Instructors
Meet the Instructors
Joanna
Joanna Fowler is a local legend. She is famed for creating great riders, many of which reach the upper levels. Among these are Helen Bouscaren, Maris Burns, Kelsey Devoille and Sophie Click, who all grew out of Joanna’s program. Joanna has a strong knowledge of the essence of riding and is able to communicate its elements to those who listen.
She has been teaching in Redmond, WA for over 40 years and has a lifetime of experience with horses. She is a British Horse Society Instructor and at the time was one of the youngest ever to receive the BHSI degree. Before starting her career in teaching she was the first Pony Club “A” in the Northwest Region.
She joined Pony Club at age 13, after moving to the Northwest from the Midwest where she had started as a western rider. Her earliest instructors were her mother Sheila, Suzy Moery, Bunny Coffin and Alex Trewin.
At 15, Joanna began riding with Patricia Salt, FBHS. When she became the Northwest’s first “A” pony clubber at 18 the qualifications for the “A” included lateral work, show-jumping at 4’, cross country at 3'9, and bringing an additional horse that you had trained from scratch.
After receiving her “A” she followed Pat’s suggestion to take a year off after high school to train as an instructor in England at Robert Hall’s Fulmer school of Equitation. The year off extended into 2 years before she returned to attend the UW in Journalism. At that time she began to teach with Pat Salt and Phyllis Crooks at Evergreen Eq. Center while also riding in clinics with Deitrich von Hoppfgarten.
At age 24 she went back to England to resume studies with Pat Manning, FBHS, who had been her main influence in her years at Fulmer. She passed the British Horse Society “Instructor” (BHSI) exam in 1971. (Pat Manning became the coach of Olympian Virginia Leng, one of Britain's leading event riders.) Joanna remained in England for a few years exploring life more, including studying Early Childhood Education, which would become very useful in her later teaching.
She returned to the Northwest some years later with family as a priority, while continuing her education through clinics with USDF, USCTA, and Canadian instructors Sally Swift, Henrik Johannson, Dr. Knapp, Bill Woods, Gabor Foltenyi, Charles de Kunffy, and others.
Joanna brings decades of knowledge and subtle wisdom to all of her lessons. Her students learn tact, fairness, compassion and determination along with their riding skills.
Duschka
Duschka Fowler-Dunning grew up riding in her mother’s lessons and being around the barn in all of her free time. She was an active member of Valley Green Pony Club, receiving her B rating when she was 15. She competed locally in Eventing and dabbled in Showjumping, competing in a Mini-Prix (4’3) when she was 17.
For her early adult life she alternated between going to college and riding horses. For 6 months in 1997 she was a working student for Nick Holmes-Smith of the Canadian Olympic team. Nick’s program was intensive, 3 lessons a day with Nick and 6-7 hours of “character building” hard labor. This experience was life changing for her and created a strong drive to become a great rider.
In 1998 she was a member of the gold medal young riders team at what was then the two-star level (Intermediate), placing 5th individually, on Baybeau, a home-bred and -trained horse. Returning to college, she graduated from Western Washington University in 2000 with a degree in Latin American Studies. In 2001 she went to Germany to study dressage for 5 months with the International Academy of Equestrians Studies, at that time run by Stephan Kiesewetter.
Upon returning from Germany she started teaching, and delved into the long process of learning the depths of riding and working with horses, teaching and riding 70-80 hr weeks for many years. Throughout this time she rode under the brilliant tutelage of Deitrich von Hoppfgarten, Robin Hahn, Nick Holmes-Smith, and Kim von Hoppfgarten, and of course, her mother. She also benefited from neighborly instruction comments from Suzy Moery and Bunny Coffin.
The horses themselves were also great teachers. She competed particularly well with Baybeau (1997-8) & Legacy (2009-10) around the Northwest and West Coast, competing at the Intermediate (what was then the two-star) level, and was honored to be on the longlist for the 2012 Olympics.
At the beginning of the 2011 competition season she broke her hand which took her out for the season, and decided it was time to go back to graduate school for her MBA. Another life changing experience, this MBA in Sustainability helped to give her a vision for the future of Brackenhollow.
Duschka continues teaching her passion of developing a rider’s balance and “feel” that makes it effortless for the horse to carry them, and the qualities that allow a rider to join mind & body with the horse. She often says, “You can learn all the basics, but to become a great rider you have to change deep parts of yourself.” In addition to learning to “think like a horse,” she is a strong advocate of doing yoga and meditation as ways to improve the mind-body connection, and expand awareness of self and other (including animal others) more generally.
Olivia Timmerman
Olivia grew up riding, competing, and learning to teach in the Brackenhollow program, and as a teenager began working as an assistant instructor. After receiving her degree in Animal Science from Washington State University she returned to work as a full-time instructor and barn manager at Brackenhollow.
Olivia is devoted to learning the art of riding and has a solid understanding of classical dressage, a balanced position for the rider, and how to treat horses with empathy and respect. We are so lucky that she has trained with us for years, learning to master our methods and has exhibited a true dedication to our community.
She currently competes in local shows and takes our students on local outings for shows and Cross-Country schooling. She is active in the Northwest Region Pony Club as a competitor, instructor and examiner, and is Safe Sport Certified.
Ashley Glanz
Ashley is the designer of our very successful unmounted Brackenhollow Basics program which teaches introductory and advanced level horsemanship skills, how to be comfortable around and respect horses, all the essential skills you need to prepare for riding, and, in essence, life.
She grew up riding, stopped for 25 years, and started again with Joanna at Brackenhollow 14 years ago. She was a Pony Club parent and helped to grow Brackenhollow Riding Center and is now an active member and competitor. She has a Masters in Education and has been a teacher of all age groups in public, private and university settings.
Ashley is a strong and confident, positive influence at the barn, and her wisdom and relationships with the students are an integral part of the Brackenhollow experience.
Sophie Click
We also work closely with Sophie Click, a long term student of ours and close family friend. She is currently a 4* level event rider and trainer competing very successfully at the upper levels on the West Coast and National Competitions. She coaches our students at shows and provides opportunities for more competitions for those who are interested.