Trainer Gina Ruth

Meet Gina

Gina began her equestrian career riding and competing on the hunter/jumper circuit as a junior. After attending college in Vermont, she resumed riding with Amy Burrell-Cormier, who trained under Todd Minikus, and began using classical horsemanship and dressage to start babies and retrain horses with behavioral challenges. During this time, Gina simultaneously worked as a social worker with survivors of trauma. Before long, she left her job to pursue her passion working with young horses. Gina is still able to apply lessons from social work in her approach to horses that have behavioral challenges or have experienced trauma.

Gina returned to California to work under widely-renowned professionals Sue Lightner, Heidi Cowley, and Aimee Hanson. Finding few programs in Northern California for starting young horses and retraining horses with behavioral challenges, Gina decided to create her own and founded Open Water Farms in 2016. Gina has had success in this endeavor, producing brave, highly rideable, level-headed horses that have gone on to have winning careers on the A-circuit.

Open Water Farms continues to grow and thrive through Gina’s compassion-based approach. She starts by getting to know the individual horse through play and groundwork, and then uses the horse’s perspective to develop a boutique training plan. These plans have an emphasis on forwardness, lightness of the aids, and helping the horse find and maintain correct balance to lessen the chances of future injury. Horses emerge from Gina’s programs as well-rounded, soft-to-the-aids, and confident thinkers that are ready for any show or non-show career.