MY WAY...AS IT SHOULD BE

by JoAnn Foxx

I have been in and out of being a horsewoman and a career woman all of my life.

I grew up watching SPIN AND MARTY on The Mickey Mouse Club (you young ‘uns may not know what that is) and yearned to be near horses, ride, and call myself a cowgirl after every episode.

I would visit my Aunt Arlene on her ranch in Michigan every chance I got.  She had eight kids and we all ate Sloppy Joe’s and her homemade cherry pie while she yodeled to us.  There was a dude ranch adjacent to her property where I spent every waking moment doing whatever they let me do, muck, feed, and ride.  I was about 12 or 13 and had a crush on every ranch hand. 

Fast forward—after high school, college, traveling the world, horses came back into my life at an arena polo club in Anaheim, California, Winston Polo Club, where I met the love of my life, Richard, and bought Miel, my first horse.  I rode every hour I wasn’t working.

Polo was just a hobby.  My love was being a horse Mom, at one point to 12 critters that found their way to us one way or another.  I had a lot of help, needless to say.

Fast forward again—I was promoted to Fashion Buyer for Giorgio Beverly Hills and traveled the world again, coming and going, while Richard and our treasured friend, Antonio, cared for the herd at a little ranch in Indio, California.

My staff at Giorgio didn’t believe I mucked stalls, cleaned hooves, and brushed and bathed and doctored our equine family.  They thought our ranch was Green Acres and that I didn’t own a pair of jeans or boots and I did all that in a black suit and high heels.  But they never doubted the truth of my love for horses.

the NINO, me, and Richard

A quick aside: We adopted an abused horse we called The Nino.  It took me a year to earn his trust and it became a love affair.  After being in Europe for a three week buying trip I drove into the ranch gate and stopped my car at the fence.  Nino was way across the pasture and I crawled through the fence, this time really in heels, and just stood there watching him.  He looked up, focused, and ran like a rocket as fast as he could across the pasture where he stopped on a dime right in front of me.  No words spoken.  Just love between a human and a horse.

My friend MORRISON and me after a day pushing cows in Montana

Fast forward to now—we presently have one horse, Macarena, who came to us when she was two.  She now is 26 and still a beauty.  My career is CEO and owner of a skin care line.  Being outdoors takes a toll on your skin so I had to create my own products to fix it.

Life has been up and down but Macarena, her smell, her companionship, her copper tones as the sun shines off her chestnut coat, remind me always about who I really am…just a cowgirl.

MACARENA and me