Inheriting a dream

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Inheriting a dream

Senior Ashlee LeCompte has a dream-come-true on her horizon. The farm girl from Oakwood, Ill. will inherit the family farm after completing graduate school at Michigan State University.

LeCompte is going to graduate school for an Animal Science degree, specializing in equine. She and her mother made an agreement that LeCompte could receive the family farm upon finishing graduate school.

“She loves going home to ride and is good friends with the trainers, so it never crossed her mind that she would not go back to either her family farm or start her own,” said senior Sally Klarr.

In 1991, The LeCompte family moved to their family farm in order to make room for their growing family.  There were only about 10 stalls and five or six boarders.

The farm was named Oakwood Farms for her grandfather who grew up in Oakwood, Ill.

LeCompte first delivered a foal in eighth grade, when their mare, Annie, gave birth to a foal named Bella.

“So we are down by the field and all of a sudden this mare drops a foal,” LeCompte said.

About two years later, Bella got her face stuck in a hayrack. The accident ripped three nerves from the horse’s face, and the family was certain the young horse would never be fit to ride again. That was when they decided to breed Bella, who was a beautiful black horse. Now they have a third generation foal at the farm.

LeCompte received her first horse after she joined a pony club. Her mom had a few conditions, however. She would have to wake up at 5 a.m. in the morning before school to go feed and turn out the horse.

“It taught me a lot of responsibility. It is like having a dog, but a very high maintenance dog,” LeCompte said.

LeCompte grew up riding in shows, and it was at her first show that she found her very first horse: her beloved Trixie.

“My first pony was really awful. She would throw me off whenever she could,” LeCompte said.

LeCompte was at her first show when her horse dumped her off right in the middle of the arena.  Her mom, upset with the horse, went right into the arena to teach the horse a lesson. The horse dumped her right off, too, LeCompte said.

That is when the horse was sold. LeCompte’s mother found the owner of the first-place horse and asked to buy her. That was Trixie.

“She wanted me riding a good horse,” LeCompte said.

It was during her sophomore year that LeCompte took horse-riding as a physical education course so that she could continue to train and be ready for summer shows. However, with the demands of school, LeCompte was not able to visit Trixie enough. It became necessary for the horse to go back to Oakwood Farms.

Growing up on Oakwood Farms has given LeCompte ample experience to run the place. That experience has also aided LeCompte in her entrance into grad school. She said it was great to enter MSU with the extra practice of delivering horses at home.

Now LeCompte plans to go home before heading off to MSU to receive her masters. This summer, LeCompte will be an apprentice to the Oakwood Farm manager, Meredith Burgess.

“Ashlee will be doing everything that I do and then some; it is tough being an intern,” Burgess said.

Oakwood Farms is very family-oriented.

The barn has since expanded after a fire back in the early 2000’s.  It now has 60 stalls with 45 horses currently living there.  There is also a full-service operating room, where LeCompte hopes to bring a full-time veterinarian in the future.

Burgess said that running a boarding barn is like working retail –– you have to make sure that customers are happy.

Once the summer is over, LeCompte will head off to MSU with her two horses so that she can continue to train.  Even so, she will come home to her farm each summer and work there.

“I want to live there until I die,” LeCompte said. “I want to raise my children there so that they can have the same experiences I did.”

 

svoyles@hillsdale.edu