Our trainers

FRANCES

Frances discovered her love for horses at five when she fell for a Shetland pony named Cookie on a brownie troop field trip. She spent her youth working with horses, believing they deserved respect, autonomy, and compassion. She gained experience at Midwest farms, competing in 4-H, barrel racing, carriage driving, and specializing in rehabilitating horses. After high school, Frances pursued her passion professionally, attending Meredith Manor International Equestrian Center, where she earned her Riding Master VI and Level III teaching certifications. She also discovered a passion for teaching, helping create harmonious partnerships between horses and riders.

Frances worked in Wellington, FL, and Memphis, TN, but felt disconnected from the industry's ethical standards. After years of managing barns and programs, she founded Full Moon Equestrian in Western North Carolina, focused on a community-centered approach that prioritized horse wellbeing. Full Moon Equestrian embodies her vision of a morally aligned, joyful program.

Frances is a gifted teacher and rider who always helps bring out the best in her students. She is the owner, manager, and head trainer of Full Moon Equestrian at Blackberry Stables. She loves connecting with people and helping them find passion with horses. She’s a mom of three wonderful kids and lover of Shepherd. She enjoys poetry, creating art, and gardening in her “free” time. Her biggest joy in life is bringing people together in community.

ERICA

Erica has been hanging around horses for faaar too many years now, since she was 8 years old. She has taught lessons, mucked stalls, and exercised and groomed polo ponies in exchange for saddle time in the past. In addition to being part of the program at Full Moon Equestrian, Erica cares for 9 horses on her personal farm and does low-level eventing and R+ training with her herd of draft horses. She is always chasing new adventures in learning.

Erica is passionate about nurturing a love and respect for horses in her students, as well as ensuring that beginner and intermediate riders are given a correct, solid foundation that will allow them to take their riding in any direction. This comes through a focus on position and biomechanics, as well as paying attention to what the horse may be communicating back to the rider throughout the interaction.

In addition to being a crazy horse lady, Erica is also a crazy dog and cat lady, who spends lots of time on the farm with her 6 dogs, 3 cats, and an ever-changing group of foster animals. She especially loves fostering pregnant and nursing moms, as well as taking bottle babies when she can find the time.

SOPHIA

Sophia thoroughly enjoys working at Full Moon Equestrian and looks forward to continuing to meet equestrians and equines. She is 19 years old and goes to school at AB Tech, where she studies science, art, and culinary science. She has been working with horses since she was young child under the guidance of her mom, Frances.

Sophia has slowly developed her own style of training and teaching from experiencing a variety of different people and horses. She prefers to work with teens and adults, as they tend to appreciate her style and explanations best. Sophia loves to work with hard working, motivated riders of all ages! Her personal riding focuses on dressage and jumpers, as she enjoys and has spent the most time progressing these skills. Additionally, she has been educated in least invasive, minimally aversive positive reinforcement (LIMA R+) training, and ensures her students are well versed in horse behavior and groundwork through the lens of natural horsemanship.

Sophia values that her students learn to listen to themselves and their animals. In her free time, she also enjoys spending time with her reptiles, dog, cats, and friends.

Sam

Sam’s love for horses started at 6 with a kindergarten teacher who ran western riding summer camps. Lots of family moves led to lots of different stables and exposure to all types of riding styles. After years in Hunter/Jumper and Dressage barns, Sam found her passion in the eventing world. In eventing, she also found her love of Thoroughbreds and the process of retraining OTTBs.

Sam gained competitive experience through Second Level dressage and Training level eventing with a wide range of horses. She spent 2 years as a working student under the instruction of 4* eventer Taren Hoffos. Her time in the west coast eventing scene led to many opportunities of gaining knowledge and experience from professional riders at the top levels of the sport and she is thrilled to share that knowledge with her students.

Sam’s teaching believes in the endless pursuit of experience and skills. Every horse has something new to teach us if we listen, and as riders we never stop learning. She teaches with a goal of building communication and trust between horse and rider, and in building a riders confidence in themselves.