About Forest
"Riding a horse is not a gentle hobby, to be picked up and laid down like a game of solitaire. It is a grand passion. It seizes a person whole and once it has done so, he will have to accept that his life will be radically changed."
-Ralph Waldo Emerson-
My name is Forest Franzoi. I am a 24 years old and am completely in love with horses. My love affair began when I was four years old, the first time I sat on a pony at a family friend’s house in Northern Wisconsin and since then I have been completely hooked. When I was five years old my mother and I both leased horses together. I rode a 20 year old Shetland pony mare named Pixie and my mother a 15 year old Arabian gelding named Bay-Boy. Since my days with Pixie I have owned eight other horses and currently have two, Sparky and Rudolf. They are popular characters which you will learn a lot about as you read my blog.
Sparky
At age eight my parents got me my first pony, Sparky. Sparky is a Quarter/Horse Arabian cross that I still own and ride. No one had paid much attention to Sparky before I got him, so it took a while to gain his trust, and today he still is very much a one person animal. When we purchased Sparky he did not have a lot of training on him which caused me to frequently fall off, which I got used to quickly. Sparky and I learned how to ride and jump together. He has a great attitude and was very patient with me as we both learned together. We joined a national organization called Pony Club, that is dedicated to teaching young people about the care of horses as well as show jumping, cross country, and dressage. The particular branch I joined was in the DePere area, 50 minutes from where Sparky was boarded in Greenville. Soon after joining Pony Club I became even more serious about showing and jumping. The Fox Cities, where I am from, does not offer any farms that teach jumping so the best I could do was to trailer Sparky once a month to my Pony Club meetings.
As I became more serious about showing, my mother decided it was best that I move Sparky to a farm in Green Bay, a 45 minute drive from my parent’s house. My mom was wonderful and dedicated to my sport. She drove me to the farm 6 days a week from the time I was 12 to 16 and still travels with me to every show. My father is also very supportive and attended all of my shows growing up, even though horses were not of interest to him. After the move to Green Bay, Sparky and I advanced quickly and entered many hunter jumper shows in the Milwaukee area.
Camelot
I showed Sparky in the 3 foot large pony divisions and then I advanced to Junior Hunter (3’6" jumping divisions), with Camelot, a Selle Francais Warmblood gelding. I was 13 at the time and just entering middle school. Camelot had a lovely jump and moved beautiful. I showed him for several years and won many state awards such as leading Junior Rider and leading Junior Equitation Rider. Camelot stayed with my family for 9 years before retiring in Illinois.
J.R.
After Camelot, at age 16, I advanced to my first Child Adult Jumper, J.R. a bay thoroughbred gelding that was off of the race track. J.R. was very hard to handle but could jump well over 5 feet with no problem. I moved J.R. to Wild Wood Farm my junior year of high school. Wild Wood is located in Hartland, Wisconsin an hour and a half drive from Appleton. I made the trek after school 5 days a week to ride. It was a lot to handle as I would not get home from the barn until 10 at night. But somehow I managed to ride a lot and do well in school. I showed J.R. in the lower jumper divisions before I became injured in a riding accident and had to have ankle surgery. Shortly after I recovered J.R. faced a similar ankle injury and was unable to jump any more. He now lives in Illinois with Camelot.
BEAMING, Inc.
My senior year of high school I became active in a non-profit organization called BEAMING, Inc., a therapeutic riding program that worked with adults and children who were faced with either physical or mental disabilities. I went through the process of having Sparky certified as a therapeutic riding animal. He passed all of his tests with flying colors and we volunteered twice a week until I went away to school.
Rudolf
At that point in my life I was entering my freshman year at Marquette University. I did not have a show horse at this time and my parents decided they would let me look for another jumper. I found Rudolf, a black Belgian Warmblood gelding, at the Kentucky Horse Park, in Lexington Kentucky the week before I started my first year of college. Rudolf is an amazing teacher and had been shown all over Europe and South American before being imported to the United States. During my undergraduate years I showed rather aggressively. I was gone at least two weekends of every month. It was very difficult to manage college and my horses but again I found a way!
Bling
Rudolf and I earned the title of Leading Adult Jumper in both 2008 and 2009. During my undergraduate years I was elected to be on the board of the Wisconsin Hunter Jumper Association where I helped organize not only horse shows but other events as well. I resigned from the board after I graduated from Marquette in 2009.
As Rudolf and I progressed I came to the point where I wanted to do the higher divisions that Rudolf would not be as successful in. Although he was wonderful and very competitive at the 3’6 to 3’9 divisions I was looking to do the 4’ to 4’6 divisions. It was time to start looking for another horse. Kristin, my trainer, and I made several trips to Illinois and to Florida in search for the right fit. It took nearly 7 months before I found a horse that would be a good match for what I wanted to do. Her name was Bling Bling, a ten year old gray Holsteiner mare imported from Germany. Bling was amazing and I felt so lucky to call her mine. Sadly, six weeks after I purchased Bling she had to have colic surgery which meant a year off of riding all together. After I brought Bling back from her surgery her hind end failed due to the amount of time she had off from her colic surgery. We did everything we could to make Bling sound enough to jump including stem cell injections, surgery on both her hind leg tendons, followed by time off and other general maintenance. With all my efforts and money trying to get Bling sound, nothing seemed to help Bling get back to her old self. After only showing Bling once and owning her for over two years, I was faced with the hard decision to sell her as a brood mare. Owning Bling was very heartbreaking as I had the horse that would allow me to do the large divisions yet I only got one horse show out of her. Bling now lives in southern Wisconsin and has yet to be successfully bread.
Today
Today, I live in Brookfield, Wisconsin, 15 minutes west of Milwaukee with my golden doodle, Scooter. I am in my second year of graduate school at Marquette and will be graduating in May of 2011. I still ride Rudolf and Sparky as much as I can but have not been showing. I am trying to focus on graduating from school and finding a good job that will allow me to show my horses in the future. Although I have taken a break from competing the horses are still a large part of my life and who I am. For more information please visit Clayton Evans' personal branding site.
-Ralph Waldo Emerson-
My name is Forest Franzoi. I am a 24 years old and am completely in love with horses. My love affair began when I was four years old, the first time I sat on a pony at a family friend’s house in Northern Wisconsin and since then I have been completely hooked. When I was five years old my mother and I both leased horses together. I rode a 20 year old Shetland pony mare named Pixie and my mother a 15 year old Arabian gelding named Bay-Boy. Since my days with Pixie I have owned eight other horses and currently have two, Sparky and Rudolf. They are popular characters which you will learn a lot about as you read my blog.
Sparky
At age eight my parents got me my first pony, Sparky. Sparky is a Quarter/Horse Arabian cross that I still own and ride. No one had paid much attention to Sparky before I got him, so it took a while to gain his trust, and today he still is very much a one person animal. When we purchased Sparky he did not have a lot of training on him which caused me to frequently fall off, which I got used to quickly. Sparky and I learned how to ride and jump together. He has a great attitude and was very patient with me as we both learned together. We joined a national organization called Pony Club, that is dedicated to teaching young people about the care of horses as well as show jumping, cross country, and dressage. The particular branch I joined was in the DePere area, 50 minutes from where Sparky was boarded in Greenville. Soon after joining Pony Club I became even more serious about showing and jumping. The Fox Cities, where I am from, does not offer any farms that teach jumping so the best I could do was to trailer Sparky once a month to my Pony Club meetings.
As I became more serious about showing, my mother decided it was best that I move Sparky to a farm in Green Bay, a 45 minute drive from my parent’s house. My mom was wonderful and dedicated to my sport. She drove me to the farm 6 days a week from the time I was 12 to 16 and still travels with me to every show. My father is also very supportive and attended all of my shows growing up, even though horses were not of interest to him. After the move to Green Bay, Sparky and I advanced quickly and entered many hunter jumper shows in the Milwaukee area.
Camelot
I showed Sparky in the 3 foot large pony divisions and then I advanced to Junior Hunter (3’6" jumping divisions), with Camelot, a Selle Francais Warmblood gelding. I was 13 at the time and just entering middle school. Camelot had a lovely jump and moved beautiful. I showed him for several years and won many state awards such as leading Junior Rider and leading Junior Equitation Rider. Camelot stayed with my family for 9 years before retiring in Illinois.
J.R.
After Camelot, at age 16, I advanced to my first Child Adult Jumper, J.R. a bay thoroughbred gelding that was off of the race track. J.R. was very hard to handle but could jump well over 5 feet with no problem. I moved J.R. to Wild Wood Farm my junior year of high school. Wild Wood is located in Hartland, Wisconsin an hour and a half drive from Appleton. I made the trek after school 5 days a week to ride. It was a lot to handle as I would not get home from the barn until 10 at night. But somehow I managed to ride a lot and do well in school. I showed J.R. in the lower jumper divisions before I became injured in a riding accident and had to have ankle surgery. Shortly after I recovered J.R. faced a similar ankle injury and was unable to jump any more. He now lives in Illinois with Camelot.
BEAMING, Inc.
My senior year of high school I became active in a non-profit organization called BEAMING, Inc., a therapeutic riding program that worked with adults and children who were faced with either physical or mental disabilities. I went through the process of having Sparky certified as a therapeutic riding animal. He passed all of his tests with flying colors and we volunteered twice a week until I went away to school.
Rudolf
At that point in my life I was entering my freshman year at Marquette University. I did not have a show horse at this time and my parents decided they would let me look for another jumper. I found Rudolf, a black Belgian Warmblood gelding, at the Kentucky Horse Park, in Lexington Kentucky the week before I started my first year of college. Rudolf is an amazing teacher and had been shown all over Europe and South American before being imported to the United States. During my undergraduate years I showed rather aggressively. I was gone at least two weekends of every month. It was very difficult to manage college and my horses but again I found a way!
Bling
Rudolf and I earned the title of Leading Adult Jumper in both 2008 and 2009. During my undergraduate years I was elected to be on the board of the Wisconsin Hunter Jumper Association where I helped organize not only horse shows but other events as well. I resigned from the board after I graduated from Marquette in 2009.
As Rudolf and I progressed I came to the point where I wanted to do the higher divisions that Rudolf would not be as successful in. Although he was wonderful and very competitive at the 3’6 to 3’9 divisions I was looking to do the 4’ to 4’6 divisions. It was time to start looking for another horse. Kristin, my trainer, and I made several trips to Illinois and to Florida in search for the right fit. It took nearly 7 months before I found a horse that would be a good match for what I wanted to do. Her name was Bling Bling, a ten year old gray Holsteiner mare imported from Germany. Bling was amazing and I felt so lucky to call her mine. Sadly, six weeks after I purchased Bling she had to have colic surgery which meant a year off of riding all together. After I brought Bling back from her surgery her hind end failed due to the amount of time she had off from her colic surgery. We did everything we could to make Bling sound enough to jump including stem cell injections, surgery on both her hind leg tendons, followed by time off and other general maintenance. With all my efforts and money trying to get Bling sound, nothing seemed to help Bling get back to her old self. After only showing Bling once and owning her for over two years, I was faced with the hard decision to sell her as a brood mare. Owning Bling was very heartbreaking as I had the horse that would allow me to do the large divisions yet I only got one horse show out of her. Bling now lives in southern Wisconsin and has yet to be successfully bread.
Today
Today, I live in Brookfield, Wisconsin, 15 minutes west of Milwaukee with my golden doodle, Scooter. I am in my second year of graduate school at Marquette and will be graduating in May of 2011. I still ride Rudolf and Sparky as much as I can but have not been showing. I am trying to focus on graduating from school and finding a good job that will allow me to show my horses in the future. Although I have taken a break from competing the horses are still a large part of my life and who I am. For more information please visit Clayton Evans' personal branding site.
