GILROY — Christine Amber still remembers the days as a little
girl when she used to ride a horse up in the hills of the Santa
Clara Valley.
”
When I was a kid I used to ride up there,
”
she said.
”
We used to ride bare back up to Calero Reservoir, and we’d go
swimming with the horses.
”
GILROY — Christine Amber still remembers the days as a little girl when she used to ride a horse up in the hills of the Santa Clara Valley.
“When I was a kid I used to ride up there,” she said. “We used to ride bare back up to Calero Reservoir, and we’d go swimming with the horses.”
Growing up in the Seven Oaks area of San Jose, a place Amber said wasn’t a safe neighborhood, her connections that allowed her to get away from her poor neighborhood and ride horses.
“I’m lucky in that I was able to grow up kinda rural,” Amber said. “I remember waking up in the night, and you could see the shadows moving inside your fence. You would know that someone was in your yard. I’ve never felt that scared in the country.”
And that’s exactly why Amber strived to find a way to live in a rural setting herself one day. And though it wasn’t an easy road, she couldn’t be happier with her plot of land on Roop Road – and her now full-time job teaching people how to ride, train and care for horses.
“I was meant to have this place,” Amber said of her property at 6420 Roop Road, the home of her horse training business, Equestrian Training.
Amber, after growing up and leaving the Seven Oaks area, gave up on horses for a time and got a job in the high-tech industry in San Jose. However, she never gave up the dream of finding a place away from all the stress of Silicon Valley – stress that soon began to wear down on her body, as she started to suffer from stress-related injuries.
Over the years, Amber looked at several properties along Roop Road, but none was ever near a price that she could afford. In fact, the property at 2640 Roop was for sale in the 1990s, but Amber’s offer on the property wasn’t enough to close a deal. Amber gave up on buying the property until she had a vivid dream that pulled her back.
“I dreamed that I drove up here … and that someone bought the house,” she said.
The dream was powerful enough that she couldn’t help but pay the land owner a visit. She found that the “for sale” sign was no longer up, but after talking the property owner, they were able to work out a deal on the land – land which Amber coveted because it had two houses, one for her and her husband and one for her mother and father, who were very sick at the time. Her mother has since passed away.
“It was basically a hand-shake deal,” Amber said.
That was five years ago, and since then Amber has slowly removed herself from the stress of the high-tech field and moved to working with horses full-time.
Amber’s business is simple – she teaches people what it is like to own a horse.
“My focus is working with people who want to own a horse or just got a horse,” the 50-year-old said. “I see people who rode as a kid and now are coming back, and I have people who have never ridden before.”
Amber said that owning a horse is a big investment – not just in money but because learning to take care of a horse and to ride safely is often taken for granted. Amber usually has about 10 customers that come to her ranch that are not only learning to ride but finding out if buying a horse is right for them. And that a decision that takes time, Amber said.
“The longer, the better,” she said of her horse training program. “It’s like a trial period. That way you’ll find out if you really want a horse. It’s a lifestyle.”
Amber begins her classes by teaching people the basics about horses – how much sleep they need, how much food they eat, and how to keep them healthy.
“It’s a simple A to Z about horses,” she said.
And Amber’s idea about caring for horses is to let them live as naturally as possible. She keeps the horses on her property – including her two mules, one percheron draft horse and three thoroughbreds – in an open field instead of a stall, and she tries to let them live life as much like they would outside of captivity as possible.
“Barns are for people,” she says. “Not for horses.”
According to Vici Whisner, who has been riding with Amber for two years and had never had ridden before, that’s exactly the type of place she was looking for when she decided she wanted to start riding horses.
“Your horse is not ready when you get there, you have to do it,” she said. “I wanted to know what it was like to own your own horse. It’s much more relaxed than other places. They would start the clock for your half hour as soon as you got there.”
After riding for a year, Whisner decided to buy her own horse, Pepe.
“Christine would call me a low-confidence rider, so I bought a slower horse,” she said. “Now I’m ready to sell my horse and get a little faster one.”
Whisner works full time from home and rides when she has free time. She said she feels relaxed riding at Equestrian Training because the focus is just on enjoying the animals, not on the pressures of riding a show horse or looking proper.
“It’s a very relaxed atmosphere,” she said. “There’s not pressure for performance. I want to relax – I have enough stress at work.”
Pamela Ryalls, who is thinking about buying a horse as well, said she has stayed with Amber because of the relaxed setting, and knowing Amber won’t cut a lesson short because of time.
“If we’re out having fun, we can be out for hours,” she said.
Student Jenni Meek agreed.
“Every time you ride with her, it’s a lesson,” Meek said. “She loves what she does.”
Amber charges $45 a lesson or $160 a month for orientation and learning to care for a horse. For $240 a month, a person who needs little supervision can join the riding club and receive lessons while riding three to five times a week. For more information visit www.equestriantraining.com.
