Anna Owens McCracken
Owner, Intructor and Trainer
Anna
began working as an instructor almost 20 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 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, working as
schoolmasters in academy settings. All of her regular show riders place in the local year end hunter and equitation points, and
over 85 % 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). Just some of the recent riders and horses include Christy Joiner, Marti Teasley,
Olivia Scales, Katy Knutsson, Jacqui Williams, Obvious Conclusion,
G.Q., Lachlan, Honey I Shrunk Your Warmblood, Nickers and Kneesocks,
Apple of My Eye. Her most recent horse in training, Avant Garde ended up placing in two associations' year end awards in BOTH Hunters and Jumpers after just 3 shows (including all blue riddons in the jumper division locking into the Reserve Champion placement).
Anna was ridden under Jeanne Cox, Barbara
Grubbs, Anna Jane White-Mullin, George and Rebina
Gallagher, Herb Snider, Wolfgang Scherzer and others. Her current trainer is Lamonte Hodges from Ponce de Leon, Florida.
Anna has a
devoted husband, Jason McCracken and a beautiful and talented daughter,
Josephine (a.k.a. Jo Jo). Jason has faithfully built our farm from
scratch (while running his own business, MC2, a computer consulting firm in Homewood, AL). He also helps break our baby
horses at the farm (it's hard to throw a power lifter off of your
back). Anna's daughter, Josephine, has
been coming to the barn since she was three days old. She loves horses
and already helps instruct... she is not afraid to tell any rider to
get their heels down or slow their horse down.
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Christy Joiner
Barn Manager
Christy
is a freshman 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 seven years ago. She has worked at
Lachlan Farm since it opened five years ago. 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 a green 6 year old 16.1 hand Hanoverian
mare that she has had for the past year. Update!! Christy and Maddi
are the leading 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).
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Katy Knutsson
Team Lachlan Coordinator
Katy is a freshman at Spain Park High School. She began her riding career by taking flat lessons for 4 years. She also created lesson plans and instructed some lessons with her old trainer. She then started taking lessons from Anna 4 years ago, and has progressed farther then she ever thought she would. Going from no jumping at all, to now jumping 3 feet and up! Katy helps out at the barn with camps, shows, and regular barn work. She has leased many horses at the barn including Buster Brown (Honey I Shrunk Your Warmblood), winning a 4th place year end award with the Alabama Hunter Jumper Association. After leasing many horses in the barn, she finally got her first pony for Christmas in 2007. She trained and showed Prissy for a year and a half, but eventually outgrew her and sold her to the another rider at the barn. After a long, hard search for the perfect new horse, we found Lexi (a new addition to Lachlan Farm). Katy is currently training Lexi, a 9 year old 16 hand thoroughbred mare, for the upcoming show season.
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Other Employees...
Nicole Richardson, Assistant Barn Manager
Connie Knutsson, Barn Worker and Official Barn Mom
Rebecca Wesson, Head Working Student
Madi Gurley, Student Worker in Training
Catherine Burley, Student Worker in Training
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