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 About Southern Springs and Owner Information on Blake Barnett

Southern Springs was started late in 2006 and offically opened January 2007. We are in our fifth year of business and have grown every year. We have hosted a number of horse shows and bought and sold some very nice horses over the years. We are primarily a boarding facility that has catered mostly to college age students who have brought their horses to school while attending Auburn University. We have also hosted lessons and summer camps for children of all ages and with the help of Tracy Morton, our new trainer, we hope to give people of all ages a chance to get involved in lessons and riding at our farm in the near future.

A little information and short bio on Blake Barnett...

     Blake Barnett was born in Decatur, Alabama October 2, 1982 and attended West Morgan elementary and middle school. After becoming heavily involved in sports. Blake made the decision to move to Decatur Heritage Christian Academy for his high school years. Blake played all sports including Basketball, Football, Baseball, Soccer, and Golf. Basketball being his first love and favorite sport, he successfully helped the 1A private school transition into the Alabama public school system sports division and was part of some great teams being a 4 year starter on the Varsity squad and took his team to Birmingham for 2 Final Four state championship runs. After graduating high school, Blake chose to turn down many scholarship offers to small colleges and preferred to stay home and attend Calhoun Community College where he accepted a musical scholarship for playing guitar throuh the Fine Arts department. Blake picked up guitar in middle school and was part of worship teams that lead music for youth groups never thinking that one day it could help pay for college. After completing a few semesters at Calhoun, Blake applied to Auburn University and was accepted in 2003. In 2007, Blake graduated from Auburn with a double major/double minor in History, Secondary Education Social Science, Business, and Sociology.
     While attending Auburn, Blake developed a passion for horses and took a part time job at a local farm as a ranch hand. Soon after, he was hired by Auburn University Vet School's Equestrian Center that housed the team horses for Auburn's Womens Equestrian Team. There, Blake learned all his farm and barn management skills that would later help him start Southern Springs Equine Service. While working with Auburn Equestrian, the team had great success including the 2006 National Championship Equestrian Team.
     Starting Southern Springs was a huge challenge for Blake, having no prior business ownership experience or business start up experience. However, through a lot of hard work and learning many lessons the hard way, the farm has been successful. Blake has held a vareity of jobs growing up including construction crew hand for his grandfather's company Stutts Corporation, Server at O'Charleys restaurant, fork lift driver and truck loader for FedEx, door to door salesman for kitchen knives, retail salesman for a guitar shop, and worked for a number of mowing companies, as well as an EMT for East Alabama Medical Center.
      While growing Southern Springs, Blake returned to school part time at Southern Union Community College to complete the Emergency Medical Technician program and is liscened to practice medical emerency care in the state of Alabama which has also helped to put a number of parents at ease when sending their children to school and moving away from home for the first time.
    Blake lives on the farm full time and loves to be involved in the lives and careers of his clients not only taking daily care of the horses, but being there as a resource to help the students excel in school as well as being there to help out in other ways such as coming to the rescue for flat tires, finding local jobs, advice on choosing majors, finding apartments and roomates in Auburn and in general being there for the girls in desperate times of need. He truly cares for his clients and tries to establish long term relationships on a personal and business level.
    Blake enjoys being in the outdoors in his free time and loves wildlife management, and is an avid bow hunter. He also enjoys Auburn Football, playing sports, playing the guitar, grilling out and cooking for friends, and being on the lake in the summers boating and wakeboarding. Below is a photo timeline to help you get to know Blake a little better.