About the Team
Hi, this Allison! I am a senior Special Education major at Midwestern State University and I have a little over 14 years experience with horses. I am a member of the American Riding Instructors Association (ARIA) as of March 2017 and a Level I Recreational Riding Instructor as of May 1st, 2017. I will now tell you a little about myself and about JKAT Farm.
JKAT Farm stands for Jerry and Kristy, my parents, and Allison and Taylor, which is my lovely assistant riding instructor and sister.
Ever since I was a little girl, horses have been a big part of my life. I drew horses on all my papers, ran around on the playground like a horse, wore countless five dollar Atwood's horse t-shirts to school, and daydreamed for hours on end about what it would be like to actually own real live horse one day. It wasn't until I was in the sixth grade that my parents bought me a horse. My dreams finally became a reality, when Dan (Dances With Ravens) came into my life. Dan was bought from Whispers of Hope Horse Farm. I volunteered at Whispers of Hope from the 6th grade until I was a senior in high school. I have over 1000 hours of community service from Whispers of Hope from teaching mentally and physically challenged youth to ride horses. I also volunteered multiple summers by being a summer camp volunteer. Growing up I was very active in Wichita County 4-H. I competed in horse shows, horse quiz bowl, hippology, horse judging, and in the horse demonstration contests at the local, district, state, and national levels. My team went to four national horse contests representing the grand state of Texas. Our team placed in the top ten in the nation in all contests. We went to the AQHA Youth World Horse Quiz Bowl Contest (2010), American Quarter Horse Congress twice competing in horse quiz bowl and in hippology (2011 &2012) in Columbus, Ohio, and the National Western Stock Show in Denver, Colorado (2013) competing in hippology. I went to Rider High School and competed in horse judging through FFA and I was also one the first Stock Horse Team at Rider where we placed 1st in Abilene, Texas . I am no professional horse person, as I continue to learn every time I am around horses. I love to teach people about horses and my ultimate dream , along with finishing college and becoming a teacher is to have my own horse camp in the summer one day.
Taylor is a Senior at Rider High School this year! She is my amazing sister who also got the "horse crazy" gene!
Buddy is a 13 year old grade pinto gelding who has come a long way.
Dan is a 17 year old Appaloosa gelding with a personality that will put a smile on your face. He a horse to be reckoned with.
American Riding Instructors Association (ARIA) Instructor Listings are attached to the link below:
www.riding-instructor.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Texas.pdf