Leading the Way for Over Thirty Years

Founder & Manager

Christine

Christine has been caring for horses for over fifty years. Christine was the horse crazy girl who talked only about horses, was told by teachers “she needed to broaden her reading selections beyond horse stories”, had a Christmas list filled with horse equipment or books and “cantered” around the house every day.

At age seven after several years of carefully writing to Santa for a horse, Christine started riding lessons. A year later a six year old registered quarter horse gelding named Helluva Note and nicknamed Prince came into her life. He would forever guide her life. Prince and Christine entered their first shows together in California however more than anything Christine just loved spending time with her horse.

When the family moved to Fairfield, Connecticut there was never any doubt that Prince was coming too. Their new home had a small stable and pasture for Prince, thus at age eleven Christine began caring for and managing her own small barn. Christine subscribed to numerous horse care magazines reading each article on horse care in her effort to properly care for and manage Prince. Books on horse care populated her bookshelf.

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Christine pursued showing Prince in 4-H, open, and American Quarter Horse, and AQHA shows.  Christine trained and prepared Prince and her next horses for the show ring at home, taking one or two lessons a month during show season. Christine started English lessons during her time riding sale horses.

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As a youth rider competing in youth and adult divisions riding Helluva Note, "Prince",  Dynamic String, and Copper Hi-Decker in the western classes Christine and her horses earned several all around championships on the 4-H and open show circuits and at  AQHA shows earning a Register of Merit, and state and regional year end awards in the Connecticut, New England, and Massachusetts Quarter Horse Associations including in both the Youth and Adult divisions.

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Despite being urged repeatedly to sell Prince and "move on to a better horse", Christine flatly refused to sell her best friend.

Christine's fifty years of horse experience include employment at boarding stables in Connecticut and Pennsylvania that provided lessons, training, shows, and sales with her duties including routine horse care- stall cleaning, feeding, grooming, exercising, training and showing horses. Christine exercised green horses, sale horses, and stallions. Later Christine spent two years at Thoroughbred and Standardbred breeding farms training and fitting yearlings for Fasig-Tipton and Tattersalls Fall Select Yearling sales and two and a half years working for  Brook Ledge Horse Transportation, Oley, PA during which time she transported horses to and from breeding farms, sale venues, training centers, showgrounds, racetracks, airports,throughout the United States and Canada providing the opportunity to handle top show and races horses, breeding stock and owners' pleasure horses while transporting horses to some of the leading horse facilities in the country.

​In the thirty years since Orchard Equine Retirement was launched the Reeses have boarded over  40 horses. Each horse that is buried in the Heirloom Apple Orchard is remembered by the Daffodils that come up each Spring.

It was the sale of Dynamic String and the later discovery in 1996 that this champion horse was sent to slaughter that led to Christine's impassioned decade long advocacy for horse welfare that included the founding of the Equine Protection Network in 1996 whose accomplishments include:

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• First horse welfare website to document the inhumane conditions at PA horse auctions

• Investigations & Enforcement of Horse Cruelty Laws by police

• Drafting and Passage of PA Horse Transport Law in 2001

• First Nationwide Billboard Campaign to Raise Awareness of Horse Slaughter

• First Enforcement of PA law against the sale of sick, lame, and debilitated horses

• Enforcement of NY Law Banning double deck trailers

• Three amendments to NY Horse Transport Law

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Operating a horse retirement farm has allowed Christine to remain at home to raise her children and it has also provided an opportunity to meet wonderful horse owners whose love for their horses is demonstrated every month by their willingness to provide their horses with a happy retirement.

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Every day the operation of Orchard Equine Retirement honors the gelding who inspired it all, a kind, sweet gentle horse who always gave me his best and who was my best friend for twenty-seven years.

Service & Repairs Manager

Jack

Jack is our farm's very capable Service & Repairs Manager.

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His expertise keeps the equipment necessary to maintain the farm running.

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• Repair & Servicing of farm machinery & power tools

• Pasture Maintenence

• Fence Repair

• Building Repairs

• Snow removal

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Jack grew up in Western Pennsylvania riding horses and later worked with horses as part of his employment. 

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Jack enjoys interacting with all of the animals on the farm.

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