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Patty Messina
Patty Messina brings to her students a lifetime of experience with horses. Patty teaches children and adults of all levels and emphasizes good riding basics as well as safety with horses. Patty specializes in hunters and equitation and in the 20+ years that she has been teaching, she has brought students along from rank beginners to qualifying for the Medal and Maclay finals, National Pony finals, Junior Hunter finals, the Zone 2 Hunter finals and others. Her students have also brought home blue ribbons and championships from Harrisburg and Washington.

For the 2010 show season, Patty coached several of her students to Long Island High Score Year-End Awards including Jackie DeLuca who was champion in the Adult Hunters 18-35 on Leonce and also was reserve champion of Zone 2. Virginia Mulé, riding her Hero’s Testimony, was champion in the Adult Equitation and Adult PHA Medal. Gabrielle Dondero and Cocktail Hour took championship honors in the Pre-Children’s Hunters while Sam Beiter and It Takes Two were reserve champions of the Pre-Children’s Pony and also won Bronze and Silver Medals in the Pre-Mini Equitation. Another Bronze Medal winner was Sarah Goette for Short Stirrup Equitation while Colleen Jaskot was a LIPHA scholarship winner.

As a junior, Patty qualified and competed at the Medal and Maclay Finals for five years in a row, starting at age 13. She also won a USET Bronze Medal. At 11, she was the first winner of the USEF (then AHSA) Pony Medal Championship. Besides equitation, Patty qualified and competed successfully with her junior hunter at Devon, Harrisburg, Washington and the National Horse Show.

While in college, her blue ribbon round in Open Over Fences at the IHSA Nationals gave her team the points needed to take home the IHSA Cartier Cup Championship.

Patty has ridden several horses to Pre-Green and First Year Green championships in the Long Island High Score End-of-Year Awards as well as qualifying for indoors and Devon.

Patty believes that horseback riding is a wonderful gift that we can give children because of the patience, confidence, and determination that they develop when they ride and show. She is proud of all her students and their accomplishments and is happy to be part of their lives. It is not unusual for students and their parents, years after the junior years have past, to come back and say that “those were the best years of our lives!” Ω

Danielle Hadfield
Danielle Hadfield teaches children and adults at Island Hills Stable. She places a strong emphasis on basics and patience, and teaches her students that the horse must always come first. “However the horse comes out of his stall on any particular day is what you have to work with,” she said.

As a junior and amateur riding on Long Island, Danielle trained with John Colon and is appreciative of all he taught her over the years. She finished up as an amateur with a solid show record, winning the Amateur-Owner Hunter reserve championship at the Zone 2 Finals in 2007 with her horse Winter Solstice. In 2008 the pair won the LIHS Adult Hunter championship 18-35.

Now it’s all about her students, who range in age from 4 to adult. She is eagerly looking forward to the spring and summer show season on Long Island. Besides teaching beginners, Danielle also finds great enjoyment in working with more advanced riders. Ω