M o o n + M o u n t a i n
Our Story
It All Started At A horse Rescue In Florida...
In 2012, I found myself working at a horse rescue in Florida that would take off-the-track Standardbreds, rehab them, and find them forever homes. While some of the horses that I had the pleasure of working with ended up finding wonderful second chance opportunities, others did not. One Standardbred in particular was Supreme Confidence, a 1990 bay gelding that had a very successful career on the track, but was cast off and deemed unworthy due to the negligence of humans.
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We called him Remi, and when he arrived at the ranch, Remi was nothing but skin and bones. He also had a difficult time walking and was very stiff in his hind end due to frequent injections of the cartilage in his stifles. Thanks to the gallant efforts of two volunteers, Mike and James, Remi's health was slowly restored - but he still had a hard time walking.
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Remi wasn't kept in a stall because we feared lack of movement would cause his stifles unbelievable discomfort, and we were cautious to turn him out with other horses for fear that his inability to move quickly would get him hurt, so he lived in an oversized round pen by himself near the barn. Volunteers would take him out regularly and go for walks, bathe and groom him, and make sure that the last years of his life were filled with the love he deserved. One volunteer named Jess adored Remi and made sure he knew the love of at least one person in his life before his final days.
One afternoon, Remi laid down for a roll and was unable to stand back up on his own. The rescue's staff were at a fundraiser event that day and didn't discover poor Remi until they returned later that evening. Despite the effort of four grown men and a multitude of women, we could not get Remi back on his feet. The vet wasn't available to come until the next morning, so Jess laid beside Remi the entire evening, her tears soaking his mane as the minutes ticked by until morning.
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Remi was the first horse that Jess has witnessed be put down and my heart went out to the poor girl. I made sure to cut some of his tail to make a keepsake for her and hopefully use the remainder of his hair to make keepsakes to sell as a small fundraiser for the ranch. As those products sold, other volunteers from the ranch wanted things made from the hair of their favorite horses in case we lost them as well - or in case they were adopted. These same volunteers suggested that I sell my creations on Etsy as a mean to get some more money raised for the rescue, so my Etsy store was created.
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As time went on, people began discovering my pieces on Etsy and requested custom made pieces from the manes and tails of personal horses that they too had lost. And thus, as the old cliche goes, Flying Changes Equine Products was born.
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In May of 2017, the decision was made to change the name from "Flying Changes Equine Products" to "Flying Changes Equine Keepsakes" due in part to the fact that the original name made it sound like we sold horse care products rather than horse hair keepsakes. To avoid any confusion and to hopefully develop a more sound brand name, "Flying Changes Equine" stayed put BUT I was still dissatisfied, and changed the name once more to reflect the meaning behind my horse's names; Selena means "moon" and Cherokee Native Americans are considered the "people of the mountains", so thus, the name was changed to Moon & Mountain Equine Keepsakes in the summer of 2017.
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