Carmi’s Journey as a Coach

Carmi’s first experience with teaching was as a summer camp counselor, where she found joy in transmitting knowledge for the benefit of others. She taught riding lessons to campers for three summers, and during the rest of the year, was an instructor for the younger students in the Contra Costa Pony Club, where she was a member until she aged out of the program.

As a student of Lilo Fore’s in 1979/1980, Carmi was introduced to the power of riding correctly enough to have the horse “on the bit”.

Carmi was employed to teach by Hunter/Jumper trainer Chris Borba in 1982-83, where she taught group lessons to juniors and amateurs.

In 1995, Carmi founded “Cornerstone Farm”, a lesson business based in Boulder, Colorado, where she was living at the time. As locals would say, “If you want to learn to ride, there are lots of places to go, but if you want to learn to love horses, go see Carmi”. Initially unknown in the Boulder area, Carmi started from scratch, often taking on brand-new riders, and eventually teaching them to ride competently across country, over fences, and in the dressage court. Her students thrived, learning and expanding their knowledge in an uncommonly safe environment; Carmi is proud to say that none of her students ever fell from a horse until they were advanced enough to be jumping small courses (and those falls were very rare!).  After building the business up to more than fifty students with twenty horses, Carmi sold Cornerstone Farm (which still exists today!) to focus on her saddle business.

No longer teaching, Carmi became an ardent student! Beginning in 2002, Carmi focused on developing the skills to reach the upper levels of dressage, taking lessons from Liz Searle and Chelsey Sibley. By the mid 2000s, she had found the two women who would become her primary coaches and mentors: Alexsandra (Sandy) Howard and Mary Wanless. Other influencers on her learning (and, subsequently, her teaching tool box) came from clinics and sessions in California and Florida with Lilo Fore, Olivia Lagoy-Weltz, Manolo Mendez, Anne Howard, Beny Konstantinova, Joni Bolton, and Heidi Riddle, among others.

Since 2010, Carmi has offered casual instruction to her saddle-fitting clients who appreciate the deep knowledge about horse and rider movement and function that Carmi can provide.

Now, in 2022, Carmi is returning to her first love: coaching riders! As she says, “There’s nothing more wonderful than to supply the electricity for someone’s ‘lightbulb’ moment!”.

Although Carmi identifies Mary Wanless as one of her primary influences over the past two decades, she is not presently certifed as a RWYM Coach.