Better Than Catching Flies 

By Pascale White, Owner of White Stables

Two years ago I never would have dreamed my family would own a horse farm where over 30 horses reside.  Growing up, my father and I would talk about how wonderful it would be to live on a horse farm.  I’m not sure why we were so fascinated by the idea.  He grew up in the mountains of Switzerland surrounded by cows and goats, with not a horse in sight, and followed a career path in NYC and later the suburbs of New York and New Jersey in the restaurant business.  I grew up in those NY suburbs, volunteering at animal shelters through high school, but never riding a horse and maybe only being up close and personal one or two times.  But I guess when you love horses, you just do.

Fast forward decades later, I am now the mother of four and we moved to beautiful Tennessee.  My husband, Tony, retired after 32 years in the Navy and found a second career at TVA.  And we finally bought a house knowing we’d never have to move again!  We were sad to leave our friends in Virginia, but we settled in and found our way, each child making friends and discovering what made them unique as the years passed by.

My oldest, Alexa, is a born artist.  The triplets are three years younger. Trevor has his father’s engineering brain and early on excelled at math, Olivia, the youngest, I call my “mighty ant” because she is the smallest but is very strong and athletic.  Sydney is the oldest of the triplets; she knew where her siblings shined, and she would often ask me, “What am I good at?”.  And I would say, “You’re good at everything”, because she was good at most things.  But she wanted to know what she excelled at.  I had to be honest, because she was hard to fool and I didn’t want her to think I was pumping her up because I was her mother.  So I told her the truth, “Sydney, you are good at many things, but you are really good at catching flies, you are the best fly catcher I know”.  Well, she didn’t really appreciate the compliment and strove to be more than just the best fly catcher I knew.

I wanted our horses home because I believed we could provide the best quality care for them.

We tried dance, gymnastics, LEGO clubs, but she kept pestering me for riding lessons.  Finally we found a place to take beginner lessons and Sydney discovered her hidden talent – riding horses!  She finally knew what she was best at, and the passion and fascination with horses dormant in me, and my father before me, was allowed to fully realize itself.   One horse led to another, and in short time we owned four horses of our own.

I searched online for countless hours every week, month after month, searching for the home I could move my family and horses.  They would all have to agree on the move, and we can’t even all agree on the same pizza topping!  And remember buying that house we would never have to move out of because we retired from the Navy? Well, I was reminded of that.  Often.  By everybody but Sydney.

I wanted our horses home because I believed we could provide the best quality care for them.  Clean stalls, lush pastures, room to roam and be a horse.  And to really know they were being treated well and given the happiest, healthiest life possible.  Seems pretty basic, but it isn’t as common as most horse owners would like.  I finally found the place of my dreams in Vonore.  The former Rarity Bay Equestrian Center had been in foreclosure for quite a while.  When I walked around that first day I knew I wanted this to be the last place my horses ever called home.  There was a feeling of calm and rightness from the very beginning.  We could move the horses to their perfect home and still live in ours with the right staff of horse professionals in place.  We renamed the barn White Stables, and after owning and operating the place for the last year and a half, completing many improvement projects (including work started on a complete arena overhaul), and finding a very qualified, honest, talented and hard working staff to provide the best care possible for all the horses, we couldn’t be more excited about this coming spring!  Our goals for the facility, lesson program, equestrian trails (125 acres and exclusive) and horse training exceeded the expectations I had when I was on the customer end of things.  I hope you will make the ride out from Knoxville to Vonore, it’s not too far and may be the place you discover, or rediscover, your dreams whether you are early, mid, or late in living them!

Contact us at (757) 285-4312 or [email protected], you can also find us on the web: www.whitestablestn.com, facebook: www.facebook.com/whitestables2014 and real life at: White Stables | 170 Rarity Bay Parkway | Vonore, TN 37885