UNICORNS IN TRAINING

One of my dream that came true at 25!

This mare was one of my childhood dreams come true when, at the age of 25, I decided I was old enough to choose the crazy things I wanted to do with my money. It wasn’t the most reasonable decision given my financial situation at the time. It was one of those moments when I let my heart and my inner voice guide me toward a slightly crazy choice for my own happiness.

It was the first time I experienced the excitement of waiting for a foal—watching my mare on the cameras at night with my good friend Priscilla, and then finally being surprised one morning by a filly already standing and waiting for me, even though the mare hadn’t shown any signs of foaling during the night!

She was the first foal I raised from birth, and she definitely wasn’t the most docile when she was young. I had to learn and train myself in different ways to figure out how to handle that type of youngster. When the time came to start her under saddle, she was very cooperative and truly enthusiastic about learning the different exercises I introduced to her. She never did anything to try to throw me off and was very easy to train during the summer of her three-year-old year.

When she was between four and six years old, Félix and I had just bought the farm. With the stable construction project, my MBA studies, the farm work on top of my full-time job, I had less time to dedicate to her—and I could see it reflected in her attitude.

I restarted her training with the goal of doing a small jumping competition during the summer of her seven-year-old year. She was incredible and seemed to truly love jumping. At that point, I decided to breed her dam again, hoping for a slightly taller foal since I’m 5'10"!

That winter, I decided to board her at a stable with an indoor arena so I could train through the winter and be ready for the competition season the following summer in 2024. She allowed me to have so much fun all summer competing in the regional jumper shows, and we finished the season at the interregional finals in the 0.90 m jumper classes.

It was a surprise and an immense joy and source of pride to have qualified, because when we started the summer we weren’t even sure we would be able to do 0.75 m courses.

The following winter, I unfortunately broke my arm during the holidays, so we started the 2025 competition season at the same level where we had finished the previous year—which was already an achievement considering we had missed four months of training over the winter!

My little champion showed me how much she enjoys being on the show grounds, and she was incredible during my first participation at the Bromont International—another childhood dream of mine, as I had watched that competition so many times as a spectator when I was a teenager.

We won ribbons in every class except one (she had a rail that was completely my fault!) and finished two classes in first place! I was ecstatic. I even shed a tear when I found out while driving in my car, because I was heading back to work that afternoon after my classes were finished.

This fall, my beautiful girl unfortunately contracted Potomac Horse Fever and was hospitalized in intensive care at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine in Saint-Hyacinthe for 10 days. She received plasma transfusions, antibiotics, and fluid therapy, and I was very afraid of losing her.

She fought like the heart horse that she is and recovered quickly after her convalescence at home. After three months of rest, the veterinarian cleared her to return to training on February 4. She was so happy to be back to work—cooperative and even better than she was before getting sick.

She is now playing the role of schoolmaster for a teenager who started a half-lease in October before her hospitalization, and they make a wonderful team.

Since she has recovered so quickly, I’m hopeful that we’ll be able to train enough before the competition season and reach my goal of competing in the 1.0 m jumper classes at the Bromont International this summer. 🐎✨