Instructors

Hi! I was born in California and my family moved to Idaho when I was eight years old. I begged and begged, and finally started riding lessons when I was about nine. I eventually ended up taking lessons at Once Upon a Horse, and that is where I learned about Pony Club. I was just learning how to jump, and found that to be about the most fun thing I had ever done. Then when I saw the Vaulting team perform at the Horse Expo, I begged and begged some more until my parents signed me up. I was already in 4-H and using a leased horse, but BossMan wasn't a great jumper. So, I used schooling horses from OUAH for awhile until Destina came up for lease from another Pony Clubber. Even though she rushed the jumps and bucked me off almost every time, I still knew she could be a good horse if I worked with her enough. I then had to beg my parents some more until they bought her for me. She took me through to my C-2 rating, and I took her to college with me in Pocatello (Idaho State University). She finally mellowed out about that time, and I was able to start giving lessons on her. She and I helped instruct several kids in the local 4-H and Pony Club, as well as introducing them to the fun sport of Vaulting. We weren't always teaching though, we learned a lot too! We did some roping and cow penning, went on an overnight pack trip in the mountains, and even traveled to Oregon to give rides to disabled children at Camp Attitude.

During one summer vacation, I got to work with the Elks Rehabilitation Hospital Hippotherapy Program. What a great experience! The horses were awesome and really seemed to understand that they had to be careful, and the kids had such a blast! The program worked with children with both mental and physical disabilities. It was really neat to see how the kids progressed over the summer just from riding and being around horses once or twice a week.

Last summer I finally got involved with the Boise Pony Club again. I helped out with the vaulting program last winter, and we ended up using Destina as the vaulting horse. It was nice to see how far she has come since I started riding her 10 years ago. I started coaching games last summer, and then started as an official lesson instructor in the fall. I'll help with vaulting again this winter, and continue with games, polocrosse and regular lessons next year.

When I'm not busy with Pony Club and my work at Micron, I spend my free time training ponies and enjoying time with my family. This picture is the last pony I worked with, Diamond Diva. She'll be a really fun eventer for her new owner. My son Korbin just turned two, and he has already claimed Destina as "his" horsey. He loves to ride whenever he gets a chance, and hopefully he'll join Pony Club when he's older.