August/Septemer 2026 Issue

tend it wasn’t the horse who had hurt me, so my mom wouldn’t know.” She persisted, eventually selling him for three times what she had paid. “After that I just thought I was a trainer,” she said. “I started training horses for other people.” What followed was an education assem- bled horse by horse, each experience adding another layer to the way she read them. Then, at 18, Moore saw J.D. Windslow performing Roman riding at the Delaware State Fair. She sought out trainer Tommie Turvey and learned Roman riding, trick riding and liberty work— work requiring athleticism, precision and a keen sense of a horse’s attention. At 21, she wintered at the Dancing Horses Theater in Wisconsin, where she befriend- ed trainer Desiree Herrmann. That summer, she worked at Frontier Town Adventure Park near Ocean City and met her future husband, John. His Cherokee and Waccamaw Sioux family has been part of Frontier Town since it opened in 1960. The following year, Moore joined Herrmann at a Florida dressage barn, bringing four hors- es. There she learned to drive Friesians and rode Andalusians in classical dressage. Two years later, she and John moved to Bit N Heav- en Stables, Mike Nenni’s Gypsy Vanner breed- ing operation, where Moore became head trainer and manager. Her farrier work developed through necessi- ty and apprenticeship. She had learned to trim her own horse’s feet to save money. In Florida, farrier Andy Gumpert taught her more and re- lied on her in emergencies. “When the Friesians would lose their shoes, I could tack them back on to hold until he came back,” she said. The work deepened her understanding from the ground up. Hooves revealed what riding could conceal: imbalance, compensation, sore- ness and small changes affecting a horse’s will- ingness to move. What she learned with a rasp informed what she felt from the saddle. About nine years ago, Moore returned to Maryland’s Eastern Shore where today she trims roughly 400 horses in rotation while con- tinuing to train, teach and perform. In 2020, she returned to Frontier Town near Ocean City as a Roman rider in a show produced by Austin Anderson of Austin Anderson’s Texas Trick Riders. Anderson said her willingness to extend herself into liberty work and other new areas made her a natural fit. Moore per- forms Mondays and Tuesdays; John appears in the Native American show, and their children, now 7 and 5, perform tricks with their ponies. “They were riding when they were in my belly,” Moore said. Family is a large part of the life she has built, not separate from it: performances, po- nies, regalia and long days around horses are woven into its rhythm. Her lessons are dres- sage-based, but the empha- sis is broader. “We do a lot on your relationship with your horse, what they are thinking, and how to react and interact with the horses,” she said. Her favorite class is recreational vaulting. (Did we remember to add vaulting to the list?) Moore wants students to understand why a horse responds, not merely how to produce a response. Position and timing matter, but so do restraint and judgment. Among her current clients are two young warmbloods. “When I get a 3- or 4-year-old, I absolutely love the process of teaching them everything they will need to know to get along in life,” she said. “When it clicks, it is such a great feeling.” Starting a young horse brings her approach together: knowledge of development, physical clarity, and the moment apprehension gives way to comprehension. For Moore, connection is a practical necessity; trust changes what a horse can learn. Her visual art grew from the same hands- on instinct. Moore and her siblings studied art while being homeschooled; her older sister, Jenell Hartell, is a professional portrait artist. She works in painting, drawing, sculpture, mosaic, beadwork and woodcarving. Moore makes John’s and their children’s Native regalia and creates “Spirit Ponies”—wooden memo- rial horses painted to resemble a client’s horse and finished with strands of its mane and tail. Kirsten teaches Victorian hair braiding, turn- ing horsehair into jewelry and hatbands, and repairs the crackers on bullwhips used by Salt- water Cowboys during the Chincoteague Pony roundup. Monica Shubert, manager of the Chincote- The Making of a Renaissance Horsewoman Continued from page 11