Donna Campbell Smith

Donna was in the first class to graduate from Martin Community College Equine Science Program! Since then she has operated a boarding barn, taught lessons, had a 4H group, shown horses, written articles for local magazines, and has published multiple books! She is also an accomplished photographer and artist. This horsewoman has a lot to offer for up and coming horsewomen. 

Transcript

Rose Cushing 0:15

Thanks for tuning in to today's Horsewoman podcast. Our show explores women in the horse industry as they share their dreams, challenges, successes. What drives these women? Well, let's find out. Good morning. This is Rose Cushing with today's Horsewoman, and I am in Franklin, North Carolina with Donna Campbell-Smith. And Donna is has been a friend a long time, and she's a very amazing woman, and she's had a history dabbling in all types of equestrian careers. So I think you're going to enjoy getting to know Donna a little bit better. So, Donna, tell us a little bit about how you came to horses.

Donna Campbell smith 0:51

How I came to horses was my husband came home from work one day and said he was going horseback riding that weekend with some of his buddies from work. So that got to be a regular thing, and then one of the buddies had a horse that they wanted to sell. And we bought the horse, and then we got me a horse, and then we got ponies for the children. And uh, so that just changed her lifestyle, of course. Then he kind of progressed on away from the horses and started playing golf, but I was hooking line and sinker with the horses.

Rose Cushing 1:27

They always say they're like potato chips, you can't have just one.

Donna Campbell smith 1:30

Well, not if you got three children again.

Rose Cushing 1:33

It's hard to get us all on one horse. So from there, how what else?

Donna Campbell smith 1:39

Well, from there, um, we joined the local saddle club. So then started putting the kids in the little walkthrough classes and the costume classes, and then I got interested in showing and could not afford to do all this, so then started looking ways that I could use my horses to generate some income and started um boarding, giving lessons. Then the equine program started at Martin Community College, and me not knowing what in the world I was getting into just signed right up, you know, in first class. And um, that was life-changing, it really was.

Rose Cushing 2:16

So tell me a little bit about the course that you took at Martin Community because I know that program is still going strong.

Donna Campbell smith 2:21

Right. Well, when we took it, when I was in it, it was the very first class. They were still building the barn. We built the ring, you know, we just you know put the fences all it was good practical education. Yeah. And when I say I didn't know what I was getting into, it was pretty much a twelve-hour day thing. Yeah. You know, you had to be there at seven o'clock in the morning because we had horses there that had to be fed and taken care of. You know, then we had classes in classroom classes, and then we're, you know, doing a running a barn, running a business. Right. We learned hands-on how to do all that. So, um, so yeah. While I was still running my business at the barn and working part-time at another barn, and my children were teenagers then. Right. Um, well, Denise had graduated and was in college. The other two were still at home. So, yeah, I don't know. I guess things are easy when you're younger.

Rose Cushing 3:18

That's true. And then that that kind of catapulted you to be able to really get your barn going strong, didn't it?

Donna Campbell smith 3:23

Right, yeah. There was at one point, and I and you uh were able your second year to decide whether you wanted to uh specialize in breeding farm management or training, and I went for the breeding because I was all about Arabians and not really that smart then when it came to being practical. So I rented a barn from a uh friend where I kept my brood mare. He had um several acres of pasture, which I did not have. I ran my business, my barn on three acres. Okay. Sure. So long. So and then the writing lessons were at at our place. Yeah, the three acres. It was all very makeshift, but it was all, you know, on a shoestring, and I was very close friends with our uh livestock agent, and that's how I got involved in the 4-H horse program. And uh, so it was amazing to have her right there handy for advice or whatever when I needed it too. But yeah.

Rose Cushing 4:27

Now why Arabians?

Donna Campbell smith 4:29

Well, my first job was my uh my husband's brother-in-law was in the Arabian business back in the 70s when that was a big money business and they showed at the big shows and everything. And um, so they're just beautiful and smart. They were just my favorite.

Rose Cushing 4:47

So they are beautiful and smart without a doubt.

Donna Campbell smith 4:50

Yep. So, um, but we had all kinds of horses. We had less than horses, you know, they could it didn't matter what they were as long as they were good to the kids. Sure.

Rose Cushing 5:00

So tell me a little bit about um your breeding program.

Donna Campbell smith 5:07

Well, I bought a stallion from from Mr. Swain from the brother-in-law um as a yearling, and uh really didn't have in mind that that's what I was gonna do, but it it just came he was really nice. He was Polish bloodlines, which were my favorite. And I had also bought a really nice mare from one of the students as they were graduating. Some of them had brought horses to be used in the program and uh sold them when they were leaving, so I got to buy her. And she just turned out to be like this brood mare, lessoned horse, show horse. She wasn't big on trail riding because she didn't like stuff touching her. So if you went through tall grass and it tickled her or whatever, she's like, jumpy about that. She she wasn't the best trail riding horse. Right. Everything else, and the kids just loved her and yeah. So uh, yeah, it was very small as far as a breeding program was concerned. We bred a few outside horses after he got grown.

Rose Cushing 6:07

I love breeding horses, and I that's the best thing in the world to see that new baby come into the world, and he's a blank slate. Yeah, but he really is because I mean, you know, in two hours they can run as fast as their mom. Right.

Donna Campbell smith 6:18

So it's just so and I was fortunate enough that I saw every one of my babies be born. That is neat. Yep, we did.

Speaker 4 6:29

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Donna Campbell smith 7:29

So tell me about your 4-H program. Well, um, we started the 4-H Horse Club as part of uh part of our overall program, and um that was awesome. It's the best program in the world, and Dr. Maori was was the um horse specialist at that time and he just he just built that program into something wonderful for our whole state. We were top of the line in the country, so many things. So most of my kids were poor and didn't have horses. So they came out to the barn and they worked, they groomed and they exercised the horses and they did stalls, did all the grunge work and everything, so that they could uh have a project horse and show and all that. We had some kids do really, really well.

Rose Cushing 8:19

Every person that I interview in the horse business, or almost every person that has been successful and and has a passion for it, were 4-H kids. I am so impressed with that program. And I it's sad that today they're struggling so hard because people won't become 4-H leaders. You know, so tell them.

Donna Campbell smith 8:39

That that takes a lot of crazy commitment. Yeah. It does. I mean, I had kids spend the spend the night with me and at the house all the time. You know, whether we were studying for Quizbowl or um getting ready, you know, grooming and getting ready to get up early the next day for a horse show or whatever. And we um at that time we organized we not the forage, but well, yeah, they were involved. Um a circuit, a horse show circuit. I can't remember now the name of it, Albemarle Horse Show Circuit, maybe. So it was like Elizabeth City, Eden, and Windsor and Plymouth. So we sponsored these shows and kept points, so the kids got championships and and all that. We gave them some some real goals to work toward and made it uh a bigger community. Yeah.

Rose Cushing 9:30

In in addition to the 4-HD dance.

Donna Campbell smith 9:33

Yeah.

Rose Cushing 9:34

So then from your barn and your lessons as your kids grew up and stuff, you got more into journalism.

Donna Campbell smith 9:40

I didn't really get into the um well, yes, because we published a uh a newsletter. We my daughter was working at um, she was she lived up here, she was graduated from UNC, but still working on campus, and this was before the internet and all these technical obstacles, thing and she was doing she she um she was um state champion in communications and 4-H because she worked for the local newspaper even while she was still in high school. And that was her what she wanted to be when she grew up, was a journalist. And as it turned out, she found out they didn't make any money. Yeah. So she's doing computer stuff. Right. But uh so she helped me, she helped me do that newsletter. She did the layout and the you know the printing that the office. Yeah, there was a lot to tell them, you know, it was all it wasn't memored, we were past that where we had printers and types up, yeah. So uh so we did, so we did, and I wrote articles and and uh interviewed people and got advertising. So we were doing, we did pretty good with that little newsletter. And then after um trying to remember when did I decide to write a book. I was writing, I was doing freelance articles after I had moved up here from Plymouth to Wake Forest after I was divorced and and everything. So trying to make a l trying to make money. And uh so I was writing pretty regularly for Young Writer magazine and um this man who was a photographer that lived in Long Island, New York, had taken a whole bunch of pictures of miniature horses. He just had this was before digital cameras too, so he had like boxes of slides, and he was looking for someone to write text to go with his pictures. Right. Thinking like maybe a picture book, you know, or maybe a tablecloth coffee table book or something. So anyway, he contacted the editor of Young Writer Magazine, and she was already working on a book herself when she gave him my name. And um, so this man with this Yankee accent calls me on the telephone and to write you know all the little red flags, you know, scammer or something, you know. So he told me what he wanted, and um he said I'll get my editor to be in touch with you. I'm like, I don't know, but this just sounds like something off the wall, you know. So I did have internet by then, and um so I researched him and found out he was legit, right? And he was a pretty well-known photographer and all that. So, long story short, the editor got in touch with me, but he wanted a comprehensive book about miniature horses. Okay, so that's when I wrote the book of miniature horses to go with uh this man's photographs. Well, that's a pretty drastic change. It was like a hundred times more work. And then like I got like an advance and everything along the way. But I had actually, before then, I had published my children's book, Pale as the Moon. Um that was that was I think my whole writing career was by divine intervention because I happened to have joined the North Carolina Writers Network and they sent out a newsletter, Paper One, right? And there was an ad in there where somebody wanted um a children's book with North the he was of course starter publishing company, it was all gonna be North Carolina writers and North Carolina subjects, and they wanted a children's book. And I had already kind of started writing this book. So I just um sent him a query letter. I had all the how-to books on how to get published and how to write a query letter, sent him the letter, and he wrote right back, and he's and he said, I would like to see the first three chapters, which thankfully I had written that many chapters. Right. And I sent them to him, and then he wanted to see the whole manuscript, and I had not finished the book. So in a week's time, I finished the book. Right. And they published it, and they gave me an advance and everything, like a real writer, and I was like so excited. So um that's a big deal. So that was my first book, and um, so anyway, I wrote the miniature horse book and I thought, well, if we did the smallest horses, we should do the biggest ones. Well, the photographer wasn't interested in doing the photography because he was on to other things. Yep. So I said, well, I can take pictures. I can take pictures and draft horses. So I pitched the idea to the editor and he said, Yeah, that sounds good because the miniature horse book had was selling good right off the bat. Yeah. And um, so it was kind of easy because I already had kind of like a form to go by. A template, sure. The hardest part was going out and finding people with draft horses, because there aren't really that many of them right around here. Right. So I ended up traveling some, you know, to photograph draft horses. And got that one done. And in the meantime, meeting all these really cool draft horse people, like Mr. uh Jimmy, I can't remember his last name, but he he was having an annual uh plow day at his farm. And went to that, and that was just like a a huge event, and I got to take a whole lot of pictures of draft horses. And uh in through all those contacts, I started meeting mule people because they did the same things that the draft horse horses did. So I thought, okay, well, we need to write a mule book. So wrote the mule book, and then my editor changed, which kind of freaked me out because you get used to working with somebody. But um, but anyway, in meeting the mule people, you meet donkey people, right? So it was only natural do the donkey book, right? And um had a different editor, but then it was a lady and we worked together really great. So uh so that's how those four books got going.

Rose Cushing 16:21

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Donna Campbell smith 16:47

And so recently, in the last year, in the stay-at-home year, lifetime, um the publishing company change sold out to another publishing company. And um for whatever reasons they took the um mule book out of print. All the other three are still in print, but they took the mule book out of print, which I just kind of discovered. They didn't tell me that. Well, yeah. Because I every now and then I would check on uh on Amazon, right? And I was like, well, they're not really selling these are all old editions, you know, because it started out hard back and then put then uh paperback and then the new people changed the covers to make them look like a set. And so I could tell that they weren't selling selling it anymore, it wasn't listed. So I got and I had an agent, by the way, and I inherited her from the photographer because he already had an agent, so that's how I got the agent. So I emailed her and I said, It looks like the new book's out of print.

Speaker 3 17:51

Yeah.

Donna Campbell smith 17:52

So she checked and said, Yes, it is. So they gave me all my rights back, that was in the contract, and in the meantime I had been self-publishing some novels and things, so you had to do that. So I said, Okay, I'm gonna just republish it myself. Yeah. Which I had done, and sales have been great, better than any of my other books. So that's awesome. That was hard work though, because in order to get my files back from the publisher, I was gonna have to pay money. And I thought, eh. And I didn't have the latest edited version for some reason. I think because my email and everything had changed over the years. Right. So I really had to like start from scratch. Right. Like I said, but I had to do the editing and everything from scratch, and I had to I didn't have all the same photographs because they were slides and I didn't get them all back apparently because I don't have them. Right. So I had to get some new pictures, which wasn't it hard at all, you know. You just now get email people say, I need you I need a new picture of your mule to go in the book.

Rose Cushing 19:02

And you make so many contacts and stuff now that makes it because it is communities, and once you're in that community, you learn all the people quickly.

Donna Campbell smith 19:09

And Facebook is wonderful because you get to stay in touch with them too. Yes.

Rose Cushing 19:14

Yep, so that's in a nutshell. Now, do you have another fiction besides Pale as the Moon that are involved horses or?

Donna Campbell smith 19:21

Yes. I wrote Pale as the Moon first, and then I wrote An Independent Spirit, which is a story of Betsy Dowdy and her banker pony Black Beth. She uh warned that the British were coming to Great Bridge and therefore we won the Battle of Great Bridge and stopped Lord Dunmore from coming into North Carolina and taking taking over like he had in Virginia. Nice. So uh that that book went faster because it was based on a legend, so I basically had the plot and all I had to do was write the story. Right. And then after that, um and uh I read um Bear Song, which was a sequel to Pales the Moon. Pales and Moon is based on the story of the lost colony from a Native American perspective. So Bear Song picks up where the colony leaves Roanoke Island and what may have happened to them after that. Nice. So um so those involve the Bear Song did not they they do go back and visit the horses on the outer banks but it's it's got a bear fiend instead of horse feet. Right.

Rose Cushing 20:27

So and I and you're quite a photographer tell me a little bit about that.

Donna Campbell smith 20:32

Well I had to become one to do the books you know after after the miniature horsefoot um because that was part of the requirement from the editor was I needed at least 60 photographs of each book. So yeah I had to go out and take them then in being a member of the uh Franklin County Arts Council we had a photographers guild and at that time we had a man um who was just awesome on getting little mini workshops and things at every meeting and he moved away we missed him so much yeah but learned a lot from Joe Varda was his name. And just watching YouTube and just doing it just without doing it. Which I was an artist to begin with so as far as composition and balance and those kind of things were just kind of natural for you. I knew those. Yeah. So that would be that was a plus.

Rose Cushing 21:30

And and you're you're quite a talented artist. You have so many talents it's hard to know where to start.

Donna Campbell smith 21:35

Tell us a little bit about your art art and um as a little girl I loved to draw and paint and all of that and our landlady was over one day and saw a picture of a butterfly drawn and done with um toilet pencil. And she took lessons from a local artist in town Mr. Frick Winslow and so she gave me a month's lessons for my birthday. Oh nice. It was except that mom and dad couldn't really afford for me to take art lessons so it kind of put them on the spot but they did it. They came up with it until I was old enough to work and pay for it myself. So I took lessons from Mr Winslow starting when I was 12 years old until after I was married and had my first baby. Wow and then he um he moved to Florida I think he retired moved to Florida.

Rose Cushing 22:26

Um and then I took um some classes at the community college and now you teach yeah you teach art yeah so that and you teach a lot of things I I I enjoyed the class that I took from you on how to be your own publisher self-publish your books.

Donna Campbell smith 22:43

I mean that's that was so so much so much has gotten easier yes and and sometimes more more involved right than it was it's been a long time since I did that workshop. I'll have to revamp it. Yeah you you we need another one I could certainly use a refresher so of all the things you've done what do you feel like is your greatest accomplishment in the horse world oh I just think working with the kids just because every now and then I'll hear from one of them you know right Miss you taught me this and that and the other and you think you know you think it's going in one year and out the other. Same with your own children.

Rose Cushing 23:21

Right when they grow up. And we were talking earlier about how you had met what some of your former students that are now growing with kids of their own and their kids have horses. So it must feel good to have been such an influence that you know not only you you've been generational in people's lives as inspiration.

Donna Campbell smith 23:40

I don't really think about it that much but it's it's cool to see them. It's cool to go go to a show and see them out there being the show mama with their own kids and or even if they're not just sitting and they talk about their memories and not thinking um recently was at a show with a friend and his daughter was one of my students and she was talking about how how scared she was every time she got ready to go to the show ring and I was like I had no idea you know didn't know it at the time didn't pick up on that probably too busy being scared for 'em but you know with your guidance she got in there and did it she did she did great yeah well that's really nice now of all the things you've done what's left on your bucket list what's left yep because if you're like me and I know you are you have 400 million things you're still thinking about doing uh I'll think about getting through it one day after the other I've got well I've got a new book coming out which I'm really excited about because it was so much fun has absolutely nothing to do with horses it's about Bigfoot uh huh it's about a woman who who discovered she lives near a national forest and discovered she has a family of Bigfoot living as her neighbors and all of that involved. So anyway that was just a lot of fun to ride. Yeah I've always been kind of an intrigued by the idea right and uh so listened to lots of stories read lots of stories and say okay and just see what this thing to do next.

Rose Cushing 25:18

So I I've read excerpts of it I can't wait to read the whole book now it's coming out next month.

Donna Campbell smith 25:24

I'm I'm sure it'll be um live on Amazon by the 15th of May.

Rose Cushing 25:29

Okay so can our our listeners go to Amazon and put your name in there Campbell Smith okay very good because the books all of the books are very worthwhile and if you have any interest at all in miniature horses or mules or whatever you know these books are wonderful references to to that breed. So for young people coming into our industry now how would you advise them what piece of advice do you wish that you had known when you were young that you can share when I was young all my horses were imaginary because there was no way we could afford to have a horse.

Donna Campbell smith 26:05

So that I think that's why I understood these kids that came and worked in the barn and everything just so they could be near the horses um so I could identify with that. I think just learn all that you can learn read the books. I mean I read all the books at the library I could get my hands on when I was a kid um I did have a friend who had a pony that I got to go see and ride one day it ran away with me. It went just went back to its stall around the barn and back to his stall but um and I also remember at Halloween uh carnival when I was a little little kid and doing the pony rides just all those little things were just so exciting to me. And um I think after talking to my friends at the horse show recently reminds me of what a big deal it is to a kid to get to ride a horse. Absolutely yeah even old kids you know for sure yeah yeah adult students that I had to but um so just do everything you can to learn and if there's a program or a workshop or a 4-H horse club or whatever you know get involved and learn all that you can I I think that you are such a a shining example in our industry of a person who followed their passion and let nothing stop them.

Rose Cushing 27:29

I mean you you know you've gone from learning to ride letting your kids ride letting your kids show having a barn of your own encouraging other kids doing 4 H and then moving on into journalism in later life and you know being successful at all those different things so I I think that your legacy is to never be afraid and to follow your drive you just do it anyway.

Donna Campbell smith 27:50

I mean I was always afraid sure I'm a very timid writer yeah always was but then again I the kids would get on the school bus and I would saddle up my horse and take off and ride all day long until it was time for them to get back home right by myself which was really a stupid thing to do. Well really but but so brat I did have to walk home one time because I got off to leave my horse across the ditch and she and she snatched away from me and went home without me. It was a long ways away from home right I mean I couldn't hurt but thank goodness I wasn't yeah but um so I wouldn't advise that but uh but you just have you do what you have to do sometimes. Yeah just be fearless be fearless and follow those dreams.

Rose Cushing 28:37

Thank you so much for spending time with me I really enjoyed chatting with you and I know the listeners are going to enjoy knowing more about you and reading your books. I hope so yeah thank you thank you I hope you enjoyed today's show our souls wander in similar places even though we may not know each other we touch the same wind we walk under the same sky and our hearts wander in the same dreams we are one women just like you and me. Thank you for listening