*Visitors by appointment only*
Karen Barber-Gardner
Dothan, AL
karenmba
My name is Karen and I'm a lifelong horse person. I love nothing more than working with people and horses.
I ran a show/lesson barn in Freedom, NY until 2007 when I moved to the Albany, NY. I am now down in Dothan, AL.
Well, I was the totally horse crazy kid that everyone hears about. After ages of begging my parents gave in and let me start riding lessons. At the age of 12 in 1984 I won in my first walk jog class and never looked back. I worked hard at a couple different stables to earn my riding lessons and I soaked up everything I could. 4H was a huge part of my youth years, I would show in all divisions on several different horses. By the time I was 15 I decided that I wanted to ride at A rated shows and did well with my National Show Horses. Our family owned Arabians, National Show Horses and Morgans. I've been blessed enough to ride some gifted animals under some awesome trainers. I fell in love with Morgan horses in the late 90's and have had the opportunity to show and do well at the world show level. My career highlight was a reserve grand national title in open Hunter Pleasure at the Morgan world championships in 1997.
In the mid 90's my family built a small farm in Freedom, NY where I trained several different breeds and taught several youth riders. My daughter Allie started riding and showing as soon as she was old enough to handle horses on her own. As a stable we won many, many awards in several different divisons. I specialize in hunt, saddleseat and western pleasure and equitation. It's so great to see my child take what she has learned into the show ring and succeed.
In 2005 I met Kevin Gardner who was in the Navy, he's such a wonderful man and loves the horses as much as I do. In 2007 I shut down the program at my farm and moved across state to be with him during his last year in the Navy. I had the opportunity to go to a large show facility where the owner had me work a few problem horses, I loved it! After Kevin's retirement he accepted a job at the Farley Nuclear Plant in Ashford, AL. We moved two horses down here December 2008.
We plan to continue showing our horses down here, I'm looking forward to making more "horsey" friends. Please feel free to contact me with any questions, I would love to hear from you.
Karen Barber-Gardner
Dothan, AL
karenmba