As often happens with big decisions Krystal Coombs clearly remembers the moment that changed her life. She was re-mortgaging her property on Beach Road in 2012, sitting at the window looking out at her empty field while waiting for the bank’s appraiser to arrive, when it suddenly struck her. “If you’re going to do it,” she told herself, “do it now.”

 “It” was all about horses and that empty field. By the time the appraiser got there, she told him she needed a barn and fencing for a venture that had been kicking around in the back of her mind for some time. The little girl that had grown up around horses was stepping up to tell the adult woman she’d become that she needed to follow her childhood passion.

 Krystal grew up in Maryland where by the age of 8 she was sweeping out the aisles in a horse barn and learning to ride. She begged her parents so incessantly for a pony that they finally gave in and bought a barren brood mare from a farmer happy to be rid of it. Plenty of former little girls might admire her persistence! Not only did she learn to ride and care for her horse, but surprising everyone, especially the farmer who gave her away, the mare dropped a foal a few months later.

 With her own horse she began riding all over the countryside, where she ran into an older woman whose own son had reached an age where he was no longer interested in his horses. It was a golden opportunity for a kid who would do anything to be around horses, who would ride anything. Thanks to this woman she went fox hunting, and started exercising horses at the race track.

She joined Pony Club, an organization like 4-H, but it was all about horses all the time. For a week in the summer at Pony Club Camp kids brought their own horses, stabled them there and did barn chores. They slept in big Army tents, could ride their horses down to the pond and in for a swim. The week ended with a big horse show where all their skills were tested. By the end of her teens Krystal had done just about everything on a horse: dressage, breaking yearlings, galloping two year-olds, jumping. All she missed was polo and trotters.

Then she hit 20 and realized she couldn’t make a living with horses. $400 a month working in a stable wouldn’t pay the bills. She’d have to get a real job. In 1988 she came to Maine and by 1990 was settled on the property on Beach Road where she and her former husband built their house. There would be no horses in her life for the next 30 years.

 Until 2012, that is, when she had that epiphany.

 Her neighbor Wayne Lanning and his son, Ian, built her barn, with Ian, an architecture student, designing it. They started in September and finished by December, just in time for the arrival of Beau, Krystal’s dream horse.

 Beau, a chestnut beauty, is a quarter horse/thoroughbred cross, 16.1 hands tall (a hand equals 4” which is how you measure a horse), with four white socks and a small, white heart on his face. A friend in Appleton said she had a horse for sale, and Krystal went to see him. He was exactly the horse she’d been imagining, more of that serendipitous thing, with everything falling into place.

 Her plan was to bring equine trekkers to Camden Hills State Park. It’s what people do who own a horse and want to ride trails in different parts of the country. Acadia National Park is probably the most popular place in Maine for this, but Krystal has found a market for our area.

 She operates a horse hotel under the name Camden Hills Equine Inn or CHEI. She’ll lodge a horse for a night or a week-end, generally short term, while the owner finds a place to stay in the area. With three stalls and several fenced off pastures she can house up to five horses for short stays. The fee is based on how much care she provides, as well as whether the owner brings the feed or not. Krystal may go out riding with her clients, taking them into the state park via the main trail at Stevens Corner or they may go out on their own.

 An injury the winter before last took her off her feet for quite a while, and friends helped her with the care of Beau and Dallas, the second horse she now owns. While recuperating she worked on a new plan going forward – giving lessons to would-be riders as an adjunct to her Equine Inn business.

 This spring she’s begun a series of two-hour private lessons in basic horsemanship, which includes caring for the horse, grooming, cleaning tack, mucking out the barn. The first three lessons are off the horse, teaching tacking up, the confirmation of the horse, the language of horse anatomy, then exercising the horse on a long lead, “lunging”.

She accepts family groups, perhaps a child with parents, or a couple of adult sisters for instance. It’s something a family can do together, and after the beginning lessons, they start mounting and learn the basics of riding.

 In her other life, the one where she earns enough to support herself, Krystal is an independent sales rep, working from home most of the year, with a few busy months on the road between January and May. With all of her customers in Maine she’s never far from home.

So what is it about horses? Why, I wondered, is it little girls who so often fall in love with them? “Horses are amazing creatures,” says Krystal, “they mirror what you do.” At the same time, they’re wild and free; it’s empowering for a little girl to climb onto a big horse and direct it to go where she wants.

“As passions go,” Krystal says, “you can put your sailboat away for winter. You can’t do that with your horse.” It’s a full time job, but one she wouldn’t trade for any other.

 CHEI is located at 318 Beach Road; the sign is little – you might miss it. You can reach Krystal at 542-9660. Check out her website.

Town

Student of the Month assembly will be Friday, June 15 at 2:30 p.m. in Walsh Common.

Knitting/Needlework meets Tuesday 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.   All are welcome to join a lively and social evening of crochet, knitting and/or other needlework.  This group meets the first (Knitting workshop), second and fourth Tuesdays every month. 

Ebenezer Hall Fernald was 27 years old when he wrote these entries in his journal; he lived somewhere on Fernalds Neck:

 “June 9, Tuesday it was pleasant wind South I was shearing sheep

June 10, Wendsday it was pleasant wind South West I was splitting rock

June 11, Thursday it was pleasant wind East in the forenoon in the afternoon it was thick and stormy wind East I was at work on the road and made out 7 hours

June 12, Friday it was thick and stormy wind South in the forenoon in the afternoon it was pleasant wind West I was at home sharpen drills in the forenoon in the afternoon was at work on the road made 6 hours

June 16, Tuesday it was pleasant wind North West. I was weeding turnips in the afternoon in the forenoon was helping drive the steers to pasture and weeding garden.”