Hi

Welcome to Stampy and the Brain! I started this blog to talk about my two horses – Stampede (Stampy) and Phoenix (The Brain). In my next few posts I plan to tell you more about my boys. For now I’ll tell you a bit about myself and my riding background.

My name is Kristen. I have very few memories from being really young, but the first one was when my parents took me to the apple orchard and I got to walk around on a pony. I honestly don’t know how my love for horses started, seems like it has always been there. My mom is scared of horses and my dad, while he likes them, had no past experience. I started out going to girl scout camp and going on trail rides, then to an English riding day camp, then on to twice weekly lessons and half-leases. Right before Christmas in 1994 my dad and trainer found my first horse, a 3 year old quarter horse named Zipper. Zipper was always quiet and mostly stubborn in our early days. How my trainer knew a 3 year old and an eleven year old would mix I’ll never know. He quickly became the kind of horse you could take anywhere and do anything with. Some of my best young memories were riding him around double bareback with my best friend. By the time he was 7 though my legs were so long my feet were below his belly. Since he was also very stocky we turned him western again and he was sold. I still remember how upsetting it was to let him go. Little did I know my next horse would be even more amazing.

Zipper