Do you feel like you need a vacation from the daily grind? Would you like to have a life that fills your soul? That's what I'm building for myself.
When I was in high school, I had a few different directions that I wanted to go. I loved architecture. Psychology was interesting. The two extracurricular activities I loved were singing and my horses. Then my life took many twists and turns.
My dream was to become an architect, move to a city, and never look back. When I went to K-State in the architecture program it was an eye-opening experience. School had been easy for me, and I had never learned how to study. They also seemed to want me in the studio 27 hours a day. That major lasted about half a semester.
Susan meets Rain Bug as a foal.
I switched to vocal performance. Although I loved singing, I had no background in music theory so that was hard. I also had to learn to play piano. It seemed like they wanted me in the practice room for 27 hours a day. I wasn't ready to be that dedicated to anything.
In my third semester, I took a mixture of horse classes and music classes. Then I switched to animal science in my fourth semester. That one may have been the place for me had I not been in a bad relationship. When I had gone home for Christmas break, I had trouble not getting back on I-70 to go home when I exited. After Spring Break I didn't want to go back at all. It didn't help that I had gone to a horse breeding workshop at Colby Community College during Spring Break.
Then my boyfriend started sleeping with the girl next door about two weeks before finals. I drove home and told my parents I wasn't going back. They said that I needed to finish the semester and then I could move back.
Instead of moving back to my parents' house, I moved to a house on my grandparents' farm. It was about 45 miles from Oakley. Dad was converting his records to a computer system and his office help had gotten behind. After his office closed, I would input data to catch them up.
Susan and Reed Man pole bending at the Kansas State High School Rodeo
This was also the summer I met Mike. He was co-owner of a bar that was across the alley from Dad's office. I would go there after I was done for the evening. We started dating and I went to work with a horse trainer in Augusta, Kansas. He was an enthusiastic riding instructor, a so-so trainer, and a horrible businessman. It lasted two months. Mike proposed during that time, and I moved back to Oakley.
I became a farm wife who wanted to do more to help on the farm than take meals to the field. I think my in-laws were confused by me because I had been raised in town by a doctor. So, I went on to do my own thing.
When I was pregnant with our first child we moved back to my grandparents' farm because his hired man had been hurt and Mike and his dad had lost some of the land they rented. Grandpa died about two months after we got there. And we were only there for about one year because of difficulties with my family. This is also when I got some of the racing-bred Quarter Horses and started breeding them.
Mike's dad had sold the cattle, and we weren't in a great place to move back to Oakley. We did anyway. We had a second son and when he started Kindergarten, I went to Fort Hays State University to get my degree in communications. Then we had a third son. My parents and I had opened a design business and travel agency that we closed after my first three semesters back to school. Our help had quit and with me being gone three days a week it was hard for me to get anything done. After that, I did a year of teaching computer graphics at a technical school, worked for a local non-profit, and as the tourism director for the City of Oakley. All while doing some photography and design as a side hustle.
Mike feeding cows in March 2007.
Then I was Mike's caregiver, and everything changed. I started the Equine Gestalt Coaching Program which brought me back to my passion with horses and interest in psychology. After all those diversions I'm finally living my dream.
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Do you feel like you need a vacation from the daily grind? Would you like to have a life that fills your soul? That's what I'm building for myself.
When I was pregnant with our first child we moved back to my grandparents' farm because his hired man had been hurt and Mike and his dad had lost some of the land they rented. Grandpa died about two months after we got there. And we were only there for about one year because of difficulties with my family. This is also when I got some of the racing-bred Quarter Horses and started breeding them.
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