Accepting New Students for Riding Lessons 2023 - 2024 School Year
OUR PEOPLE
Ronnie Goodwin - Owner, Facilities Director
Ronnie is a Gwinnett native who has been involved with horses his entire life. As a youth, he spent most of his weekends working with his father at the stables.
At age 17, Ronnie enlisted in the United States Marine Corps where he served this great country of ours for 4 years. Upon his discharge from the USMC he continued his work with horses.
Ronnie met Tasha in 1992 while working at Kay’s Ponies in Winder, Georgia. From there they went on to work at Thompson Training Center in Georgia, where they trained and showed Arabian Horses.
In 1999, Ronnie and Tasha moved to South Carolina to work at Autumn Gate Farm where Ronnie headed up the breeding center and Tasha worked as the Assistant Trainer.
After working at Autumn Gate Farm, Ronnie and Tasha returned home to Georgia in 2000. In 2015 they opened Trinity Stables in Gwinnett in 2015 with their own horses.
Tasha Pippin - Founder, Advance Riding Instructor, Horse Whisperer
A Horse Whisperer is a horse trainer who adopts a sympathetic view of the motives, needs, and desires of the horse, based on modern equine psychology. A horse whisperer's main purpose is to establish a connection with the horse through the use of adequate body language. The end goal is to make training easier or help the horse overcome trauma.
Tasha developed a love for horses at a very early age when she worked part time at a pony ride facility. Her love for horses grew stronger and stronger over the years and led her to a career working with horses.
Tasha began her equestrian career teaching horseback riding and went on to be a professional Arabian horse trainer. She has worked a variety of equestrian jobs and accumulated over 25 years of experience in the equestrian field.
Early in her life, Tasha experienced hardships that lead her to want to open an equine outreach for people who come from hard places. With that said, Tasha went back to school at the University of North Georgia and graduated in 2018 with a degree in Social Work.
In 2019, Trinity Stables Horses Healing Hearts, Inc. was born.
Leni Schmidt - Barn Manager, Beginner's Riding Instructor
In her youth, Leni’s favorite place to go was Camp Toccoa which is a Camp Fire youth program in Georgia. It’s a program that helps young people become who they want to be by helping them discover the exceptional people they are now! And by guiding them to be their best, a “best” they define themselves. Leni, being adopted, found this program to be very helpful in her personal development.
During her time at camp, Leni learned how to ride western style and enjoyed trail riding; she fell in love with the horses! At age twenty-four, Leni rescued a pony named Westley, pictured above, and it has been her calling ever since.
"I'm very passionate about helping others." Beside rescuing horses, Leni feels it's important to help people is need. Leni was instrumental in helping establish the Horses Healing Hearts program at Trinity Stables in 2019. She has donated her time by giving more than 200 therapy sessions to people who have experienced trauma and found that traditional therapy wasn’t helpful.