There is nothing so stable as change. ~ Bob Dylan
After 13 years of training, lessons, boarding, and events, we have closed Honey Brook Stables, our local business.
HorseClass will continue, but with the exception of one retreat in California, we are not scheduling events or private intensives for 2024.
Change can be difficult. There is often a letting go that needs to happen before new opportunities can be pursued.
To explain this change, quite sudden for all of us, let me take you back to where this story begins..
The sky was bright, and the kind of rich blue that only happens in big nature.
The leather split reins were draped across Scotch’s neck.
He grabbed at the tall grass that covered the valley. On one side was an aspen forest, with it’s beautiful white bark and round green leaves, with just a hint of yellow showing this time of year.
On the other side, the hill rose sharply, densely covered with rock and large pines.
I was 9 years old, and today I had gotten up early to find Scotch, make the sandwich stuffed in my saddle bag, and head out for an adventure, opening that barb wire gate to freedom and the unknown. The neighbor’s land… thousands of acres of Colorado backcountry.
11 years later, and my days were still filled with horses, but now back at the family farm in Pennsylvania. A historic Amish farm, where my grandfather once had his dairy, and I was now beginning to fill the fields and barns with horses as my budding training business grew.
For ten years, from 2010 to 2020, this farm was my life.
I trained horses, taught lessons, hosted events, remodeled barns, built an indoor arena, and made videos… lots of them!
HorseClass began as “CRK Training” in 2012. Over the years, we have filmed over 17 different courses and programs here at the campus, as well as a weekly free video every week for 8 years.
I loved the farm, our team, and our horses, but my heart called for the wide-open spaces and freedom in riding I had felt with Scotch, my first horse, in the mountains of Colorado.
I moved away from the farm, turning operations over to the team, and looking west.
First, I went to California, to work with the mustangs. Then to the heart of Oaxaca, to ride endurance horses. Next to Mongolia for the famed Mongol Derby, and finally returning to where I am currently settled on the coast of Oaxaca.
As I traveled, the Farm in Pennsylvania thrived. The team expanded on what I built. We continued hosting HorseClass events and remodeled the historic farmhouse to create a small retreat center.
However, change was in the air.
I am the fourth generation of the King family on this farm, and it’s history, even before our family, was as a small dairy farm. My father was born in the farmhouse here, and has many memories from his childhood of working the fields and milking the cows.
As my path led me away from the fields and farm lanes of Southeastern Pennsylvania, my father felt a growing desire to see the farm returned to its roots, with an Amish family in the old farmhouse, the silos once again filled with corn, and cows coming in and out of the milking stalls.
And so, this vision became reality with the sale of the farm to the neighboring family, Amish farmers, who plan to slowly restore the dairy, work the fields, and pass the farm to their children.
While Honey Brook Stables has closed,
HorseClass, our vibrant global community and online courses will continue, with new programs already in development.
Our incredible team at the farm – Kaitlyn, Denise, Allie, Kristina, and the school horses, have moved to a new facility, to create their own business and continue helping riders.
After many months in Pennsylvania, I will be returning to my life in Mexico, and to long rides exploring on my horse there, Canelo.
I will be expanding my travel and perhaps even international events in the future, without the responsibilities to the farm that I have had for the past 13 years.
And this land will once again be part of the network of small farms that provide the food for us all.
Thank you for your continued support and for being a part of our HorseClass community!
Callie
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