Amanda Cryer

Amanda has always been directly immersed in the horse world. She started taking lessons at the age of 10, which propelled her dedication to work as hard as she possibly could, to be around horses as much as possible. At the age of 12, Amanda started working at horse farms in order to further support her equine passion, and later in her teenage years, Amanda began working at a thoroughbred stable, Windfields Farm. Amanda accredits the farm to be a vital part of her equine education, and while employed there, Amanda had the opportunity to work in the yearling division. Whilst in this position, Amanda was able to travel with the farm to events such as CTHS yearling sales at Woodbine Racetrack and to Keeneland Racetrack, in Kentucky working as a farm groom. After eight months of hard work, Amanda decided it was important to her to leave her position and pursue the completion of her high school education. Her motivation and dedication to succeed landed Amanda not only her high school diploma, but also the Melanie Sheen Scholarship awarded to those who overcome difficult obstacles, in order to graduate from high school.

The same year as her graduation, Amanda decided to take up riding as a profession, in order to support herself. She began riding horses at a local auction barn, and the majority of the horses she worked with, she had never set eyes on before. This type of riding taught Amanda many important aspects of riding and horsemanship including; balance, connectivity, patience and understanding. Part of Amanda's position required that she must take a horse of whom is stressed out about being in a strange environment, and ask him to perform to the best of his ability. This required Amanda to learn to stay calm, relaxed, and really invest her energy connecting with the horses being ridden. Amanda applies this knowledge every time she sits in the saddle of a new horse, and as a result gives that horse confidence to be himself.

Since then, Amanda has worked at many different equine related positions. Some of these include; Barn Manager, Standardbred Race Groom, Petting Zoo and Traveling Road Show Assistant, Trail Guide, Quarter Horse Race Groom and most recently a Thoroughbred Groom, Hot-walker and Pony Rider.

Amanda has lived all over Canada working in a variety of horse positions. She has not yet found her niche in life, but she has always dreamed of riding or driving horses across Canada for a worthy cause. She has now found that LongRun is the perfect organization to fulfill her dream.