About Us & Our Philosophy
Our philosophy at Eden Farm is to bring the joy and adventure of show jumping to people who love this sport and to those who are just beginning their love of horses. We teach the classical style of riding, and Megan is always sharing her expertise in horsemanship with the students and all those around her. We instill an atmosphere of hard work, fun, camaraderie and adventure. Our program is designed to set up each student to become all they dream to be as a rider, and we constantly push our students to go to new levels to achieve their goals. Whether horse or human, we take time to design a training program that will advance the horse or rider. At shows we have the opportunity to compete and show off our skills, and it helps our riders see the connection between their hard work and success. We use natural horsemanship methods in our program and horse handling, and teach this to our students. We also host guest instructors in dressage and natural horsemanship.
Megan is a proponent of positive coaching and using positive feedback to motivate and coach her students at the shows. As a mom and trainer she has learned that children respond best to this style of coaching. However, she can also be very tough and push her students when they need to dig in and work hard.
Megan Galloway
USHJA CERTIFIED TRAINER
Owner/trainer Megan Galloway has over 25 years’ experience riding, showing and training horses. At age 12 she won the Small Pony Hunter Grand Championship at Pony Finals riding Farnley Nasser and was also the overall Grand Reserve Champion Pony. She trained with renowned trainer Lesley Gamble, as well as Christina Schlusemeyer and Don Stewart. She won championships at Devon, WEF, HITS, Upperville and many year-end awards for Zone 4 and her local show group, CFHJA.
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After her successful career as a junior rider, Megan obtained a bachelor’s degree from Furman University in Economics. She enjoyed a 12-year career in banking and investments with Barnett Bank and Regions Bank in Ocala, Florida. She then began her family and after a pony ride birthday party for her oldest daughter Lauren (then 4), her friends all requested lessons for their own children. Megan wanted to spend more time with her children, and soon after, began her second career as a hunter/jumper trainer. She found a new passion as an instructor and found she loved not only the horses, but teaching others as well.
"We instill an atmosphere of hard work, fun, camaraderie, and adventure."
Alina Patterson
Assistant Trainer
Alina Patterson moved to Ocala in 2021 to further her riding career. She is currently an Advanced/4* level three-day event rider and is a part of the 2022-2023 United States Equestrian Federation Emerging Athlete Program. She started riding horses at age 3, started Pony Club at age 9 doing show jumping, and then switched to eventing when she was 12. She is passionate about eventing as a sport and looks forward to teaching the upcoming generation and nurturing the love of horses. Alina is taking a gap year after obtaining her Associates degree while still in high school and plans to major in Business Management with a minor in Exercise Science at the University of Florida.
You’ll find her in the barn, giving beginner lessons in the arena, and at the local eventing horse trials with her horse Flashback.
Marissa Ayers
Barn & Horse Show Assistant
Marissa Ayers started her riding career at the age of three and has been in the saddle for 20 years. She grew up riding at Eden Farm in Ocala, and she fell in love with Off the Track Thoroughbreds (OTTB) there. She continued riding them during her riding career. In addition to being at the barn, Marissa went back to school to study diesel mechanics and loves working on Peterbilts. In fact, she even named her horse Pete, an OTTB named after her favorite semi truck.
Marissa is a groom for Eden Farm and also works with our ponies and horses to ensure they're well cared for at home and at horse shows.
