Our Trainers

I wanted to mention a couple of people that have been so valuable to our business. The first one is Steven Marchal pictured at the left with Athena when she was only 2 years old. He is a C3 pony clubber that grew up (in the horse world) here at Bridlewood. I can still remember the first time he came to the barn with his parents and now he is the manager of CIRTS (Central IL Riding Therapy). He left Bridlewood when he went off to college at Murray State University in Kentucky. He did not leave the horse world behind but instead first took our Lily down to school with him and then Athena. By the time he came back with Athena she was ready to be shown. He has a talent for bringing along the young ones. The man that bought Athena calls every now and again with an update and almost always tells me that their instructor tells him that the person who started Athena did a great job. Good job STEVEN!


The other I want to mention is a girl named Emily. We gave Emily kind of a hard job. We sent her Big Sally. Big Sally came to us with some not so good habits. At the age of 5 she had never been trained under saddle and only just started at driving at 2years then left alone for 3 years. She didn't respect people and was so large that she was almost dangerous. Sally was also herd bound and would be so focused on where the other horse were she wouldn't pay any attention to the handler. Emily taught Sally ground manners, lunging, and then put her under saddle. Sally came back to us respectful, we can ride her with or without a saddle, single or double. Best of all she wants to please. Sally is due this May and is currently out with the herd at MiddleGrove. We will bring her in to Bridlewood to foal out as this is her first foal. Good job EMILY!