About
Amy grew up around horses and most of her early years were spent finding every opportunity to climb on her horse Rosie. As a homeschooled child with 6 siblings, she often found peace from chaos on the back of her horse and one could find her most days bareback on her grazing mare. She would ride out on trail alone for hours at a very young age. Her horse was her best friend. Coming from an economically challenged family, she babysat to pay for her own riding lessons and participated in 4H shows.
In her early adult years, she left the horse world for college, career and starting a family. Amy has been a teacher, working primarily in homeschool charters, for 25 years. She is married to a wonderfully supportive husband named Sean and has two children, Joshua and Aurora.
When her own children showed an interest in riding, she ended up back at a barn taking lessons, which rekindled her love of horses. She found solace from chaos once again in the presence if these amazing animals. After years of taking lessons and leasing horses, she encountered a rescue horse named Faith that was in need of a new home. Faith was terrified to the point of being dangerous, but when she came over and pushed her head into Amy's chest for comfort, there was no choice but to help her, so Amy and her daughter, Aurora, took Faith on and started the difficult process of a restarting a traumatized horse. After ending up tossed in the dirt, Amy took up a trainer's advice to learn groundwork and has not looked back. Groundwork and learning to communicate with horses has become her passion, and she wants to share that passion with others.
Aurora
Aurora Wood has been riding since the age of 7 and over the years, her knowledge of riding and horsemanship have grown. Her journey has included both English and Western riding, trail riding, bareback and bride-less riding and showing gymkhana. The past few years, she has began learning about natural horsemanship by following the Parelli Levels Program and working with seasoned mentors. Because of her care for the welfare of animals and her empathy, she is able to gain the trust of horses. Only when she feels that a horse will accept her as a rider will she attempt to ride. For Aurora, the connection is key in all she does with horses.
Arielle
Arielle Hultner began riding at age 12 and took lessons in English and Western disciplines. She has focused on Western gymkhana riding--where she has taken horses that were thought to have plateaued to more advanced divisions--but recently has begun more dressage work as well. In her pursuit of knowledge about horses, she has learned many aspects of natural horsemanship training, including tack (and bit) knowledge. After acquiring a very wide young AQHA, Kleo, she also learned much about saddle fit. She enjoys groundwork and has seen firsthand the positive results on the young horses she works with. She's always eager to learn and teach more about all sorts of approaches--she's not wed to one system or method--to help horses and is constantly researching to improve her knowledge.
Luke
Luke Benton started riding at the age of three. He took lessons for years and eventually began to compete in gymkhana, working his way up to AAA champion of the CGA Mudslingers--all on leased horses. In the fall of 2020, he found his perfect project, a three-year-old bay roan mare named Mia. In search of ways to improve his training of Mia, Luke began to learn groundwork with a natural horsemanship approach. The training has been incredible in terms of helping him and his horse develop their relationship and to help his horse stay calm and clear-headed as she entered the show world.