Ridgemark Farm LLC Information

Ridgemark Farm is a unique, high quality hunter/jumper/equitation program in Santa Cruz County. Trainers Vicki Rose and Laura Hartwick ensure that their students learn excellence in riding and horsemanship in a community of camaraderie and support. Their program is a positive, tightly knit group who work hard to strive for excellence as riders while working towards competition at 'A' rated horse shows and having fun. Vicki and Laura's longtime friendship, shared goals, and positive attitudes set the tone for the quality, professional and personal barn environment that we all value. Laura Hartwick, Laura Hartwick Training, LLC, heads up the lesson program for Ridgemark Farm. She has worked in the hunter/jumper community in Santa Cruz since 1983, teaching people to ride for over 30 years. A lifelong equestrian, Laura started as a self taught pony rider, moving on to learn and show with multiple trainers in the Los Angeles area as a junior. She began her professional career as an Assistant Trainer at Loma Alta Farm with Penny Wahler from 1984 until the mid 90's when she left the horse world to obtain her Masters of Fine Art at UC Davis and pursue a career in visual art and graphic design. Turns out that Laura missed her horses too much, and she happily returned to her equine career in 2001 to join longtime friend and colleague Vicki Rose at Ridgemark Farm. She decided that her niche was working with beginners, instead of traveling on the show circuit. Her many years of students of all ages have won many championships at Northern California A and B rated shows, and include many UCSC students from the beginnings of the University's IHSA team. It's been particularly gratifying to find that Laura has taught multi generations of Santa Cruz County riders. Moms who rode with her in the 1980's with their daughters have returned as grandmothers to watch their grandchildren begin as they did years before. Laura specializes in starting children and adults alike with the proper foundations of hunt seat equitation that will stay with them for a lifetime. It's important to Laura to teach her students not just how to ride well and have a great time doing so, but to also develop a relationship with their horses. The horsemanship lessons in developing relationships with horses that she has learned from Buck Brannaman's teachings are an important base that she incorporates into classical hunt seat riding. She feels that horses not only teach us about horses, but that they teach us about ourselves every single time we walk into a stall. These days, Laura is just as happy to take a quiet trail ride or work on the ground in the roundpen as she is to school a horse in the arena. Laura not only loves working with children, having run many years of very popular horse camps and her longtime lesson program, but especially enjoys working with women who are either beginning their journey with horses, or who had to leave a beloved horse behind for college, family, or career and are now rediscovering the joy of reconnecting with their old friends. Laura and her husband Gary are longtime Westside Santa Cruz residents. Laura is also an artist, and national level competitor with her dogs in the sport of dog agility. She is particularly grateful to spend her days with horses and dogs in such a beautiful part of the country, helping to teach others further their relationships with these animals.