Meet one of our barn hands Angie! She was born and raised in Charleston, SC and started in the carriage industry in 1991 where she gave tours for four years until moving to Georgia.
Angie has dedicated her entire life to working alongside horses. At the turn of the century, she showed percheron draft horses for Twin Dreams Farm and also worked for Red Oak Stables. She was an assistant trainer and head instructor for Saddlebred and Hackney ponies.
In 2005, Angie moved to Ocala, Florida where she showed and ran the breeding operation for Briar Patch Farm Clydesdale and Clyde ponies. She even reached the national level, drug testing for the United States Equestrian Federation. Angie moved back home to South Carolina in 2011 and has been working in the carriage industry ever since.
A typical day for Angie starts around 5:30 a.m. when she feeds and halters all the animals at the stable. Her selflessness towards the animals is always evident, Angie explained, “I get there that early so that the animals have time to eat and relax a bit before they work.” She also makes certain all water buckets are always full and goes to get carriages if needed.
Angie, along with the help of other tour guides, push the carriages to their designated locations to hook up the animals. Before the horses take to the streets, they are all groomed and the ones with the white coats are usually washed.
Angie also has the important job of taking their temperatures, which she records so everyone knows that all the animals are well. She then takes the horses’ temperatures again when they return from a tour and dumps their diapers.
Clipping the animals has also become a special task for Angie, “That’s my thing. I like to make sure that my animals are clipped. In the end I’m a show girl and I do my best to make sure that the animals could go in the ring and win. This is my passion. I’m lucky that I am able to do this for a living.”
With someone who holds so much knowledge of so many areas of horses, we are thrilled to have Angie as a part of our team!