Meet Renee Poff & Ken Poff Proud Owners of Walnut Grove Farms
Renee Poff has been involved in the equine industry for over thirty years and proudly shares a partnership with her husband, Ken in the ownership of Walnut Grove Farms that they established together in 2017. She enjoys blending the love for horses and her love of helping people through the use of these amazing creatures. Her qualifications include, experience in multiple disciplines, trained under multiple equine professionals, holds a Bachelors Degree in Equine Facilitated Therapeutics, a Minor in Business, and a Concentration in Psychology. Renee has earned multiple championships all over the East Coast and was the York College Equestrian Team Coach for 3 Consecutive Years before Resigning in 2011. She specializes in Western Pleasure, Horsemanship, Equitation, Hunter Under Saddle, Hunters, and Trail Riding for Pleasure. She has successfully completed all Phases of the Pennsylvania Council of Therapeutic Horsemanship Program and is Recognized as a Master Level Pennsylvania Qualified Instructor. In 2018 and 2019 at The PA National Horse Show she was honored to judge the PA National Therapeutic Championship. She has participated in a research project that examined the Effects of Ill-Fitting Tack and Adaptive Equipment that was later presented to PACTH. Research that proves the effectiveness of Therapeutic Riding is very important to Renee. She led a research project in collaboration with Shippensburg University in 2014.
About The Study:
Walnut Grove has been heavily involved in proving the effectiveness of the services we offer through credible research. Research was conducted and featured in the Shippensburg University’s summer edition and the PASSHE center for education’s website. Not only have parents of children with developmental disorders confirmed that therapeutic riding has been a source of therapy for them, but scientific research has also been conducted in-house that supports the effectiveness of treatment. In the summer of 2014, in collaboration with Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania, Walnut Grove found that therapeutic riding was an effective form of intervention for children with autism. After six weeks of therapeutic riding, both children involved showed improvements in the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scale (VABS) with regard to communication and motor skill development, and parents reported generalizations from the riding lessons into their child’s home life. The research has since been presented at Shippensburg University as well as at the Eastern Psychological Association conference in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In order to use the best therapeutic interventions possible, Walnut Grove intends to continue conducting and publishing research in the field and Renee looks forward to being a part of this continued research.
Ken Poff is the person responsible for making things come to life at the farm. His creative mind while working with wood and metal is absolutely amazing. After many years of working a variety of jobs from landscaping to timber-framing to welding products that were shipped world-wide, Ken has put his talents directly into the family business. He does a wonderful job maintaining the farms and providing the equine staff and volunteers with everything they request. He enjoys sharing his love for fishing, hunting, woodworking, and metalworking with all the families that come to visit our business. If you visit us be sure to peek in the garage at Ken to see what his latest creation may be.
~Our Family Is Looking Forward To Meeting You At Walnut Grove~
Meet Our Equine Team And Their Private Owners
Meet Our Instructors
Megan Fuhrman
Megan Fuhrman has been loving, caring, and riding horses for 24 years. She grew up locally and trained with top hunter/jumper and eventing trainers from all across the country. She is a mother of two wonderful children, one has acquired her passion for horses. Megan attended Meredith Manor International Equestrian College, where she received her Level III Teaching certification, Level III Training certification and Equine Massage Therapy certification. Megan has been teaching children and adults of all ages for the last 15 years. Megan’s teaching has included everything related to English riding and maintaining the proper care for horses. Also, She has trained students for hunters/jumpers, eventing and has taken students to schooling and rated shows. Her goal for teaching is to properly and safely instruct while maintaining a fun and encouraging environment. If you have questions or want to know more, feel free to contact her.
Julia Querry
Julia's passion for horses started out at very young age and it continues to grow as the years go by. She has been involved in the equine industry for just about 15 years now. She didn’t officially start taking riding lessons until she was eight years old, but until that point she made sure to be around them as much as possible. Growing up she was what they called a working student. In order to get ride time she had to work for it by doing the following tasks as needed; tack cleaning, horse grooming/bathing, cleaning stalls, sweeping, feeding grain/hay, cleaning/filling water buckets, braiding, leg wrapping, exercising horses, training, and even teaching lessons daily. Julia has worked with numerous equine professionals including instructors, horse trainers, clinicians, farriers, chiropractors, saddle fitters, and vets. She also worked at several different facilities in the area over the years. To say the least she has a strong amount of hands on experience. During this time she also leased/owned multiple horses personally. She has experience in the following disciplines; Hunter Jumper, Dressage, Equitation, Jumpers, Cross Country, Western Pleasure, and Rodeo Events. She also enjoys liberty work, trick training, ground driving, equine bodywork, creating fitness plans, and horsemanship skills. Julia also decided to become a certified instructor and received her Level 2 English (with jumping) and Western CHA certification. She plans to continue working up through the levels of CHA. She is also working on finishing her Bachelors degree in Business Management. Throughout her college years she has taken supplemental equine classes along the way at Wilson College and rode with the York College Equestrian team. She started teaching at Walnut Grove Farms in 2020 and couldn’t imagine herself being anywhere else. She has successfully taken riders from their first time on a horse to winning blue ribbons in the show ring. She enjoys teaching the tiny tots all the way up to the more seasoned adults. Her main mission is to give everyone the best possible experience by catering lessons around the riders needs depending on their personal goals.
Johnna Whitcraft
Johnna cannot remember back to a time when she did not ride horses. She received her first horse at the age of 7 and began taking regular lessons at that time. For her 16th birthday, she received a horse rather than a car. She has two young children who have started to acquire a love for being at the barn and around the horses. Johnna has a passion for hunter/jumpers and has ridden and worked with multiple trainers throughout her years in the equine industry. She has been training with Walnut Grove Farm since March of 2023, and enjoys teaching English, as well as lower-level Western and liberty. It is her goal to pass her love of horses on through proper and safe instruction.
Amber Huber
Amber is one of our newest instructors here at Walnut Grove Farms. Amber has many years of experience in the Equine Industry. Her love for horses is so clear as you watch her interact with them. Her kind mannerisms make her very successful not only with the horses but while she is instructing as well. Her expertise is in the western discipline specifically Barrel Racing. It is her goal to make a positive impact on her students while providing a safe environment for both horse and rider.
