Tina is the Founder and President of Forgotten Thoroughbreds. She has over 25 years of extensive experience in the equine industry. She possesses hands-on, in-depth expertise in all facets of horses, horse care, breeding, starting, training, rehabilitating, and riding. Tina has significant riding experience in a number of disciplines, including Western pleasure, English pleasure, dressage, and hunter/jumper. She has won numerous ribbons with horses that she has bred, raised, and trained in halter and conformation classes.
Tina is an internationally recognized subject matter expert in the nutrition, rehabilitation, therapy, and care of racing Thoroughbreds, and she has extended this expertise to all breeds and types of horses. Her exceptional work with Thoroughbreds on layups between races has brought her to the attention of major trainers in the industry, who preferentially board their horses with her in order to obtain the extra care and that extra edge that Tina delivers with her individualized plans for each horse.
In addition, Tina is the manager of a boarding facility for horses, Empty Pocket Acres, owned by Steve and Carol Scheuch, where she oversees all details of Thoroughbred breeding, rearing, starting, training, nutrition, fitness, racing, and rehabilitation. Empty Pocket Acres provides exceptional boarding facilities for varied types of horses that, under Tina's guidance, has become a center of excellence for boarding and equine care. Tina personally works with and evaluates each horse boarded in her center of excellence in order to understand the individual qualities and nuances of each horse, with which she develops individualized plans tailored to each horse. She shares her analysis with the owners, and imparts her broad knowledge and findings to them in order to enhance the owners' and horses' experience.
Tina is the co-owner of, manager and trainer for Shades of Purple Thoroughbreds, a breeder of quality Thoroughbreds. Tina assists with the delivery and foaling, imprints the foals at birth, and spends countless hours working with each foal using gentle natural horsemanship methods. She possesses extensive experience in starting young horses, and in gently guiding them along their path. Tina is a licensed Thoroughbred trainer in Maryland and West Virginia, and is well known in the Maryland Thoroughbred industry.
Of the many jobs that Tina performs, one of the most rewarding has been the rehabilitation of horses and retraining them for second careers. She has had significant experience with the rehabilitation and retraining of Off Track Thoroughbreds (OTTBs). Many of the OTTBs she was worked with were malnourished, had not been treated with affection, and were destined for auctions and/or slaughter. Employing her in-depth knowledge, her innate bonding with horses, and her keen eye for what each horse's strengths are, Tina has successfully rehabilitated OTTBs, which have gone on to new careers in such varied disciplines as barrel racing, broodmares, hunter/jumper, pleasure, halter, and trail riding.
From the humble origins of rehabilitating and retraining OTTBs, a spark of passion created Forgotten Thoroughbreds. It is the belief of Tina, as President, and of the founding members that all horses deserve a quality second career. Their vision for Forgotten Thoroughbreds is:
To foster within the general public a more positive image of the Thoroughbred racing industry through rehabilitation, retraining, education, public awareness, adoption, and serving as a Center of Excellence for Thoroughbreds.