Jean Thornton

USDF/USEF "r" Dressage Judge, USDF Bronze, Silver and Gold Medalist. Owner and head trainer of Equivale Jean has been riding horses since she was a toddler. Originally from Minnesota at age 12 she started competing in various 4H shows and attended horse camp every year and quickly became the youngest person in MN at the time to pass the Adavnced Level Certified Horsemaship Award. As a teenager Jean bought a purbred arabian named Galcimer (a.k.a Ghost), they showed all of the disciplines offered at the arabian shows. Soon after being introduced to dressage in college, Jean and Ghost quickly recieved Arabian Grand National and Reserve Championships through 4th level together. Ghost also took Jean to her USDF Bronze Medal. Ghost lived a long life of 34 years on the farm at Equivale. Once Ghost was retired Jean was determined to find her Grand Prix star and she did in Conversano II Aloha II (a.k.a. Lou), a young Lipizzan stallion who captured Jean's heart. Jean has trained Lou since he was 4 years old and has succesfully brought him to Grand Prix. Together they have earned over 28 USDFAll Breeds National Championships through Grand Prix and Jean's Silver and Gold Medals. In the most recent years Jean has ridden Lou in sidesaddle dressage demonstrations and she has also trained him to drive. Jean has studied dressage with numorous trainers inculding, Dominique Barbier, Michael Poulin (Olympic Bronze Medalist), Jan Brink, Tom Noone (former World Cup Competitor), Rodrigo Matos ( Principle rider at the Portugese riding school), and many others. In 2004 Jean imported a young cremello ZFDp stallion Blue Eyed Dream and purchased several chestnut mares in the hopes of breeding Equivale's 4-inhand driving team of dark golden palominos! Jean is now focusing on breeding her future combined driving team, competing Blue Eyed Dream in combined driving events as well as teaching students and judging dressage shows.

Denis Thornton

A former officer in the British Royal Navy Equivale would be lost without Denis' mechanical and building knowledge. He keeps the farm running in tip top shape and keeps the horses bellys full of hay. Denis is the navigator for Jean and Blue Eyed Dream when they compete in combined driving events. He is also the southeast sales representative for Pacific Carriages and for Duplessis Hay Feeders.

Charity Messer

Originally from Tennessee, Charity came to work at Equivale in 2005. Starting out riding with the Pony Club at 14 she quickly was mesmerized by dressage. She rode as many horses as possible at the local eventing barn but a good dressage trainer was hard to come by in Tn. At 19 she worked for a while as a Barn Manager in Maryland only to find that managing a 30 horse boarding facility left not much time for riding. So she sold her Tb mare and started loooking for a dressage related job, fate stepped in and brought her to Equivale. Charity is now the barn manager/assistant trainer at Equivale and does all of the training and undersaddle competing of Blue Eyed Dream, as well as Buttercup ( one of Dream's offspring) and is training many of Equivale's other young horses to ride and drive. Charity has big plans to take Blue Eyed Dream all the way to Grand Prix and Grand Prix Freestyle! The two are currenly competing succesfully at 2nd level and have just recently competed for the first time at the Region 3 Dressage Championships together, and has brought Dream to win the First Place USDF National AWR First Level Horse award for the 2008 competition year, Blue Eyed Dream is also the first stallion Charity has trained. Since beginning working at Equivale Charity has gained expereince in breeding, collecting stallions, foaling, and working with foals and horses of all ages. She has been able to emerse herself in dressage and work with many different trainers including Erin Brinkman (FEi competitor/trainer), Tom Noone ( former Wolrd Cup competitor), Dominique Barbier, Rodrigo Matos ( principle rider at the Portugese riding school) and many others. She also updates/mananges Equivale's website.

Chewy & Fargo

Chewy is Charity's pomeranian and resident cheerleader. He's our golden palomino colored mascot and loves hanging out at the shows ( shown above) and helping at feeding time.

Fargo is Jean and Denis' right hand man. A rare chinese crested, Fargo welcomes all visitors to Equivale when they enter the driveway and rides alongside Denis on the tractor helping him with the farm work.