Silver Ridge Island

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SRI by OpalTalons
   

Welcome to Silver Ridge Island! SRI Scenery: Summer/Spring: Lighthouse by OpalTalons  



General Information:


Location: off the coast of Maine, USA
Yearly low temperature (January): average around -20 Celsius 
Yearly high temperature (July): average around 27 Celsius
Average amount of snow each year: about 185 cm

At Silver Ridge, there's no focus on one breed or discipline because every horse and person has their own strengths and weaknesses; everybody is welcome. It's an island with a family stable and a veterinary practice.

Except for in extreme weather, the horses have free-range of the island and mainly feed themselves grazing where the grass is growing best. In the winter they are provided with hay and year-round are occasionally spoiled with treats. The small herd of sheep and goats tends to follow the horses around, all grazing in a patch-work herd.

Whales are often seen in the surrounding waters, but seals are common too. Sometimes atlantic puffins stop by, depending on the time of year. 

Most of the land is open pasture, but there are some wooded areas, mostly made up of evergreens with some oak trees and blackberry bushes.




 Click HERE for a tour of Silver Ridge  




History:

The island has been passed down through Nora's family for many generations as a diary farm. The barn and underground arena were originally built as barns for cows and the modern dairy was just for hay storage. The lighthouse's history goes back with the rest of the farm, allowing boats to see the island's position at night and helping with sea traffic. There's some stories about people using it to send messages in morse across the water, but nobody's really sure about the truth of that at this point.
  Eventually, the family dairy business started to suffer. Nora's parents continued to pull the farm's operations along, but when ownership of the land and livestock came to Nora, she sold the cows and started using the island as a historical tourist destination: giving lighthouse tours, renting out the cottages, and keeping a few sheep and goats on the side. Part of her couldn't give up keeping dairy animals after all. She married a german immigrant, Klaus Armbruster, and his extreme passion for horses convinced her to renovate the barn for equine use and clear out the underground space for a riding arena. Although Nora's use of the island earned enough so that she could keep the family land and Klaus's show jumping and dressage careers were highly successful, they had no children and realized maintaining the island would eventually become very difficult. Nora was strongly opposed to selling any part of her heritage, so they looked for other people to become co-owners. Eventually they found a young couple with a daughter, the Favero family. Aaron wanted to start his equine veterinary practice and Renee wanted to live by the ocean. Now the Armbrusters and Faveros are co-owners of the island and run a small stable.






People:


Renee Favero: co-owner/co-manager/rider

Aaron Favero: co-owner/equine veterinarian
 
Breca Favero: rider/stable hand

Maureen Favero: rider

Matteo Favero: rider

Klaus Armbruster: co-owner/farrier/riding instructor

Nora Armbruster: co-owner/co-manager

Henrik Austad: stable hand/rider  

Harmony Thompson: equine vet/rider






Horses:


 Mares:
Reverie
 Ten 'Till Summer
Nike's Revival
Sunny Side of the Street
Mylakat HAN

 Geldings:
  Celtic Thunder
 Burgundy Chardonnay

 Stallions:
Garantie
Sagebrush Story


Other Animals:

  1 dog
  1 cat
  3 sheep
  6 goats
  9 hens
  









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