Meet Our Trainers
David Murdoch
David is the owner of the Glenoaks Equestrian Center and is a veteran international Grand Prix competitor, with extensive training and showing experience in both New Zealand and Europe. He trained at the Spanish Riding School in Vienna, is certified as a British Horse Society Riding Instructor and has competed in numerous international Grand Prix shows.
David has spent his life riding and training horses, starting to ride at an early age and managing his first pony club when he was 16. As a young man, he rode for the New Zealand National Team and managed the largest horse show in New Zealand -- the Isola International Festival.
He trained the New Zealand horse, Charisma, who later won gold medals in the Los Angeles and the Seoul Olympics with Mark Todd, and trained Fairway, a multiple Grand Prix winner with Hap Hansen.
David is actively involved in teaching, and continuously pushes his students to aim for the highest possible level of successful riding.
Sierra Valencia
Sierra has grown up around horses her entire life. She started riding lessons at Golden Gate Stables at the young age of 2 years old. As she got older she joined Pony Club and started moving up in her ratings. All through high school she worked starting young horses, training, and assisted in instructing her local pony club. During this time she made it to area 6 Three Day championships on her young horse bringing home the optimum trophy. Achieving her C3 rating before going off to college to continue her riding education at William Woods University. Here she focused on her Equine Science degree and competed on the Hunter/Jumper circuit in Missouri. When Sierra moved back to the Bay Area, she continued to start young horses, and made a show team out of her local riding school.
Kristin Hardin
Kristin has been competing at the Grand Prix Jumper level for over 25 years and is passionate about helping horses and fellow riders reach their full potential. Kristin believes that you can achieve amazing results by focusing on doing the absolute best you can for each horse, and by tailoring your approach for each situation.
Kristin believes that she manufactures a product: happy horses and winning showjumping rounds- horse after horse- rider after rider- year after year.
