Where Horses Are Fun!
Assisting Horse & Rider
to Achieve a Positive Relationship
All Disciplines Welcome!
Diane has been a volunteer for the Montpelier Horseketeers 4H Riding Club since it's establishment in 1997 where she continues to served as the Organization Leader.
She volunteers her time and experitise with monthly equine relationship clinics for club members.
She has 11 yrs experience with volunteer participation at County, District and State Level 4H Events, Contests & Horse Shows.
In her free time she enjoys Horseback Riding, Continued Education with Equine Studies, Alternative Medicine, Nutrition, Business Education and most of all God's Word. She loves going to the Theater and most of all spending time with family and friends. She especially enjoys Tea Parties with her Granddaughters and watching the movie "Cars" with her grandson who now has a new baby brother born June 1, 2008. She looks forward to spending time with him too!
Diane is a Breast Cancer Survivor since December, 2000 where she went through Chemo and Radiation Treatment followed by a Lumpectomy.She asked the doctor what caused her cancer and he said bad cells which have grown in the body for eight years.
Since that time, she has been on a journey learning to help her body make healthy cells with excellent results. Her passion is to help others learn what she has discovered about what the body needs to fight off diseases.
Diane enjoys teaching others about how to obtain a healthier lifestyle for people as well as animals.
As of November, 2007, Diane earned her CNHP (Certified Natural Health Professional)
For further information, please feel free to call her at (804) 240-6011.
Diane has over 40 years experience and continued education riding and handling horses to include show experience in both English and Western Disciplines.
At the age of 10, she worked at a place called Pony Land helping to lead a pony around a fenced circled area in trade for riding this pony a lap around at closing time. One day she was given a delightful surprise visit at her house by her sister's friend Susan who was five years older than Diane. Susan gave Diane the opportunity to experience her first trail ride through her neighborhood to the store located across a two lane highway.
As the years went by, Diane was given the opportunity to ride in actual horse shows. Diane learned to ride in pleasure classes as well as speed events to include barrel racing and rider pickup. She was also given the opportunity to trail ride. By the time she was 15 years old, the opportunities ceased until she met her current husband, John Wayne Dickerson.
Diane received her first horse from her husband on her 30th birthday,. Delighted to receive God's blessing from her husband, Diane kept her promise to God and immediately started sharing her horse often giving pony rides to the neighborhood children and adults. She also found out that after 15 years, you are not that young rider anymore and needed to build her confidence and riding skills which started her journey with Equine Studies.
Diane soon discovered it wasn't easy keeping a horse on small acreage which furthered her equine studies toward pasture maintenance, equine nutrition and proper shelters for horses. Another horse was soon added to the Dickerson Family and they soon learned that once you own one horse, there are many opportunities to own more:)
In June of 1989, the Dickerson's moved to Montpelier, Virginia bringing 15 horses with them to live on their new 22 acre farm, Cedar Ridge Stables. Diane learned to drive towing a 4-horse trailer and also began teaching basic horsemanship lessons to children and adults using techniques learned from the CHA Level Manuals and traveling with her horses to trail or give pony rides.
In 1996, she obtained her first certification with CHA as a Horsemanship Instructor and continued to advance with this organization throughout the following years with the help of a CHA Master English & Western Instructor who was also certified in Centered Riding and NRHA with a background showing, grooming and training gaited horses.
Diane had a strong desire to become a Centered Riding instructor and started the steps necessary, but only finished 2 out of the 3 of these steps. Due to time and money, this venture ended. In the meantime, she continued to study and seek lessons in this area of great influence to her where she learned a wealth of information about obtaining a balanced and secure seat. She was also introduced and studied the Alexander Technique complementing Centered Riding and further enhancing a rider's balance. She also hired several Dressage and Hunt Seat Instructors through the years for she could advance her certification which she continues today to better serve her students and horses. Throughout these years, she would take several of her horses to the riding clinics and local shows where she participated in dressage tests and hunt seat classes. She continued to train and coach her students at local shows in both English & Western Disciplines.
Diane gained a wealth of knowledge throughout the years with continued education, personal lessons plus training & coaching students of all ages. Her training techniques are rooted from the disciplines listed below:
- Centered Riding www.centeredriding.org
- Dressage (lower level) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dressage
- Hunt Seat en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hunt_seat
- English Pleasure en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_Pleasure
- Western Pleasure en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_Pleasure
- Gymkana (Speed) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O-Mok-See
- Trail Riding en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trail_riding
- Trail Class en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trail_class
- Natural Horsemanship en.wikipedia.org/wiki/natural_horsemanship
The Picture Below Shows Diane Riding in one of her CHA Instructor Certification Camp. She is behind the first rider with the blue wraps on her camp horse. The lesson was on the gates of the horse and the leg wraps helped the students see the foot falls of the trot.
