 I
can’t remember a time in my life when horses didn’t come
before all else. When I was in elementary school, everybody
would be going to the movies on a Saturday afternoon and I
wanted to be with the horses. My life hasn’t slowed down one
bit since then, and in fact it seems to get busier by the
day because of these creatures but I have to say that I love
every second.
I started
riding at age 10, following 2 years of relentlessly
pestering my parents until, just to make me stop asking,
they arranged to buy me my first horse. He was a
Half-Arabian gelding, he was pretty broke and put up
with a lot of mistakes. He was a great learning
experience.
From that horse, we found the sweetest part-Morgan,
pinto mare in the world and built a small barn on my
parents property. Okay, Dad you used to have 4 acres of
lawn and now you have 2. Sweet as she was, she was
virtually untrained. I had gotten a mild case of the
“horseshow bug” which I might say there is no cure. If I
wanted to show, I had a horse in my yard - the
experimentation began. The horse was an absolute saint.
We enjoyed a very successful show career for a number of
years on a local and 4-H level. When I became too tall
for her, out came the cart and through my training
techniques, we became quite a team showing in harness as
well as undersaddle. Needing a way to finance my show
career, I became a groom at a well-known local hunter
farm. I will never forget scrubbing 25+ water buckets,
outside, in the freezing rain/snow for $2.00 an hour. I
also learned a great deal about the world of hunters and
jumpers.
From there, I made the move that has undoubtedly
directed the rest of my horse life more than any other -
I began a job as a groom for an Arabian Farm. When I
arrived, the farm was a busy breeding establishment and
I was allowed to halter break the foals, teaching them
to lead, tie, etc. When my chores were finished, I was
allowed to ride a variety of the farm’s retired show
horses, all of which were highly decorated in their day.
Peggy Harris’s “Hidden Springs Farm” was home of some of
the very best Arabians in the country in its heyday,
producing horses like the National Futurity Champion Sey
Cherie++ and the celebrated stallions Sey Raseyr, Sey
Aaladin++, Sey Magnifique++ and Tornado Talisman+/.
Multi-Champion Park mare Mocha-T++ was at the farm,
having one beautiful baby after another.Eventually, my
work there expanded and I was allowed to start a few
horses under saddle. These were mostly horses that had
been bred and born on the farm, so I had done their
initial halter training. When I graduated from high
school and was faced with going away to college, I was
riding a PB Western Pleasure Junior Horse, who Peggy
Harris wanted to compete at one more show that season.
We arranged for the horse to go to Wendi Snook, who I
had known and admired for years. That horse opened a
doorway that has without a doubt been the most
influential move of my horse-life to date. Our
involvement led me going to work for Wendi and I cannot
imagine a better place to better your skills around
horses than that.
During the college semesters, I was the captain of the
Varsity Equestrian Team at Alfred University, where I
enjoyed competing in hunt seat equitation, over fences
and on the flat, all over the Northeast. Upon
graduation, I decided that I wanted to pursue the horse
life instead of the 9-5 job. I continued to work and
show for Hidden Springs Farm and for Snook Training
Stable. I eventually took in outside training horses at
Hidden Springs and through a snowball effect grew a
pretty large lesson program. Two years after graduating
from college, I entered Corporate America but also
continued showing with both stables.
I eventually bought my own horse to show on the National
Level. As I started to make plans to take a shot at a US
National Title, I scaled down my outside training horses
to concentrate on him. He has recently been sold to a
farm in Delaware after gaining US National Top Ten
Honors this summer at the Youth Nationals in Oklahoma.
Now, I am in search of another special show horse.
I continue to teach a variety of lessons and enjoy the
different challenges each student brings into the arena.
You have to be part counselor, part comedian and part
horse trainer to teach a lesson program and have
everyone enjoy it while your learning a little something
yourself. My most recent addition to my horse career is
“horse show judging”. I hope to continue to pursue that
avenue more extensively and eventually get my card to
judge the rated shows. You never know from one day to
the next where it is going to take you, who you will
meet next or what you will be doing six months from
now…………..
DAN WEEKS
Baldwinsville, New York
Phone: (315) 635-3966
Email:
DLWArabian@aol.com
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