By Ron Wilson, director of the Huck Boyd National Institute for Rural Development at Kansas State University.
All-American. That designation is for the highest level of collegiate sports performance. Today we’ll learn about a rural Kansas woman who founded a business that is helping create All-Americans in the sport of equestrian riding.
Ann White is the founder and owner of Vermillion Valley Equine Center near Belvue. Ann grew up in Manhattan and loved horses as a girl. “My parents were not into horses, but they allowed me to have riding lessons,” Ann said. Horses became her passion. She started traveling and training horses and riders, particularly in the English style of riding.
Ann went to Kansas State University and met Mike White. They married, and she moved onto his family farm, named Vermillion Valley Farms. “I had been traveling around to train horses, but when I started having children, I did the training here (at the farm),” she said. “I didn’t really think people would come clear out here but they did, and now I think our rural setting is one of the biggest draws.” Continue reading “Ann White, Vermillion Valley Equine Center”
