Mentors

Pam Menke at Easton Meadows continues to teach taught me a lot. She is one of the kindest, most sharing, humble horsewomen I know. If you ever have a chance to work with her, do it. See Making Strides to learn more about the facilitated experiential activities Pam offers.

Tabitha Goetschalckx at Longshadows shared a few of her best mustang handling secrets with me. I first learned the muzzle rub from her, how to truly read a horses body language, and most importantly, timing and feel. Tabitha turned me onto Mounted Archery. Tabitha’s love of mounted archery led to an introduction to Pam, who then shared Easton Meadows beautiful space for our first workshops. Tabitha works part time as a farrier, and trims many horses. She showed me the quick file trim, achieving a perfect mustang roll. Wish I could repeat that! See Tabitha’s Facebook page to get in touch with her for lessons, trimming and training.

Cathy Hatrick Anderson kindly took me on and let me follow her around while she trained TRULY dangerous horses. When Cathie walks into her pasture at Bobcat Farm you will see all her horses immediately turn to face her. It’s impressive. She doesn’t have to do anything more than show up and they are all eyes and ears. There are no treats involved here. Because of Cathie, I learned how to always seek respect from a horse. She’s a true cowgirl and wins quite a few mounted shooting competitions. Check her out on Youtube and Facebook for some real action and to get your horse trained up right.

Kyle Gardner owns Cinch Em Up where folks can hop on a nice horse and take a ride up the mountain. He is a local cowboy who’s family owns Gardner’s Ice Cream and Coffee Shoppe where he can frequently be found if you need to buy some hay. When we had a foster mule with a stuck halter, Kyle came out with Justin and roped that feral mule to cut the halter off. I watched those guys risk their lives just to help out a friend. Thank you gentlemen!

The Gardners are pillars of our community here. Kyle’s family provides rodeo entertainment, along with food for us and our livestock. Visit these great folks in Stephentown, NY for yummy ice cream, the best beef in the state, healthy fat round bales, nice riding horses, and amazing roping.

Most of all, our mentors are those brave individuals who protect us, and protect our country, working every single minute of every hour to ensure our safety, and those individuals are our Police, Military and EMS. Thank you all so much for your service to our country.