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Vanessa is a graduate of
the University of Tennessee, Knoxville with a Bachelor of Science
Degree in Agriculture, majoring in Food Technology and Science.
She also completed over 30 hours of animal science studies at
UTK, including courses in nutrition, feeds and ration formulation,
horse selection and judging, anatomy and physiology, physiology
of reproduction, and farm management.
During her 30-year career with
a global food manufacturing industry leader, she and her husband
raised 2 sons, while establishing a very successful family-owned
Connemara Pony breeding operation. They began Foothills Farms
& Piedmont Connemaras in 1998 in Winston-Salem, NC, and continues
today in Athens, TN.
They have managed 7 breeding stallions,
have bred outside mares (as well as their own) by both AI/TS
and live cover on the farm. Vanessa feels very blessed to have
been responsible for the birth of over 50 Connemaras on her farm.
She particularly enjoys handling and training foals (birth -
2 y.o.) and she has also trained and competed in combined training
and combined driving. She also enjoys mountain trail rides, local
dressage and CT shows. More significantly, she has successfully
matched up many ponies with loving and appreciative owners.
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Vanessa is a Life Member
of the American Connemara Pony Society and has participated as
a Board Member, Vice-President, Regional Chairman, worked on
several committees, and has managed shows for the ACPS Region
4.
She earned the Crestwood Service
Award from the ACPS for her dedication and contributions to the
Connemara Pony and the work of the society, both regionally and
nationally.
Vanessa has visited and studied
Connemaras across the US and also in Ireland with the national
inspection teams, to improve her eye for type and quality. |
Vanessa was bitten by the
horse-bug at an early age, around 4. This is her at a locally
reknowned riding stables, where she rode everything from saddle
seat, to racking horses to side-saddle. |
Vanessa was suprised on her birthday
with her first horse at age 12:  
an unregistered mare named Gypsy:-) |
Vanessa eventing on her beloved
Balmullo's Beacon: 
a purebred Connemara stallion |