Lightfoot Horse Farm

Lightfoot Horse Farm, located in Northern California, is owned and managed by JayaMae Gregory. Jaya’s family includes two exceptional horsewomen, from whom Jaya has gained much of her horse sense. Jaya’s mother learned to ride from her mother, who fell in love with horses as a very young girl, when her father brought home a mare he paid $20 for at a horse auction. The year was 1918. The horse was Lightfoot.

JayaMae Gregory was introduced to the art and discipline of horseback riding at the age of 5, when her mother took her for her first lesson.... (read more) As a child, she rode on the East Coast, in New England, as a hunter-jumper rider. When she graduated high school, she rode with Dana Smith Show Team in San Juan Capistrano, California, as well as at Anaheim Hills Saddle Club. Jaya has trained with Brian Bodarke of Brookhaven Farm in Chico, California and she has taken lessons from David Lichman, a licensed 5-star Parelli Natural Horsemanship instructor, who specializes in gaited horses. Jaya has also taken private lessons with Sheri Braun, of Paradise, CA and with Tina Cornish of Chico. Currently, she is a member of the American Endurance Ride Conference and competes in the sport of endurance. Jaya and her mare, Asali, have over 500 endurance miles together and in 2013, they entered the Tevis Cup, a 100-mile ride through the Sierra Nevada Mountains, known as the world’s most difficult endurance ride.

JayaMae is a mother, a daughter, a sister, a wife, and a friend. She works part-time as a Registered Nurse in the Intensive Care Unit at Feather River Hospital. Jaya has worked extensively with children of all different backgrounds, through animal and art therapy. In 2008, she founded the nonprofit organization, Spirit Quilts.

Jaya does not consider herself a teacher or a trainer, although she is often referred to as such. She has a hunger for knowledge and finds out every day that she is just who she wants to be – a student. Her passion is simply to share and pass on her love for horses and her love of art.