Jane has a lifetime of experience with horses through riding and caring for them as well as providing many years of leadership and volunteer work in youth and adult equestrian organizations including the Danville Jr. Horsemen, San Ramon Valley Horsemen, Contra Costa County’s Tassajara 4-h, the California State Horsemen’s Association and the Equestrian Center of Walnut Creek. She is certified as both a Horse Assisted Educator with EAHAE, International Association for Horse Assisted Education, and as an Equine Specialist with EAGALA, the Equine Assisted Growth and Learning Association.

Jane was born and raised in a small town in Virginia where she pursued her love for horses by working at a local barn mucking stalls, taking lessons, and assisting trainers. After proving her riding skill, she began exercising and showing American Saddlebred horses for several different owners during her teenage years. Spring, summer, and fall weekends were spent traveling to small town and county fair horse shows in West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina and Virginia. Wintertime in Virginia, gave Jane and friends the opportunity to play with and ride their horses through beautiful snowy fields.

Jane left home for college at VA Tech and then went on to earn her master’s degree from the University of South Carolina in international business. Her master’s work included study at EAFIT university in Medellin, Colombia, followed by a graduate internship in Mexico City with Merck. After she graduated from USC, Jane moved to the San Francisco Bay Area. She has lived and worked in Northern California for over 35 years as a Financial Planner, Investment Advisor, and recently retired from her work as a Sr. Relationship Manager for corporate and non-profit retirement plans. During her career in the financial industry, Jane and her husband raised a horse-loving daughter who grew up riding and competing throughout Northern California on her horses that lived in the family’s backyard barn.

Jane has had the opportunity to ride and compete in multiple riding disciplines in California for 40+ years. She has managed many equine programs and events since moving to the East Bay in 1993 to help ensure that the equestrian community remains strong and accessible to all. Since 2019, Jane has organized and volunteered in therapeutic equine workshops with multiple therapeutic equine organizations with a goal to introduce groups including Veterans and Cancer patients to equine assisted learning and healing. Jane recognized early on that as land for horses became increasingly scarce and expensive in the Bay Area, horses and those who love them must prove a value beyond their use in the equestrian sports to justify keeping space open for them. Horses are now internationally acknowledged for the myriad benefits they provide humans through their use in physical, mental, and emotional therapy.

Today Jane lives on a small ranch property in the San Francisco Bay Area where she currently cares for 3 ponies and takes occasional bareback rides around her neighborhood on her daughter’s beloved Buckskin quarter pony, Buddy. She is blessed to have friends who allow her to ride their horses for arena work, trail rides and horse camping trips as well.

Living a life filled with love for and experience with horses, Jane is dedicated to partnering with them to help others find joy, peace, and connection through Equine Assisted Learning for a healthier, happier life.