MASON CITY – Starting June 8, the Midstate Hunter Jumper Horse Show will be back at the North Iowa Fairgrounds. This will be a two-week event. Stephanie Histed, who was here for the show in May, will be back to show again.
“I come all this way because it is fun,” says Stephanie, rider of twelve-year old Coruscation. Stephanie is owner of Timeless Farms out of Arena, Wisconsin. It is a forty-acre farm, where almost half of it is used for the training of the horses and for putting on shows. She lives there with her husband and two children, plus some of the trainees live there too.
Besides all the fun she had doing the horse show last May, she especially liked seeing the elephants that were here the same weekend with the Shrine Circus. The same night, the “General Lee” car from the Dukes of Hazzard was also at the North Iowa Fairgrounds. “Now I believe that Mason City has everything,” she said.
Growing up, Stephanie, like many children liked horses and liked to ride them for recreation. She joined 4-H when she was old enough, and this led to her doing shows. Stephanie‘s sister also shows horses. “When we were growing up, people would ask what it was like competing against my sister. I‘d tell them that we don‘t compete against each other, we support each other. If one of us didn‘t win, we’d hope the other would.
“It’s such hard work, but I love to do everything that is involved. It’s a lifestyle, there are no days off, no vacations, no sick days. I wouldn’t know what to do without my dependents. But there are days that I think about how nice it would be to be a regular mom. To be able to spend more time with my kids.”
At Timeless Farms, Stephanie trains her horses to jump only. “They are a discipline class. They only jump. They are a herd group, they like being around other horses which comes from their survival instincts.” She has to train them to be away from other horses. “They need to work, to stay busy, otherwise they get bored. They are awesome animals. They have personalities, they are pets, like big puppy dogs.” You could hear the pride in her voice and see the love in her eyes that she had for these “big puppy dogs”. If you go to her website, TimelessFarm.com, you will read that when she was younger, one of her horses was even allowed in the house.
“It’s a Sport and a Hobby,” Stephanie says. “You have to be physically fit to do this sport, just like any other sport. It took me a long time before I could compete after having my children, to get back in shape.”
When asked about the cost of this sport and hobby, she said, “You can make it as expensive as you want. You can be extravagant or not so extravagant. You have your vet bills and food bills just like any other pet, but what you do after that is up to you. At my Farm, I have shows. They are on a smaller scale and inexpensive.”
Stephanie is a Trainer of other jumpers too. She has over thirty students. Some of her students came with her to the Midstate Hunter Jumper Horse Show in Mason City last May. Like with her sister when she was growing up, she was in some of the same classes as her students. They don’t take it as competing against each other, but as working together as a team. She not only had to show and jump her horses, but made sure that her students were learning and ready for their classes. Stephanie, won two of her classes in a row, Thursday May 5. One of her students, Taylor Lease riding Chance, won their division at the Midstates Horse Show on May 8, 2011.
After a student of hers died of an accidental drug overdose in 2007, Stephanie started campaigning for Partnership for a Drug Free America, which is now called Partnership at Drug Free.Org. Beginning in 2010, within the Timeless Farm Series of Horse Shows, they raise money to educate and support the families that have experienced the tragedies of what drugs can do. It also helps bring aware to kids, so they can make the right decisions. They raise the money by putting a picture of her former student, as a memorial, on one of the fences that the horses will be jumping. Every time a horse jumps that fence, money goes to the charity. Throughout the day, the fence gets jumped many times, so it adds up quickly. There are also donation buckets around the show area. At one show, the judges donated their salary that they’d be making that weekend to the charity.
Corenn is Coruscation’s barn name, says goodbye and hopes to see you at the Fairgrounds which has eateries and tack shops. It’s free fun. “We’ll be back June 7th (coming a day early to settle in) for another show. That one is a two-week show. I’ll only be able to be here for a week of it, if I was gone any longer my husband would kill me,” she laughs, “I’ll need to get back to my kids.”
There will also be another show in September.|
