By Naomi Smoot-Kimble Rappahannock News Staff Writer Marc Cugnon,

By Naomi Smoot-Kimble

Rappahannock News Staff Writer

Marc Cugnon, who, along with his wife Alaina, has owned Sacred Springs farm in Flint Hill for four years, said he is unsure if a love for horses is in a person’s genes, but he is certain that in his family’s case it is a passion which cannot be shaken, no matter what.

Cugnon spent much of his life riding horses but took what he referred to as a serious fall during a jump 30 years ago.

According to his wife the term “serious” simply does not explain the magnitude of his potential injuries. He is lucky to walk again, let alone find the courage to continue riding, she said.

As a result of the fall, Cugnon threw himself into corporate America, where he spent years working his way to the top of the ladder as a senior executive for a pharmaceutical company in Pennsylvania named Merck.

“For me it was over. I had turned the page,” he said. “It was like the end of it for me.”

But fate had other plans.

He said the only way to calm his infant son Marc, now seven and a half years old, was to push the stroller along the side of horse pastures.

As he got older the couple searched for weekend activities which the family could enjoy together. One of these, his wife said, was to head for strangers’ farms with a bag of carrots to see if they could feed their horses.

During one such weekend Cugnon was asked to help tame a seemingly unbreakable horse. Still fearful from his earlier fall he agreed, but refused to get close to the horse. He sent down directions from what he considered a safe distance away, but never came too close to the horse itself.

But within a matter of weeks Cugnon’s love for riding had grown stronger than his fears. With each training session he crept closer to the horse and finally, he did something no one thought they would ever see again, he started riding.

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