Lachlan Farm

Anna Owens McCracken
Owner, Intructor and Trainer
Anna began working as an instructor over 25 years ago.  She began by giving lessons to beginners under the watchful eye of her instructor, Jeanne Cox.  By learning to give riders a solid foundation, she found a love for instructing riders of all levels.  She feels that a good base in Dressage will give all riders the ability to excel in all riding disciplines.  She also began to gain experience polishing and fine tuning beginner horses for their young owners.  After completing an Equitation Education minor at Berry College, and later finishing with a B.S. in History at UAB, she and her husband, Jason, opened Lachlan Farm.  Anna believes strongly that horseback riding should be fun and educational.  The barn should be a safe place for riders to come learn and bond with their horses. 

Riders and horses under her training have gone on to compete locally and nationally with a strong and versatile foundation.  Anna's past horses in training are now competing in Grand Prix jumping events, qualifying for pony finals, and working as schoolmasters in academy settings.  All of her regular show riders place in the local year end hunter and equitation points, and over 90 % of her trained horses have placed in at least the top three of the local year end points in their divisions (100% were in the top 6).  Her most recent horse in training, Avant Garde (a young Trakehner cross mare) ended up placing in two associations' year end awards in BOTH Hunters and Jumpers after just 3 shows (including all blue ribbons in the jumper division locking into the year end Reserve Champion placement).  She currently holds placing in the top 3 of three associations with three horses after just 4 shows.  She knows how to make a real winner on a budget!  Anna now concentrates on the Advanced riders and Owners.

Anna was ridden under Jeanne Cox, Barbara Grubbs, Anna Jane White-Mullin, George and Rebina Gallagher, Herb Snider, Greg Best, Wolfgang Scherzer, Lamonte Hodges, Walter Bickman, and others.  Anna is a member of the USEF, PHJA, and CAEF and is currently Treasurer of the AHJA.

Alyssa Hicks
Instructor and Assistant Trainer
Alyssa is a native of Corpus Christi, Texas who began riding western at age 12. She took 2 lessons a month for a few years, until her family moved outside of the city and she bought her first horse, Freedom, a 3 year old AQHA filly. Freedom at the time was quite spirited, so she took her to several natural horsemanship clinics to help calm her down and got hooked on all the groundwork and playing that goes into training horses. She spent the next few years riding bareback and in a rope halter until she moved to Marion, AL in 2007 to go to Judson College. She joined the Western and Hunt Seat IHSA equestrian teams at Judson and began working on refining her riding overall. After graduating from Judson in May of 2009 with a major in Religion/minor in Equine Science she went on to work at Windwood Equestrian Center in Pelham, AL and began taking a few lessons in jumping. She left Windwood in May to move back to North Carolina to work as a member of Camp Illahee's riding staff, where she has worked for the past 3 summers with Freedom. Alyssa is very excited to now be working at Lachlan Farm and to be able to continue to work on her riding. She hopes to have Freedom ready to show in the spring.

Christy Joiner
Trainer Assistant
Christy is a recent graduate at The University of Montevallo and a graduate of Briarwood Christian High School. She began her riding career by taking private western lessons for 3 years. She began riding english when she started taking lessons with Anna in 2000. She has worked at Lachlan Farm since it opened in 2002. She has won several year end award throughout her career with the Alabama Hunter Jumper Association including 3rd place in the Long Stirrup division with her first horse Magic, 3rd place in the Children's Hunter division and 6th place in the Children's Equitation Medal on the favorite school horse Shotz, and 2nd place in the Non-Thoroughbred division on her current horse Madison Avenue. Maddi is an 8 year old 16.1 hand Hanoverian mare . Update!!  Christy and Maddi are the Champion horse and rider in the Adult Amateurs division of the PHJA and won 6th place at the Tunica Ariat Adult Medal (Maddi's first medal event) and 1st in the Ariat Medal in 2010!  In 2011, she was Champion in the Jr/Am Owner Hunter and Equitation and Reserve Champion in Regular Hunter.

Christal Shew

Beginner Instructor

Christal is a native of Greensboro, Alabama. She received her first pony at the age of two.  At the age of six,  she began taking dressage lessons once a week.  Soon after beginning dressage lessons , she began to compete on lesson horses and also an Appendix named Double.  They trained to third level.  After perfecting flat work for a year or two, she began taking jumping lessons and competing in both dressage and jumping until high school. At this point, she discovered her love of eventing through a family friend who taught her the ropes.  As her love of eventing grew, she also found a great eventing partner in her current horse Winston. Christal and Winston competed lightly and took occasion lessons throughout the four years she was in college.  She graduated in August of 2011 with a degree in Realtime Reporting(Stenograpy), and shortly thereafter married her husband Brent Shew.  She now works as a CART provider at local colleges in the area helping deaf and hearing impaired students.