About Us

I was born in Indianapolis and moved to a suburb called Beech Grove when I was six. My family consisted of a sister, nineteen months older, mom (a school teacher, and dad (an independent grocer). Dad worked every Saturday. But out of the blue, my dad stayed home on a Saturday and took my sister and I on a mystery trip. We must have been about 9 and 11 years old.   It was a gorgeous day and we ended up at a horse stable called Carson Stables. All I remember is riding through the beautiful woods with my dad and my sister. I don’t remember any fear and difficulties, just wonder and joy. I guess my love of horses was born that day. It was an unspoken dream, that I would someday own a horse. I knew it wasn’t possible, so I just rode horses at stables and parks as often as I had a chance to do so.

Once I was dreaming out loud at work, telling a friend how I wanted to have land and horses some day. A doctor sitting in front of us turned around and said sarcastically “Techs can’t afford horses!” He should have never said that, because that stirred up a strong desire to prove him wrong. I used to envision myself riding on a horse by a babbling brook when things got stressful at work. I was an x-ray technician and worked on CAT scanners. Funny thing is that I wasn’t riding alone, I rode with Jesus. It seems absurd, but it’s just the way I saw things. You see, My dad passed away when I was a student at Methodist Hospital. He was only 63 and I was 18.  I went back to the teachings in church that said we don’t die and just stop living. We pass to a new dimension and we get to see Jesus and those who have passed before us. I just wanted to know a little more, so I started going to Bible studies and church. I found that there wonderful people in the world who know a lot about what the Bible says. One man taught from Old and New Testament and showed how the old pointed to the new. He was a quiet little man and I began to see how God uses ordinary looking people in extraordinary ways.

Years went by and hopes were dashed over and over. But I didn’t stop believing I’d have a horse. Through divorce and mental illness and raising children alone, God was my husband. I continued to read his Word and I knew he was making me stronger and better. Growing can be painful, but being stagnant is even more uncomfortable. Jesus said, “I am the vine and you are the branches. You can do nothing apart from me.” The best thing was that my relationships with my sister and my mother changed. We became closer than ever and my sister actually bought my horse for me. That was a red letter day. It was July of 1999 and Tobey, a quarter horse, was more beautiful than I dreamed he’d be. We soon bought a second quarter horse. Her name is Sassy and she’s a beautiful bay mare. I decided I didn’t want to ride alone. My brother in law had been thrown from a horse in Texas and had to ride his horse back home with a broken back. I’ve taken a lot of falls and I still feel it’s best not to ride alone.

You’re probably asking how we(my husband Dave and I) got involved with cardboard bedding. WE started out using sawdust, but the mill burned down and a second mill changed to mulch. So I drove 30 miles to another mill. That got kind of old and one winter I started using pine shavings. It seemed like every time I turned around I had to buy more bags of shavings. That was a real bad winter and the stalls were so dusty, I had to wear a cover over my mouth and nose. I remember a young woman I MRI scanned at the hospital died and they couldn’t even diagnose the cause. They just knew she worked in a stable with horses.  We decided to look on the internet  for other bedding choices. That’s how we found Airlite Bedding. We drove to Chicago and brought a pickup truck load back. Oh boy, no more dust, but how on earth do you muck this stuff?!?!

It seemed like a century, but we finally got our SBA loan approved and started making cardboard bedding. My husband is very electronically and mechanically inclined, so we set out to make this product easier to muck. Even though the pieces were much smaller, ¼” to 1” x 1”, there were still long pieces at the end of each box. Another drawback was slow production. We  listened to customer complaints. The smell of pine was missing and could we please get rid of those long pieces. One stable owner wanted fine cut newspaper instead of cardboard. That sounded like a good idea. That’s when “pine feathers” was created.

Sassy died on Mother's Day. Because of her death, I met Dr. Sue Whitman, a veterinarian. I contacted her to see rescue horses at Horse Angels Horse Rescue near Bloomington Indiana. I learned the plight of many horses that need to be rescued and have a strong desire to donate proceeds from our products to horse rescue. I want our customers to be able to pick the rescue operation of their choice. It will make Sassy"s passing less painful if I know that it brought about a way to help other horses. Come back soon for more information on how your purchase of HorseFeathers or Pine Feathers can help rescue horses.