Hello friends,
So, this is quite the story. I met Marsha when I was in undergrad, she was a professor in the equine science and riding (dressage and balanced seat equitation) courses. I was a hapless, terrified freshman taking my first riding course and I will never forget the first day when we were told to come unmounted into the main arena (where there was no mounting block) and we were asked what was the best way to get on in this situation. I had been assigned this gorgeous, sweet, enormous warmblood named Ziggy who at well over 16H towered over my 5'2 self and I remember saying flatly (did I mention my what I like to believe is delightfully sarcastic side?) "Pray". She laughed, mercifully one of Marsha's many gifts is her sense of humor, and suggested lowering our stirrup. Certainly the more immediately practical solution.
That first year, my first time away from home and dealing with the stress of college and for the first time in my life confronting some of my own personal demons, Marsha, being the intuitive empath and future psychologist recognized some of what I was struggling with and became the first faculty member that offered support during tumultuous times.
Fast forward 23 years, Marsha had become the tremendously skilled psychologist she is today, as well as an artist, and had experienced her own fair share of life joy and life disappointments. I was in my third year into a doctoral program that was at that point in time making my life miserable and I remembered that caring, compassionate professor whom I knew was also getting her doctorate when I was completing my undergraduate degree. I out of the blue did some online searching and sent her an email, seeing how she was doing, what she was up to, and attempting to make a very long story somewhat short about what was going on in my life. I am a very firm believer that everything happens for a reason, and that email proved to be arguably one of the best seemingly random decisions of my life. To my delight, Marsha remembered me and we began a correspondence that not only provided much needed support and advice during a very dark time for me that ultimately led to the offer to come help her with the farm and begin gaining some much-needed practical experience in the psychology field.
It's not terribly often in life when we are given the opportunity for a fresh start when it's most needed. It's also terrifying to essentially leave everything you've known for your entire life and seize the opportunities that are being offered. Having said that, sometimes taking that leap proves to have incredible rewards. Marsha has so graciously opened her home and her heart to me, and I am living a life beyond my wildest dreams caring for our beautiful, ever-expanding herd as well as our other fur babies, learning everything I can from both a seasoned, expert equestrian and horse trainer as well as a seasoned, phenomenal psychologist. Simultaneously, I am providing Marsha with much-needed help with the animals, comic relief, and hopefully the nurturing daughter she never had.
When I moved here, Marsha had already been working for nearly a year on this store, which was nothing if not a labor of love. Passionate to share her beautiful, unique art in the form of attire and at the time, many other products, she had envisioned and was devoting her precious free time towards this goal. However, there has historically been some trial and error and inherent stumbling blocks. The vision has been reworked and redesigned more than once. At one point, after a period where I'd offer input or assistance as I had free time, purely because she was attempting a deadline and I found the entire project a very different type of break than academia, Marsha offered me the opportunity to hop on board officially, which I readily agreed to. Although in many ways we are very similar, we also compliment each other well in terms of many projects. Whereas she is a "big picture" person, I tend to be more systematic and detail-oriented. Where she shines in visual design, I enjoy expressing my creativity verbally (which is why I'm going to be writing most of the blog posts!). After the initial launch of the store was proving to be underwhelming at best, we consulted with one of my friends from undergrad who provided us with some excellent advice and ultimately we made the decision to scale back and specialize. Although Marsha's artwork takes many forms and she derives inspiration from many places, seeing as we are both die-hard horse lovers it simply made sense for us to focus on equine designs. Fun fact: our logo horse is a palomino because ironically both of our first horses were palominos, her beloved Lady, the Welsh pony gifted to her by her grandmother, and my quarter horse Aries who rescued me as much as I rescued him. We also wanted to make Brazen Emblazon more than just another nameless, faceless brand. We have a pretty incredible story, and the ride continues! Stay tuned...