Our Instructors
Sandra Brown
Sandy, our head instructor and horse manager, is a Massachusetts licensed riding instructor and a certified instructor at the Registered level with PATH International.
Sandy has been riding, teaching, and competing since 1980 in many disciplines: combined training and dressage, western pleasure, polo, hunter/jumpers, and gymkhana. Sandy joined Equus in 2002 and served for 10 years as the assistant barn manager for Oakhollow Farm. She has also organized the Western Region's Special Olympics Equestrian Qualifying Event for the past four years. She has a BS in biology from the New York State College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Cornell University. She worked as a veterinary technician at Greylock Animal Hospital for more than ten years.
Sandy lives in North Adams with her two cats, Sienna and Remington Steele.
Robin Stevens
Robin has been a PATH International Registered Instructor since 2010, having taken the on-site trainig course at High Hopes. She
joined Equus at the start of 2013. Robin also teaches therapeutic riding at Shepard Meadows in Bristol, CT, and
Hidden Acres in Naugatuck, CT. 
A lifelong rider, her passions are working with horses and helping people, and she is dedicated to bringing the two together. She lives in Blandford, MA, with her husband. Having taught primarily in Connecticut, Robin is delighted to be working in her home state and will be pursuing her MA riding instructor license in 2013.
Janet Renard
Janet began volunteering with Equus in April 2009. In 2010, she apprenticed with Karry Brothers to get her Massachusetts riding instructor's license and the following year apprenticed at Equus under Sandy to become a PATH International Registered Instructor.
In the summer of 2012, Janet became Program Director of Equus. Her 25 years as a micropreneur in book publishing prepared her for this role as administrator. She has a BA from Northwestern University and an MA in education from New York University. Janet also teaches beginner riders at Emerald Glen Equestrian Center.
Ali Wassick
Ali joined Equus as an instructor-in-training in the summer of 2012 and was recently certified to teach therapeutic riding through PATH International. Ali has been riding for 20+ years. Her current focus is Dressage with her Dutch Warmblood, Vito. 
Ali graduated from the Equine Studies Program at UMASS, Amherst, in 2004. She lives in Shaftsbury, VT, and works as a yoga teacher and massage therapist.
Carrie Minahan
Carrie joined Equus as our hippotherapy instructor in 2008. She is a certified physical therapist with a special interest in pediatrics, and has both Level I and II certification from the American Hippotherapy Association. Carrie works in private practice at Western Mass Physical Therapy, in Pittsfield, where she specializes in adult neurology. She graduated from the University of Vermont with a bachelor of science degree in physical therapy with a clinical specialty in neurology.
Jenna Gancarz
Jenna has been volunteering with Equus since 2009 and is currently an instructor-in-training, working toward her certification with PATH International.
In March 2013 she became a Massachusetts state licensed riding instructor.
She works as a one-on-one aide in the special needs department in the North Adams Regional School district.
Equus Founder: Marcia Gross
Marcia Gross, who along with her husband, Larry, owns Oakhollow Farm in Williamstown, MA, founded the Equus program in 1982 as a 4-H project. Marcia earned her advanced certification in therapeutic riding from the Cheff Therapeutic Riding Center in Michigan and served as the Equus Program Director for 30 years. In the fall of 2012, after three decades of generous support, Oakhollow Farm began scaling back, necessitating the Equus program's move to a new host barn. Marcia and Larry’s boundless dedication to the program will always have a place in our hearts.