Christa Richardson, of Redvale, is originally from Fort Collins, but grew up in Florida. She came back to Colorado when she was 19 and hasn’t looked back. Now, she’s happily married and living in Redvale, living her dream with horses — and many other farm animals too.
Richardson, who’s married to Tarrun Richardson, grew up riding and showing hunter-jumper horses. Later she studied biology and anthropology in college. She’s worked as a vet tech, in feed lots, managed a humane society, and has been day help for ranches in the Midwest and in western Colorado. Needless to say, she knows quite a bit about agriculture.
She’s been giving riding lessons the last few years to children and adults, working with all ages.
"When they can hold themselves up in the saddle,” she said, “I can take them. About 5 is probably a good age to start.”
Though she’s been trained in English riding disciplines, she’s currently studying dressage, something she’s passionate about. Yet, she knows about western riding too and gathering cows. She’s studied some of the vaquero-style tradition, and she likes to teach her clients a little bit of everything she knows.
Her equestrian students have access to her fenced riding arena, which she’d like to cover at some point, and also a round pen, a jumping course and 1,300 acres of trail.
She works with beginner and intermediate riders with her own lesson horses, though people can bring more advanced horses over in their trailers too to ride with her. She’s got her own tack, but people are welcome to bring their own saddles over.
She and her husband also offer pasture boarding for horses. They’ve got corrals and turn-outs, just no stalls.
She’s got local connections. Her best friend is horsewoman Hannah Pace, of Norwood but now living in Nevada, and she’s been endorsed by Lisa Foxwell, of Many Ponies, who’s mostly retired now and has sent horseback riding lesson inquiries to Richardson.
She enjoys hosting the regional equine dentist and also the equine chiropractor, who both travel to her ranch, so locals can get their horses treated. In the future, Richardson would like to host clinics, so people can learn from higher-level equine experts. Already she rides with and hosts Laura Gilmer, a dressage instructor in the area. And, she knows dressage trainer Deb Hindi who comes to Norwood to teach, and she rides with her some. She’s actually sending a three-year old horse to Hindi soon.
Richardson’s husband operates Richardson Fencing, for which he handles fence, firewood, caretaking, snow removal and other things for property owners. The husband-and-wife team also run cows too with Tarrun Richardson’s family, under 3R Ranches.
Back at their own place in Redvale, JTC Ranches, they’ve got meat birds, including chickens, ducks and turkeys, and she is selling eggs to a shop in Norwood. The Richardsons also have Kunekune pigs; cows, including a milk cow; plus the horses; and many barn cats and cow dogs.
An apricot orchard, more than 100 years old, sits adjacent to the family’s two-story farmhouse, and creating a life of self-reliance and raising their own food is important to her.
Anyone who’d like to reach her for riding lessons or something else, may email her at jtcranches@gmail.com. They can also call her by dialing 352-874-4545. She’s on Facebook too under JTC Ranches.
