and continues to), it’s a far cry from the big corporate roles I held in Auckland accompanied by a big fat pay cheque and boy do I miss those - but not the soul selling required to achieve them!
So how does little miss corporate, mother of two, single biarch and owner of many Mi Piaci shoes end up on 25 acres in Taupo with 10-12 horses, 2 large dogs and a truck? In life we often reflect on what our true passions are and where we can make a difference. For me, it was natural health (diploma in Homeopathy and degree in Health Science (comp med)) and horses so at some point in my 40’s I started the GTFO (get the f*&^ out) plan where I looked at every aspect of my life and decided what I could, and couldn’t, live without. The SKY got cancelled, my daily take out coffee, a few different insurances and of course, the shoe purchases! The search for land began because the horses were definitely on the ‘can’t live without’ list. It’s really expensive to live and work in a city, if you like it, have at it but if you don’t it may be time for a review and it’s amazing how many things we call ‘essential’ that are most certainly not! Anyway, I ultimately gave up cafe culture for horse poop and -5 degree mornings and haven’t looked back. My idea of a holiday these days is when I only take two horses to a show jumping event - easiest three days I can give myself!
Are there days when I question my ability to do this? Absolutely. In fact, some days I downright question my sanity! Farming of any kind is not for the fainthearted, mother nature can be ruthless, but what a fantastic outlook I get to see every morning and what an amazing group of people around me that I get to call neighbours.
I now run a successful training/schooling facility, work with horses all day, every day and recently launched a supplement business. The supplement business has come about from years and years of studying both natural health and nutrition. Natural health is something that I’ve always been really passionate about but I didn’t realise just how much that passion aligned with the horse passion until recently. I tend to get a few difficult or unhappy (problem) horses sent to me and although I can make incredible in-roads with training, sometimes I need to go back to basics and fix the nutritional building blocks to ensure that the horse can actually take on the training. Somehow, between these two very similar, yet different, businesses I feel like I can make a difference to some horses (and people), and that is ultimately what I want to do.
Our lives, as they currently are, are a reflection of all the choices we have made up until this point. We make choices every day, many seemingly insignificant, but none of them are, each and every one of them leads us to this moment. Where do you see yourself a few years from now? What do you really want to do? Achieve? What kind of choices would you need to make in order to get there? What choice could you make right now that could positively change the trajectory that you’re currently on? Make it. Go on, I dare you ;)