January 30, 2017

Meet Joan Aronson of Green Acres Equestrian Center in Woodstock

Local Stories

Today we’d like to introduce you to Joan Aronson.

Joan Aronson is the founder and owner of Green Acres Equestrian Center, LLC. She and her husband, Wayne Aronson, purchased land in June 2002 and designed and built the Green Acres Equestrian Center in memory of Joan’s father, Mark Leach. Mr. Leach was a renowned owner, breeder, and trainer of thoroughbred race horses on his Greenacres Farms, Inc. in Lexington, Kentucky and Ocala, Florida. Joan had been born and raised on a horse farm for her entire childhood until she earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Speech-Language Pathology. She then pursued an intense full-time career in helping children and adults with communication disorders and subsequently founded Greater Atlanta Speech and Language Clinics, Inc. in 1982. During the year 2000, when she learned about the specialty of hippotherapy, she realized she could blend her speech therapy career with her passion for horses.

In 2000, Joan earned the credential of an NARHA registered therapist in hippotherapy by the American Hippotherapy Association, and in 2002, she achieved certification by the North American Riding for the Handicapped Association as a therapeutic riding instructor. During this time period, she also expanded Greater Atlanta Speech and Language Clinics, Inc. to include a new division called Horse Talk. She now houses this division at Green Acres Equestrian Center, LLC.

In addition to Joan’s busy career and family life raising two teenage daughters, she manages to make time to ride and occasionally show her own hunter-jumper. Her philosophy for both horsemanship and horse care stem from her father’s early teachings: “A horse will seek to please you, if you provide him with quality care, love, and kindness.”

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
There were many struggles along the way. The primary challenge was with the recruitment, locating, training, and maintaining quality managers, assistant managers, and additional help to provide quality care to the horses 24/7. Additionally, an 11 1/2 acre farm requires constant maintenance to upkeep the many fences and barns and landscaping.

The other hardship for me was dealing with sick horses who had to be nursed back to health and frequently transported to the veterinarian hospital in Athens. Emotionally, it was draining to lose one, as they had become loved treasures.

Please tell us about Green Acres Equestrian Center.
Green Acres Equestrian Center offers a quiet haven for horse lovers, horse riding enthusiasts, children attending summer camp, having birthday parties on horseback, people taking lessons as a recreational hobby, a sport, or to compete in horse shows, and people boarding their horses. but we are most known for out well established therapeutic riding program for individuals with special needs. It was founded in 2002 by Joan Aronson, a Speech-Language Pathologist and also a horsewoman, who blended her two passions by becoming a registered therapist in hippotherapy and therapeutic riding. Joan has since helped hundreds of children with autism, cerebral palsy, Down’s Syndrome, developmental delays, multiple sclerosis, spina bifida, childhood apraxia of speech, emotional problems, etc.

She prides herself most in being a self-starter, very ambitious, and a hard worker. She founded three rehabilitation clinics with a multitude of outside contracts with private schools, preschools. and hospitals in her first career from 1982-2013 and then went on to overlap her careers from 2002-2013 by also founding and developing a second business – Green Acres Equestrian Center. She maintains her 50% ownership in the first business, Greater Atlanta Speech and Language Clinics which is now run by her partner who bought half of Joan’s clinics in 1991.

What sets Green Acres Equestrian Center apart from others is that it is owned and run as a professional business by a businesswoman and professional, and is comprised of a myriad of different programs all under one roof.

Do you look back particularly fondly on any memories from childhood?
My favorite memory from my childhood is the moment I discovered that everyone didn’t have horses!

I had just started kindergarten. I was invited over to a new friend’s house to play after school one day. After showing me around her house, I remarked: “Now, let’s go see your horses”. Much to my surprise, she replied
“I don’t have any horses”.

As soon as I returned home to my home on a horse farm, I ran shouting “Mommy, mommy, did you know that everyone doesn’t have horses??

You see, my father’s occupation was Horses. He had also started his own horse centered business at a young age out of his passion for these majestic animals, who truly touch people’s souls.

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