Majestic Oaks Hackney Farm

Written By Eva Mores – Horse Lingo, LLC
August 16, 2014

Horse Lingo recently had the pleasure of interviewing Maureen Campbell of Majestic Oaks Hackney Farm, in Shelbyville, KY.  We talked as she drove home Friday evening, after setting up at Louisville.  Not only have Rich and Maureen been preparing over 50 of the 58 ponies they train for the trip to the World’s Championship Horse Show, but they have also been unpacking boxes and moving into their new home, located just a few minutes from the farm.  Feeling overwhelmed?  Not at all…Maureen seems to take things in stride and recognizes the move as an opportunity to be closer to these outstanding ponies.

Merging their worlds after graduating college, Maureen from William Woods and Rich from Michigan State, the couple began their career working at Heartland Hackney Farm together.  They spent a summer at Majestic Oaks and were offered a private training job.  Eventually they opened up Majestic Oaks to the public.  The operation began to grow, and Rich and Maureen had the opportunity to become the sole owners of Majestic Oaks, adding Hackney Farm to the name.  In October of 2010 they built and moved into their current facility.

Maureen Campbell & Heartland Copper Illusion (Owned by Toni Nastali)

This successful team has trained countless World’s, National, and Canadian National Champions, were named UPHA Horsemen of the Year in 2007, received the American Hackney Horse Society’s Trainers of the Year award in 2009 and most recently, in 2013, Rich was inducted into the AHHS Hall of Fame.  Maureen remains very humble and truly sees their major career accomplishment to date as being the opportunity to open their own facility and grow Majestic Oaks Hackney Farm from a small and private barn to the operation it is today, training incredible ponies and working with their extraordinary owners.  Working as a husband-wife team comes with some of its own challenges, and Maureen states that they often need to remind themselves to leave their work at the barn and spend time together outside of work.  They take a trip every winter to somewhere warm, visit Maine with the Caters and Swallas, and try to take a few weekend get-aways in the off season.  Maybe another secret to their success is that they take some time to themselves, driving separately to work!  While at the barn, they do have differing roles that complement each other.  Maureen keeps track of the bookwork in addition to training while Rich focuses on certain details of the ponies, such as shoeing in addition to training his string.

Maureen recognizes that they couldn’t ask for a better staff to complete their team at Majestic Oaks.  Holli Hayes and Juan Rios are essential pieces to the puzzle, each employed as trainers.  Holli has been a member of the team since 2007 and Juan has been training with them for over eight years.  Kayla Kring and Abel Salazar are assistant trainers.  The many caretakers also play an important role towards the training of the ponies.  Holli, Juan, Kayla, and Abel along with the caretakers are always there to help make adjustments, collaborating to achieve a team effort.

When asked about her favorite aspect of her job, Maureen replied that she loves putting new teams together.  She also has a passion for sharing these ponies with new people in the industry and loves to teach new drivers everything they know and put them behind their first show pony.  With over 20 horse shows in the books for 2014, Rich and Maureen Campbell are looking forward to Louisville.  While the opportunity to compete at the World’s Championship Horse Show is not taken lightly, Rich reminds all of their clients of each and every great show they go to throughout the year.  They value all of the experiences that have lead up to and that will follow Louisville, to complete the entire season.  Feeling lucky to have such a great group of clients that support each other and are willing to make decisions with the best interests of their ponies in mind, Rich and Maureen are honored to make yet another trip to Freedom Hall with them!

In addition to sharing this adoration for ponies, Rich and Maureen are also devoted to their five rescue dogs.  The most recent addition to their crew is Dixie, who they adopted at JD Massey.  When Maureen took Rich to see the dogs and tell him the rescue story of the rescue coordinator’s dog, he instantly went to Dixie (who was Maureen’s favorite), picked her up, and wouldn’t put her down.  Since then, she has attended nine horse shows and has made the flight to Devon!  While the “famous Dixie” may not make an appearance at Louisville, Rich and Maureen Campbell will undoubtedly be there with an ever-impressive string of ponies.  Stay tuned to the Horse Lingo Facebook Page for Majestic Oaks Hackney Farm updates from the World’s Championship Horse Show!

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