January 23, 2007

2006/2007 Brings A New Facility and a New Baby for Chrissa Hoffmann
By Jeannie Blancq Putney

Chrissa’s New Right-Hand

With the help of her assistant trainer and barn manager, Allyson Henning of Nashville IN, who signed on to work full-time at Glenfield Farm in June, all of the horses continue to get worked and trained under Ally’s riding and Chrissa’s supervision. “Without Ally I could not manage the business being pregnant, not only is she an incredible rider she is a great instructor as well!”

Ally is an accomplished international eventer, but has recently decided to change her focus to dressage. Chrissa and Ally met through a mutual friend/client and instantly bonded. “Ally has incredible feel for all types of horses, she has spent the last six years in Indiana rescuing Thoroughbreds from the race track and from the unfortunate killer pens—re-training and selling them for other jobs. “She is an incredibly talented rider and I am so fortunate to have found her!” Nothing like a crash course or anything, but Ally rides all horses from babies to Grand Prix in the barn, all under Chrissa’s supervision, five days a week.

“I also have Ally ride with Alex when he comes to my farm; it’s a great opportunity for her to learn from the both of us.” Ally plans to show some of the young horses for Chrissa including a 4-year-old Trakehner mare, Riviera, owned by Chris Gebel a breeder out of Goshen, KY. Riviera just recently won the 4-year-old division at the American Trakehner Association’s Annual Convention, held in Sunbury, OH in November of 2006.

She is now known as a “Model Mare” and due to this amazing accomplishment, has landed in the official Trakehner Studbook. With such a heavy load of horses and clients, Ally has had to take on some of the teaching responsibilities. “There are days that I just don’t feel well, and Ally is able to teach all of our clients”. Not only is she working fulltime at CFH Dressage, but she is now teaching at two other local farms in the area.

“Working for Chrissa has been wonderful, I am so honored to be apart of her team, and love riding all of her talented horses,” says Ally. “I have never been able to ride such nice quality horses, and I am learning a ton. Chrissa is amazing; she is able to assess horse and rider faults immediately and is incredibly articulate when it comes to teaching. Her style is positive but demanding and I never walk away from a lesson discouraged or confused, usually I am in awe of how she makes it so simple and easy to understand! What I am learning the most is how technical dressage is, and how so much of the sport is about rider position and feel. Moving to Kentucky has been great and I look forward to each day knowing that I will learn something new!”