The owner of 10 horses, Amanda Hodgen is an expert teacher who currently trains 40 budding equestrian students, ages 4 through adult.
Amanda Hodgen, 26, who operates Green Acres Equestrian Center on Ware Road in Belchertown walks Sky, a Paint breed, in the horse corral.
BELCHERTOWN – A Belchertown woman’s labor of love with horses since childhood has been recognized by the Massachusetts Farm Bureau Federation.
Amanda Hodgen, 26, operates Green Acres Equestrian Center on Ware Road, which was recently designated a 2013 Horse Farm of Distinction by the statewide organization.
Thirty-one horse farms and stables statewide received the designation. According to the Farm Bureau Federation, awards are based on a number of criteria within the categories of horse health, farm management, and public standards compliance. The suitability of the farm for the breed or type of activity conducted is also considered.
Other area winners are Paul A. Gregoire of Silvercryst Farm in Southwick and Charles Kaniecki of Twin Orchard Farm in Southampton.
Owner of 10 horses, Hodgen is an expert teacher who currently trains 40 budding equestrian students, ages 4 through adult. She also provides boarding for two dozen horses.
How does she communicate with the animals?
Amanda Hodgen is seen with Thrill, her 18 yr old Paint horse, at the Green Acres Equestrian Center in Belchertown.
”It’s mostly body language,” Hodgen said while talking to her favorite, Sky, a 5-year-old black-and-white Paint – with icy blue eyes.
She purchased the 15-hand horse a year ago from an upstate New York owner who was unable to do anything with her.
“It took me forever, but once she started trusting, her training sky-rocketed,” Hodgen said. Sky had been up for sale – at $1,500 – but she is no longer on the market, and is now used as a riding horse for lessons.
Private lessons cost $25 per half hour, $40 per hour and group instruction is $30 per hour.
After school, a half-dozen teenage students volunteer up to three hours a day. Their chores include cleaning manure from stalls, putting down fresh wood shavings as bedding, feeding grain and hay, as well as having fun.
“I come four times a week if I’m lucky to see my horsie,” said Pathfinder Regional Vocational Technical High School junior C. J. Dexter of Belchertown.
Her 6-year old horse is named April, a 15.2 hands Paint. Dexter rides a western saddle.
“Amanda is like family – she teaches us how to train horses,” said Kirsten Desjardins, who also attends Pathfinder.
Hodgen began riding at age 5.
“It pretty much just spiraled out of control” after mounting a horse the first time as a youngster, Hodgen said.
She grew up in town, graduated from Belchertown High School and earned an associates degree at Morrisville State College in New York in equine science and management in 2007.
Her parents are Kathleen and James Hodgen; she has two brothers, Jeff and Steve and a sister, Candace.