Carolanne's professional journey began in 2014 when she attended Meredith Manor International Equestrian Center in Waverly WV, an equine trade school. There she studied teaching, western riding, and classical dressage. After completing their 9 month Riding Master III program, Carolanne graduated with high honors and a riding instructor's certificate.
Who We Are
We are a small facility offering professional horse training, riding lessons, and horse board care with a warm homey feel.
Under Construction
Carolanne Smith - Owner/Trainer/Instructor
Carolanne's passion for horses began at the young age of 3 but like many horse-crazy kids she had to wait until she was 6 before the local riding stable would take her for lessons. However, it wasn't until she was 12 that her riding career really began. Carolanne was fortunate to have started riding at Reindance Stables under the watchful eye of skilled horsewoman Sally Lindaberry as well as Jennifer Lake. Together they made a great team and had many local and national successes throughout Carolanne's Jr. years. As an adult before becoming a professional, Carolanne spent 2 years under the direction of Harry, Carolyn, and Jessica Sebring of Sebring Stables.
Carolanne's professional journey started in 2014 when she attended Meredith International Equestrian Center in Waverly WV. At the equine trade school, she studied teaching, reining type western riding, and classical dressage. She graduated after 9 months from their Riding Master III program with high honors including Excellence in Teaching and Outstanding Graduate. In 2016 Carolanne took her first official job as an apprentice to Smith Lilly at Mercer Springs Farm in Princeton, WV. It was there that she honed her Saddle Seat training skills and the attention to detail that is required of a top-level groom and caretaker. Through she had been around the American Saddlebred breed before this was her first real dive into that specific breed. She was also introduced to the Hackney Pony breed during her time at MSF.
In 2018 she decided it was time to return to her Morgan Horse roots as well as teaching kids to ride and took the position of Assistant Trainer to Micheal Perillo and Cheryl Manahan at Cheryl's Wichita Riding Academy in Wichita, KS. With Mike's guidance, Carolanne was able to bring everything she had learned over the years together into her own unique style of training. At WRA Carolanne also got to learn more of the in's and out's of equitation from Cheryl, "I'm really glad I had that opportunity because while I was confident in teaching correct posture there are a lot of little technical details in riding equitation that I wasn't all that familiar with. It was great to be able to ask her questions and listen to her help the kids plan out how they would ride their patterns!" Not only was she able to be around equitation but she was the one who rode all the training horses therefore Carolanne was able to work on her skills of equating a horse.
Despite the incredible opportunities Carolanne had at WRA, she decided it was time to move back home to Upstate NY. She was able to a job with Amy and Page Champion at their Braeburn Equestrian Center in Chatham, NY. Carolanne actually interned for them during her summer break from Meredith Manor and the Champions became some of her best supporters as she continued her professional journey. Amy and Page were delighted to have Carolanne join their team as an Assistant.