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California Riding Magazine • March, 2010 Cottonwood Farms |
Cottonwood Farms is just coming into its own as a full-service boarding and training facility. But it will be much more than that, says barn manager and trainer Heidi Lemire. She and the 10-acre facility’s owner Tom Kiepe share the vision of creating a hub of equestrian education at Cottonwood Farms, located in a shady grove of cottonwood trees in the town of Aguanga, 20 minutes from Temecula. Boarders get the everyday benefits of stabling their horses at a beautiful and functional property. Cottonwood currently has room for 30 horses, with possibilities for future expansion. Amenities include an all-purpose arena, dressage court, a stadium field and a round pen, all of which are lit for evening riding. Grass pastures are the newest addition and, with all of the recent rain, they are coming in beautifully, Lemire reports. Plenty of jumps and a judging booth will enable Cottonwood to fulfill an eventual goal of hosting small hunter/jumper and dressage schooling shows.
The property’s pool and BBQ area are available for special events and the facility’s bathroom features a handy full shower. Both horses and riders can count on being safe. Lemire and her fiancé Robert Howerton live on the property, along with the owner. At present Lemire’s main emphasis is tending to boarding-related issues, but she looks forward to building her training business at Cottonwood when time allows. A rider for most of her life, Lemire grew up with horses and other animals on her family’s farm in Washington state. Her equestrian upbringing includes hunter/jumper, team roping, reining, working cow horses and a lot of general horsemanship experience. Helpful History When Lemire took up training horses professionally, she gravitated to Andalusians, where she accrued 10 years of high-level experience with Rancho Sueno in the Carlsbad area. In that post, she imported many horses from Spain and ran their breeding program, including artificial insemination, foaling, nutrition and everything else that came up. Dressage was her training specialty with the Rancho Sueno horses, who attained considerable success on the Pura Raza Espanola competition circuit. The stallion Carcelero V was one of her biggest success stories with Rancho Sueno: he was promptly sold after finishing third in a national stallion suitability class.
Several years working at a large animal veterinary hospital were also instrumental in shaping Lemire’s approach and gave her the skills necessary to give injections and vaccinations and to recognize and treat many equine health issues. Over the years, Lemire has incorporated natural horsemanship, Parelli practices, in particular, into her conventional training. She’s developed a special knack with young horses and has had success with several rehab and abused horses. With all horses and students, she believes in an individualized approach. “My biggest thing is to find out what works for that individual horse,” she explains. “I don’t do the cookie cutter training. I don’t expect every horse to respond the same so I don’t train them the same.”
For more information on Cottonwood Farms, please call Heidi Lemire at 949-291-3627 or visit www.cottonwood-farms.com. |
