Meet Our Staff Members
Meet The Team
Sally Hinkle Russell is the founder and President of Mystic Valley Hunt Club, Inc. Lucky enough to have a horse loving family and business minded parents, she always dreamed of sharing her passion with others. BA degrees in Business Administration and Horsemanship from VA Intermont College set her on the way.
Sally started Mystic Valley Hunt Club, Inc. in 1983 with the goal of providing a nurturing environment for horse and rider.
Her favorite personal achievements are being #1 amateur/owner jumper in the country and top 5 placings in Grand Prix show jumping.
Her proudest moment is helping students achieve their goals. Fun fact: she has her unrestricted class A tractor trailer license.
Sally has a solid equestrian foundation by working with Olympic show jumping medal winners as well as top dressage trainers.
She is a current USHJA certified trainer, USHJA committee zone 1 member, USEF licensed cross country course designer, NEHC judge, IEA judge/steward and yearly show manager of more than 15 rated shows in the varied disciplines of hunt seat, dressage, eventing, and IEA.
Sally loves to ride and teach. She is currently showing jumpers Inasina VDM and Let's Go..
Deb Bakoledis has had a love for horses from the very beginning. She first started taking riding lessons at 10 years of age. She started competing soon after in schooling shows on lesson horses. She share owned horses twice, moving up to the "big eq" classes before finding a horse of her own at 12 years of age.
This began her love of and experience with training young horses. This was a large 2 year old TB that was too slow to race. He had no jumping experience. With her trainer on the ground and her in the saddle she trained him to get her back into the show ring and become competitive again in the 3'6" equitation. By the time he was 5 they were competing at the regional maclay finals and national medal finals. She competed with this horse at the maclay national finals twice at Madison square garden, the usef medal finals four times, local medal finals four times and qualified for the talent search finals twice. While never placing at the national finals competitions she did finish in the top 30 at the talent search and maclay finals in 1989 and 1988 respectively.
After earning her A.S. in Travel and Tourism Management from Johnson & Wales University in 1991 and a B.S. in Business Administration from UCONN in 1994 she returned to the sport she loved and began training young horses again for the show circuit as an amateur. Continuing with her trainer Carl Dena from Patterson NY, one of her amateur hunters earned zone champion two years in a row. She turned professional in 2001 and continued riding with Carl Dena developing and showing his imported warmbloods. Many of these horses earned tri colors at shows up and down the east coast from Cape Cod and the Catskills down to Ocala.All went on to be sold successfully into hunter or jumper show homes to continue their successful careers.
In 2005 she broke off on her own closer to home to start a family. Deb has two teenage children and while she still loves training young horses for her clients, she also enjoys helping kids and adults reach their horse showing goals.
Her students and horses have earned many year-end championships over the last several years and are highly competitive at all the local finals. She keeps learning fun and builds confidence in rider and horse when needed. Basics are important as well as creating a good relationship with the horse.
Deb looks forward to meeting any new clients who want to build a better relationship with their horse, have horse showing goals they would like to achieve, have a young horse that needs training, or if you are just looking to hone your riding skills. Positive attitudes appreciated!
Kirsten Andrews has been part of the Mystic Valley family since she first started riding at the age of 8. Through the years, her passion grew and she graduated with her Bachelors Degree in Equine Business Management and Riding from Johnson and Wales University in Providence, Rhode Island. While there, she was a part of the JWU IHSA riding team. Closing her degree she took part in achieving her small and large bronze medals at the Westphalian Riding School in Muenster, Germany during her Study Abroad. After graduating Kirsten enjoyed managing a small privately owned facility before she joined MVHC as a riding instructor and IEA coach in 2014. She works to combine her background in hunters and equitation with the correct basic foundations of dressage. Her students develop the skills they need to enjoy a ride at home or pursue their dreams in the show ring. Kirsten teaches those of all ages and is happy to set her students up for success.
Zoe Freese is a University of New Hampshire graduate, where she studied equine science and equine business management. As a trainer Zoe believes riders of all disciplines should have a strong dressage background. She teaches both hunt seat and dressage lessons, and frequently travels to shows with her students. She has helped students qualify for and compete at Region 8 dressage championships. Zoe is a United States Dressage Federation Bronze and Silver Medalist and competes regularly.
