Mikali Farms

About Me

I began riding at the age of four at a local stable that was located just one mile down the road from my home. It was here that my love for horses was born!

I spent several years riding a variety of different ponies and horses before my parents were kind enough to buy me my first horse: "Fly Away Champ" - a black 15.2hh, AQHA gelding.

Champ and I moved from that first local stable to one on the other end of town so that I could further my education and begin showing.

At this new stable we began on the Trillium circuit (now referred to as the Silver Circuit). It also introduced me to Pony Club.

As a member of the Saint Lawrence Ottawa Valley (SLOV) Pony Club, I enjoyed great success playing Prince Philip Games. Participating in these Mounted Games I was a member of the National Championship team in 1992. I was also chosen as one of five members from across Canada to compete on the International team in 1994 and compete in Perth, Australia!

Fly Away Champ

Montego Bay

Although I started out in the Children's Hunter Division, by the time I moved to my first big "A" circuit stable some seven years later, I had been regularly competing in both the Trillium Hunters on my Thoroughbred mare Montego Bay and the 3'6" Trillium Jumpers - first with my Mom's horse Calarco, then later on my Belgian Warmblood Luka.

At the age of 16, Luka (a 17hh, Belgian Warblood gelding by Lys de Darmen) and I began training with Bob and Jill Henselwood.

Under Jill's tutelage, I qualified for the High Junior/Amateur Division at theRoyal Agricultural Winter Fair in my first full year competing at 1.40m.

During my time at Juniper Farms, I was able to develop and compete with my various horses (Luka, Platoon II, Chakotay, Leobalia and Gloria) from the Low Junior/Amateur Division up to the Rising Star and Modified Grand Prix's.

Highlights included being selected as the junior representive for Canada at the 'Copa Caracas' held in Caracas, Venezuela (1995) and a memeber of the 1996 Ontario Young Riders Team held at Temple Farms (Chicago).

Luka

In 2002, the opportunity to train with Ian Millar presented itself and so I moved my horses (Leobalia and Gloria) to Millar Brooke Farms. This wondrous opportunity allowed me to further develop my horse training skills and finally make the move into the Sunday Grand Prix's/World Cup Qualifiers (Chianto).

Chianto

I enjoyed many success with my horses (Leobalia, Chianto and Navarre) during my time at Millar Brooke.

The majority of this success was with Chianto - a Danish Warmblood gelding by Carano - i.e., placing at various classes at Spruce Meadows (2003, 2004, 2005); being named the Next Generation Champion at the Tournament of Champions horse show (2004), winning 3x while competing at 1.35m level in Valkenswaard, NL (2004); 3rd in the Atlanta Grand Prix 2005 (behind Joe Fargis); etc.

Navarre

In the spring of 2007, only days before I was to compete in the first of the Pan-American Games Trials, I sustained an injury (broken fibia) that would see me sitting out most of the competition year. It was during this period, as I watched both Jonathon Millar (Chianto) and Amy Millar (Navarre) competing on my horses, that I realized the pride I had in developing my horses to the point that others could take them into the ring and win... so the decision was made to focus on the breeding and training of young horses.

In 2008, I began my own small 'business' - the idea being to have one or two horses in competition and a small selection of quality young stock to bring along, so a partnership was formed that saw my Grand Prix horse Chianto move to the stables of Canadian John Pearce to continue showing at the highest of levels.

Amazingly, this included a team fifth and individual 8th place finish at the 2010 World Equestrian Games in Kentucky!!).

Due to the success of Chianto and John Pearce at WEG, I received the honour of being named the "Jump Canada Owner of the Year" for 2010!!

Note: Chianto finally retired from competition at the age of 20, and is enjoying his retirement living with John Pearce at his home farm in California.

These last few years have been spent developing a nice string of well-bred horses competing under saddle, as well as, breeding and raising the next-generation of star sport horses.

These young products of our breeding have already been successful in earning top honours from their registries:

Ellamieka - ster predicate 2012, prok predicate 2016
Faizemieka - keur/elite predicate with an IBOP score of 81.5 2013
Finnan - first premium & top 5 with the KWPN-NA 2010, ster and Top Jumper Gelding in the KWPN-NA keurings of 2014, Winner of the Clay Brook Farms Cup 2014
Gwenhwyvar - first premium 2011, keur predicate with an IBOP score of 75.5 2014
Haven - first premium & top foal with the CSHA for their video foal championship 2012
Kiernan - first premium with the KWPN-NA 2015
Lestrade - selected and sold at the Prinjesdag Foal Auction 2016