About Us

BETSY BALL, TRAINER & CO-FOUNDER
Betsy has over 15 years of professional experience buying, selling, and training horses and riders. She has over 20 years of practical experience in a wide range of English disciplines and professional equine venues. As a kid she worked for Bill and Lori Hoos at Wil-lo Blue Farm in Tennessee, where she moved through the young riders' program and ran her first CCI*. In college, Betsy rode on the Mississippi State University IHSA Equestrian Team and interned as a journalist at the Chronicle of the Horse; she also exercised steeplechase horses for Doug Fout in Virginia.

JESSICA SHULL, TRAINER
Like Betsy, Jessie has over 20 years of practical experience riding and working with horses. Jessie grew up in Massachusetts riding with Carol Mayo and Stephie Baer. Through college she rode on the Smith College IHSA Equestrian Team and rode/competed horses for Stephie at Chase Farm. After College, Jessie took some time off of full time riding to get her Master degree in Art History of the Courtauld Institute of Art in London. She has pursued a number of dress related jobs in textile conservation, museum collections, and also film, but has since decided this is where her heart lies. She has ridden with the top professional including Leslie Law, Buck Davidson, Lucinda Green, and Dottie Morkis.

BILL MANN, CO-FOUNDER
Bill Mann was born in Webster County Mississippi where his family had a small farm with horses and mules. After graduating from high school, Bill served for six years in the Mississippi Army National Guard and then taught in Lowndes County Public School while he studied architecture. In 1989 he received his license. He has traveled in Israel, Jordan, Central America, and the Caribbean as architect on various archeological expeditions and construction projects in the 1980s and 1990s. He currently has his own architectural firm in Starkville, Mississippi and enjoys studying history and genealogy as well as working around the farm.

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History of Redbud Farm:

The present Redbud Farm is part of a 2000 acre tract of land originally owned by Giles Thompson, a member of the Choctaw Nation. Thompson sold the land for $3,000.00 on January 15, 1836 to James Gay of Monroe County Mississippi.

During the late 1830s and early 1840s James and Martha Bates Gay built a house and raised a large family on the property. They son John Hampton Gay and his wife Margaret later established a plantation on this land.

The farm passed down to John and Margaret's son, Charles Edward Gay who lived there until he joined the Confederate Army in 1861... continue reading