By DOUG GRAVES
Ohio Correspondent

BETHEL, Ohio — She’s a landscaping designer with a passion for horses. So it’s no wonder that Tracy Fehring of Clermont County, Ohio, applies the equine touch to most of her landscaping and pottery pieces.
“I love the horses first,” she said, comparing her hobby and career. “Horses are my passion. And the landscaping business that I run allows me to afford the horses.”
Tracy and her husband, Matt, reside on a nine-acre farm adjacent to East Fork State Park, far away from any street lights of nearby Bethel. Thirty-six acres were for sale and Fehring talked the elderly owner into selling just nine for her horse farm. She wanted this private piece of land to raise her four Oldenburg horses.
“The breed has been protected for a long time in Germany before Americans started breeding them,” Fehring said.
She owns her own landscaping business, which she calls Rock & Roll Designs. As one might expect, the entrance to her farm is beautifully designed. Floral arrangements are accented with sandblasted rock formations, many which carry the equine touch.
Water ponds, she says, is her specialty but any horse enthusiast would envy her talents in design.
“I’m big on design and making things better,” she said. “I’m stimulated by creativity, and I gravitate towards horse people.” Indeed, she supplements her incomes by giving riding lessons to youth.
Fehring attended design school at University of Cincinnati, with a concentration on landscaping. There she learned some techniques in pottery, which also carries equine applications.
“I went to college in order to keep horses as my hobby,” Fehring said. “I didn’t want horses to be enjoyment, not something I had to do.”
She’s been a landscaper for 15 years and been at the potter’s wheel for 23. “The pottery I create is a wintertime thing,” she said.
Inside the small barn, one finds a huge kiln, a potter’s wheel and hundreds of crafted bowls, urns and plates awaiting buyers. In a large barn not far away are her Oldenburg foursome – Cheval, Logan, Macedonia and Corona.
“I count my blessings,” she said. “This place is a dream come true. I’m so fortunate here.”
Rock & Roll Designs is located at 3023 Macedonia Road in Bethel. Fehring can be reached at 513-233-1107.