Posted by Mona

I read this article today on The Frederick News-Post. I wish I was as dedicated as this women in the article. I am reading the book Horse People by Michael Korda. The type of horse people this book mentions are people I wish I could be at times. I feel like such a bad horse owner when I haven’t ridden for days but then I read articles and books of people who ride several times a day. I guess my life is just in a different place. I guess I should just be happy I have horses and can ride them occasionally.

POOLESVILLE — Debby Lynn left home when she was 18.

The way she saw it, she didn’t have a choice.

“My father wanted me to learn how to make a good martini and to say ‘yes,’” she said.

Her mother was so opposed to Lynn’s dream of a life with horses that she refuses to come to her daughter’s barn in Poolesville to this day.

Lynn’s first word was “horse,” and she hasn’t stopped talking about them since.

One of her earlier jobs was managing a barn in Indiana, Lynn said.

“My parents were hoping I would fail,” she said.

But Lynn is stubborn.

Her younger thoroughbred chestnut mare, Phoebe, broke her owner’s back in three places two years ago.

“It bucked out of anxiety,” she said. “It’s not a deliberate unloading. It was worth it. She’s been a very fun horse.”

Her horses — Phoebe, 6, and Wavey, 5 — are naughty and difficult, Lynn said.

Lynn opened Poolesville Tack & Supply on Fisher Avenue seven years ago. She said it’s difficult to establish a small business in this day of big-box stores and catalog order houses.

“I bootstrapped it with $500,” she said. “Then I worked it up to $700. It takes really more merchandise than I thought it would.”

She has more than 200 different items in her shop, ranging from stirrups to gloves and saddles, and advises anyone starting a store like hers to have $100,000.

“My shop is all about me. It’s a very personal relationship,” she said. “My customers know me. We have so many years of experience, and we trade stories. I love to hear about their new horses and what they are doing.”

The 52-year-old hasn’t lost touch with riding.

“I ride at least two horses a day and four or five hours if we’re fox hunting,” she said.

Lynn believes her mission is to be of service to the equestrian community, she said.

Most of that equestrian community is focused on Montgomery County’s 90,000-acre agricultural reserve, which houses the majority of the roughly 13,000 horses in the county.

“It’s very special,” she said of the reserve. “I hope we keep it.”