Meet the Owner
Horses were never just a phase in my life. Starting at the tender age of five, I was obsessed. I started taking riding lessons and showing, all the way through college and kept the habit well after, trading work time for lessons and training for boarding my own horses. I have experience in english hunter jumper, eventing, and a little dressage. While I am comfortable in a western saddle I have never competed western.
Life has thrown many twists and turns at me but I have always found the saddle to be my home. I can boast of a law degree, but never use it, I found I wasn't happy having to frame my life in an office setting and could not bring myself to dedicate my life to a system I didn't believe in. After as little as two years I longed for more.
I gave up law to focus on agriculture, moved to California to study as part of a beginning farmer training program, and found my calling. After two years, and listening to a podcast about this amazing woman-owned organic vegetable farm in northern Virginia, I reached out to Hana of Potomac Vegetable Farms to see if there was a spot on the crew for me, there was.
In 2019 I moved to Virginia to work on the farm and fell in love with the area. I once again started reaching out to local stables to trade work time for ride time and sure enough, was able to quickly find a farm that felt right. There I worked and trained horses until I came across one I could not part with, Pan, a partially blind baby thoroughbred. At two years old I got to train him from the ground up and he has become my heart horse. He will be five in April 2022. I am working with him to do eventing and we have even capped into a few hunts in the area.
In 2020 I started renting a house on a small farm seven minutes from Potomac Vegetable Farms so I could still be in the area and work a job I loved. When the owners decided to sell, I jumped at the opportunity to own my own piece of paradise. I moved Pan home and began the process of making my farm a place to share with the community. Thus Dark Spring Stables was born.
It is a place where other horse owners can share in the beauty of the mountainside without having the pressure of a show barn. A place to come and relax and enjoy their horses and know they are taken care of and loved as if they were my own. A retreat for non-horse owners to come and share in the love of horses and the experience of riding. Through a number of engaging trail options, members of the community can enjoy learning about and riding horses while experiencing beautiful historic scenery and even enjoy a glass of wine, courtesy of Walsh Family Wines. I love what I do every day and I think it shows in everything I do.
If you would like to share the experience or have any questions, please don't hesitate to reach out.