About Us
Sarah Grady
Holly’s Surprise
It all started with…..
A girl who just wanted to spend her days riding and caring for horses. Over 30 years later the passion has continued and developed into a winning program for students and horses alike.
Colchester Equines was founded in 2005 with the help of her supporting family. In the beginning Sarah’s focus was developing a thriving hunter/jumper program that was accessible to students of all ages and levels, whether interested in casual riding or preparing for show. Over the last 20 years the program has taken on new interests as Sarah found a new love for dressage. During this time she has developed a dynamic dressage program for her students. Her program has created interest in the sport for young and old alike, leading many of her students into combined training, eventing, dressage disciplines. Along with training people Sarah has an intense passion for training horses. She focuses on developing horses through common sense training blending natural horsemanship techniques with strong dressage basics to create a health and happy equine partnership.
Besides helping her students achieve their riding goals Sarah has made some impressive accomplishments of her own. In 2015 Sarah took a 4th place win in the Days End Farm Horse Rescue Trainers Challenge based out of Lisbon, Maryland.
Sarah’s thoughts on the program “ The great thing about the Days End competition is it helps rescue horses become healthy equine partners and brings light for the need for adopters of abandon or severely mistreated and abused animals”.
In 2016 she competed in and won the Virginia Extreme Mustang Makeover. During this competition each competitor is assigned a unhandled (wild) mustang rounded up by the Bureau of Land Management supported by the Mustang Heritage Foundation. Each selected trainer is given around a 112 days to train there assigned horse to be presented at a skills competition. This event also helps rehome each mustang at the end of the event. During the event Sarah competed against 30 adult trainers. This consisted of a ground handling class, an obstacle/trail style class and a pattern class. After the first three initial classes the group is then paired down to the Top Ten competitors. The top ten group starts a new series of classes including a freestyle choreographed to music by the competitor. Sarah took the Top Ten Rookie award for competing in her first mustang makeover. Along with Over all Grand Champion. Her horse Corrigan was adopted out to a loving family on the east coast. Corrigan was the highest selling horse for the Virginia Makeover and the second highest selling horse of all makeovers held in 2016.
In 2022 after saving for several years Sarah was able to embarke on a new journey to owning a new facility. After much preparation during early spring 2024 Colchester Equines moved from her family’s farm to its new home location in Locust Grove, Virginia.
During the 2023 show season Sarah completed all the necessary scores for her United States Dressage Federation Bronze Medal. This medal requires scores above 60% for rides at First, Second, and Third level dressage. All the scores are required to be earned at licensed regional competitions. She also became a participant in the United States Dressage Federiations “L” Program. This program provides training for participates with future goals of becoming a licensed judge. Show year 2024 Sarah has also embarked on gaining scores towards her USDF Silver Medal.