Article published in the News and Observer, Summer 2006.

"Still Horsin' Around"

BY DAVID KENNEDY

dkennedy@nsb-observer.com dkennedy@nsb-observer.com

Many New Smyrna Beach residents knew JoAnn Farrell by where she lived.  People along Pioneer Trail knew her by a landmark on her property, a big yellow barn. She moved to Astor in January 2003 and built a new training farm on two and a half acres of land in 2004. The self-described “Mayberry girl” loved living in New Smyrna Beach, but has established herself in Astor as a horse trainer, combining her love of people and horses into a profession.

Farrell started riding horses when she was four years old, her father, Jack Farrell said. And did she take to horses right away?  “She sure did,” Jack Farrell said with a chuckle.  Her father gave JoAnn a Connemara pony, a breed from Ireland, when she was a young child. It was her first horse, but Jack told his daughter she couldn’t jump the pony because it was too old.

Later that day, the blacksmith who worked for Jack on the farm told him something surprising.

“You’ll never believe it. JoAnn’s out there with sawhorses up and she’s jumping the pony,” the blacksmith told Farrell.  JoAnn has been like that her whole life, her father said, always wanting to ride horses and train them.

Having a pony as a young girl and working on a farm with horses all day may be a dream job for many people, and it is for Farrell, but running a horse farm, giving lessons and training horses requires much more work than most people realize.  “It’s like any job. It’s a job,” Farrell said from her farm in Astor.

Her alarm sounds at 5:30 a.m. every morning. By 7 a.m. she’s out in the barn doing morning chores such as feeding the horses and cleaning their stalls. She spends the majority of her day where she loves to be, in a saddle riding horses. She tries to ride 10 horses a day, running them through drills and techniques. She also offers lessons during that time. The evening hours find her feeding and bathing the horses. She checks on the horses one last time around 10 p.m., making sure they are tucked in for the night.

Managing her two-acre, 17-stall has turned into a “24/7” job leaving no time for a vacation, Farrell said.

“It really is. That’s where most people can’t hack it,” Jack Farrell said about managing a farm.

However, horses come with the Farrell family. Her father and brother own separate horse farms in Mississippi and Connecticut. It’s difficult for Jack Farrell to pinpoint why his daughter likes horses so much, but he knows things change for some people once they get around the animal.  “It’s really hard to say,” he said. “Once you’ve had horses, it’s different.”  It has proven different for JoAnn, but she knows exactly why she likes what she does.  “There’s pride in seeing someone grow and become a horse person,” she said.

She helps people become horse lovers every day, explaining how to prepare their horses for shows and how to ride and care for them. It takes more than a few lessons to learn how to truly ride a horse, she said, and horses, like people, learn at different speeds. Finding the perfect stride count between obstacles and jumping over four rails may take one horse three months while it takes another horse six months.

When selling horses, JoAnn Farrell tries to match a horse with a person. Some prospective buyers just want to walk in and pick a horse, but it’s more complex than that, Farrell said. She looks at both the horses and riders’ skills and personality before making any recommendations.  “If it’s not a good match it will turn around and haunt you,” she said.

Despite the long hours and hard work, Farrell loves what she does because of how she does it.

“It’s only self-rewarding with what you put into it,” she said.  Her barn in Astor is a sandy brown color with shades of pink in it. The color may have changed, but her love of people and horses haven’t.

For more information on JoAnn Farrell Quarter Horses, visit www.JoAnnFarrell.com or call

(386) 314-1030.