ANDREA WHITING
Andrea is the owner/instructor/trainer at Arbordale and has 40 years of riding experience and 20 years of instructing riders in Equestrian endeavors and has enjoyed much success in show ring competition to include a National Championship, two Reserve National Championships, and multiple Top 10 World Championship placings at the Grand National and World Championship Morgan Horse Show held in Oklahoma City.
Andrea began riding in 1977 at Germantown Stables on the outskirts of Memphis, TN and spent the next fifteen years of her life riding hunters and jumpers.
In 1986 as a college student at the University of South Florida, Andrea started riding with Evelyn Stephens in Tampa and bought her first horse, a Percheron x Thoroughbred cross who she competed locally. Evelyn Stephens also had a string of saddlebred show horses and Andrea was finally introduced to saddle seat riding on some of Evelyn's saddlebred horses. Her first ride on the grand old retired equitation horse, Wing-A-Ling, was enough to convince her that this was a style that she felt comfortable with. Over the next several years, she would ride a variety of horses with Evelyn.....park horses, five-gaited horses, roadster horses and more, and she bought her first saddlebred in 1993.
Andrea started assisting in the riding program at Five Gaits Farm in Tampa in 1998, became Assistant Instructor at Sailwind Stables in Lutz, FL in 1999, and by 2002 she became Trainer and Instructor at Whispering Oaks in Tampa.
In 2005, it was time to head out on her own. Andrea leased a small, 20 stall barn on ten acres in the Tampa suburb of Carrollwood and started Arbordale Riding Academy. Business rapidly grew and 2010 found Arbordale Riding Academy expanding to Odessa, FL on fifteen grassy acres with 40 stalls. This location saw the Arbordale training program come to fruition with horses and riders wining a National Championship title, two Reserve National Champion titles and multiple World Championship Top 10 titles. The Youth Club headed by Andrea Whiting also won two Youth Club Reserve National Championships. Unfortunately, the Odessa farm flooded badly in the summer of 2015 and Andrea closed the business.
In 2017, Andrea began instructing riders in the Terra Ceia/Palmetto area and began leasing the current facility in November 2018.
Andrea is a 1989 Graduate of the University of South Florida with a Bachelor's degree in English Literature with dual Academic Minors in Humanities and Anthropology, and with some Postgraduate studies in Education. She has also authored a children's book under the pen-name Brenda Barnes and is currently writing the sequel to the Purloined Pony.
EMILY HARPER
Emily is the Instructor/Trainer at Arbordale and she has been a lifelong equestrian who competed in her first Leadline class before she could even walk and has been showing ever since then. She grew up spending weekends and summers with her aunt Andrea and got her first pony when she was only 2 years old. By age 11 she was helping to break horses and was the youngest rider to win the Morgan Equitation Championship at the Citrus Cup Regional Championship Horse Show. She has shown Saddlebreds and Morgans in Saddleseat, Hunterseat, and Western divisions.
During her late teens and early adult years, Emily assisted her aunt Andrea with lessons, training and summer camp at the farm in Odessa, FL. In 2014, Emily moved to the Houston, TX area when an opportunity became available at Vantage Point Farm as assistant trainer to May Chaddick. Emily headed the lesson program, broke and trained young horses for the farm, and had a string of horses to work.
Emily and her husband, Tyler, made the move to Florida in late 2017. Emily is training and instructing horses and riders alongside her aunt.
Copyright (c) 2018 - Arbordale LLC and Andrea Whiting-all rights reserved
Andrea is the owner/instructor/trainer at Arbordale and has 40 years of riding experience and 20 years of instructing riders in Equestrian endeavors and has enjoyed much success in show ring competition to include a National Championship, two Reserve National Championships, and multiple Top 10 World Championship placings at the Grand National and World Championship Morgan Horse Show held in Oklahoma City.
Andrea began riding in 1977 at Germantown Stables on the outskirts of Memphis, TN and spent the next fifteen years of her life riding hunters and jumpers.
In 1986 as a college student at the University of South Florida, Andrea started riding with Evelyn Stephens in Tampa and bought her first horse, a Percheron x Thoroughbred cross who she competed locally. Evelyn Stephens also had a string of saddlebred show horses and Andrea was finally introduced to saddle seat riding on some of Evelyn's saddlebred horses. Her first ride on the grand old retired equitation horse, Wing-A-Ling, was enough to convince her that this was a style that she felt comfortable with. Over the next several years, she would ride a variety of horses with Evelyn.....park horses, five-gaited horses, roadster horses and more, and she bought her first saddlebred in 1993.
Andrea started assisting in the riding program at Five Gaits Farm in Tampa in 1998, became Assistant Instructor at Sailwind Stables in Lutz, FL in 1999, and by 2002 she became Trainer and Instructor at Whispering Oaks in Tampa.
In 2005, it was time to head out on her own. Andrea leased a small, 20 stall barn on ten acres in the Tampa suburb of Carrollwood and started Arbordale Riding Academy. Business rapidly grew and 2010 found Arbordale Riding Academy expanding to Odessa, FL on fifteen grassy acres with 40 stalls. This location saw the Arbordale training program come to fruition with horses and riders wining a National Championship title, two Reserve National Champion titles and multiple World Championship Top 10 titles. The Youth Club headed by Andrea Whiting also won two Youth Club Reserve National Championships. Unfortunately, the Odessa farm flooded badly in the summer of 2015 and Andrea closed the business.
In 2017, Andrea began instructing riders in the Terra Ceia/Palmetto area and began leasing the current facility in November 2018.
Andrea is a 1989 Graduate of the University of South Florida with a Bachelor's degree in English Literature with dual Academic Minors in Humanities and Anthropology, and with some Postgraduate studies in Education. She has also authored a children's book under the pen-name Brenda Barnes and is currently writing the sequel to the Purloined Pony.
EMILY HARPER
Emily is the Instructor/Trainer at Arbordale and she has been a lifelong equestrian who competed in her first Leadline class before she could even walk and has been showing ever since then. She grew up spending weekends and summers with her aunt Andrea and got her first pony when she was only 2 years old. By age 11 she was helping to break horses and was the youngest rider to win the Morgan Equitation Championship at the Citrus Cup Regional Championship Horse Show. She has shown Saddlebreds and Morgans in Saddleseat, Hunterseat, and Western divisions.
During her late teens and early adult years, Emily assisted her aunt Andrea with lessons, training and summer camp at the farm in Odessa, FL. In 2014, Emily moved to the Houston, TX area when an opportunity became available at Vantage Point Farm as assistant trainer to May Chaddick. Emily headed the lesson program, broke and trained young horses for the farm, and had a string of horses to work.
Emily and her husband, Tyler, made the move to Florida in late 2017. Emily is training and instructing horses and riders alongside her aunt.
Copyright (c) 2018 - Arbordale LLC and Andrea Whiting-all rights reserved