Sarah and Nick Armentrout own and operate
Spring Creek Farm, LLC and co-founded The
Equest Therapeutic Riding Center. Both are native
Mainers and long-time friends since childhood growing
up in Kennebunk, Maine. Sarah and Nick have been involved
in the equine industry and running horse facilities
for the past 15 years. After spending three years
together in Hailey, Idaho managing The Sagebrush Arena
and instructing students through the Sagebrush Equine
Training Center for the Handicapped (SETCH), they
returned home to Maine and established a farm of their
own in 1998. Together they bring a balance of professional
training and hands-on experience which helps to make
Spring Creek Farm a unique place. The farm is their
home, which they share with a son, Jacob, and twin
daughters, Ivy and Hazel.
Sarah is the Co-Founder and Executive Director of
Equest. She is an Advanced Level Certified Therapeutic
Riding Instructor through the North American Riding
for the Handicapped Association and has taught therapeutic
riding since 1994. Outside of her work at Equest and
caring for her family, she pursues her life-long love
of riding. Having owned a horse since a young age,
Sarah kept riding in the foreground through high school
and college, where she competed intercollegiately
and captained the Trinity College Equestrian Team
in 1991-92. Following college, her interest in therapeutic
riding grew, and she began volunteering at centers
in Maine and eventually went on to work and train
at The National Center for Equine Facilitated Therapy
in Woodside, California. In 1993, she moved to Hailey,
Idaho, where together with Nick, they managed a facility
and taught therapeutic riding. While there, she became
a working student for Peggy Cummings, and today hosts
an annual Connected Riding™ clinic with Peggy
on the farm. Sarah currently rides with dressage trainer
Jackie Smith and enjoys growing and learning in dressage
and eventing with her new mount Braveheart.
Nick spent five intensive years out west as a wrangler,
ranch hand and just generally cowboying around Montana,
Wyoming and Idaho from 1992-1996. His passion for
agriculture, horses and hard labor brought him to
work for numerous outfits, with interesting characters,
top-hands and buckaroos that most people only get
to read about. Besides building an incredible amount
of fences, Nick learned to toss a loop and took up
team roping. He attended clinics with trainers and
horsemen like, Tom Dorrance, Buck Brannaman, Martin
Black and Pat Weiss. When Sarah arrived on the scene,
he somehow got talked into dressage, and started to
think more seriously about his riding. Today, he is
as active a rider as his time allows, but is most
often aboard a tractor or caring for other's horses. |