I grew up in northern Maine, almost in Canada. Our town was so small it still had a one room schoolhouse complete with eight grades, an outhouse and one teacher who taught all subjects with excellence. About half of the students there spoke only French when they came to first grade.
There I met my French speaking best friend whose father had a team of horses 'Chub' a Clydesdale look alike and 'Tom' probably a Percheron. I often spent the night at her house and we would get up early and go to the woods with the men and team. When the horses had done their days work, we got boosted up onto the harness and were allowed to ride them home which was about seven miles. We always tried to get them to canter and sometimes would fall off. They always stopped and allowed us to either climb up using the harness or mount from a rock or stump. Somehow we managed to live through all that and hence began my love for draft horses.
Finally after many years of begging, my father brought home a retired Standardbred. I rode almost every day, summer, winter, twenty degrees below zero on all kinds of footing.
Eventually I started taking lessons and did a little ‘very low level’ eventing. My husband, David, and I moved to our farm in Troy, Maine in 1983. There are miles of discontinued roads accessible right from the barn and I take advantage of them often. As our four children moved from horses to other interests I found myself with no one to play with so I started driving a half Arab who had been trained to drive. Driving became one of my most favorite pastimes and I decided to buy a carriage and offer rides for weddings and other occasions. I soon learned that the demand was for vehicles which could transport a number of people. I found two older Percherons with forgiving hearts and my husband built a wagon and off we went picking the brains of any teamster we met. In 2009 I accepted a job at Acadia National Park driving a team doing tours on the parks famous and beautiful carriage roads. That was a once in a lifetime experience but very hard work.
Today I ride an Arab/Saddlebred cross named Pennys from Heaven. She is a great trail horse but doesn’t like ringwork. I have three gray Percheron mares, a black and white Shetland pony (I plan to downsize) and two aged half Arab geldings.

Board Member At Large : Joanne McAlpin
BOWIE, MD

This position will be up for re-election in Jan. 2025

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