Thoroughbred Athlete's Barn Manager

Lauren is a our barn and office manager! She works minimum five days a week and maintains the daily care of the horses and day to day operations at Thoroughbred Athletes, and is extremely helpful in finding home for our available horses. She handles adoptions, this website and anything else thrown at her. Be it early morning feed, extra hours to prepare for a horse show, volunteer coordination, event planning, social media outreach, Lauren is always eager to offer help and keeps herself on call 24/7 for TAI. Her goal is to one day run a place like a TAI or TAI itself. We couldn't do it without Lauren on our team!

Thoroughbred Athlete's Senior Volunteer and de-sensitizing specialist.

Fatima is now a high school graduate who is continuing on into the military and college at OU. We could not be more proud of this young lady. Fatima started volunteering at TAI when she was only 13. Now 18, Fatima has shown TAI horses at shows, loves starting horses on ground work, and is an excellent hand from daily chores to helping photograph and video available horses. We are so thankful for Fatima being a part of our TAI family!

Thoroughbred Athlete's Senior Volunteer and Fundraising Coordinator

  Susanne is one of our volunteers that is with us multiple times a week. She has taken over doing afternoons three to four times a week for us, giving Lynn and Lauren much needed breaks. She is truly passionate about horses and owns horses of her own. Her and her family love to come help in any way they can. She also makes a point to step in with her whole family and volunteer to help set up events and volunteer at the events. Without Susanne we'd be overwhelmed and can't thank her enough for stepping in and helping at TAI so much.   

Thoroughbred Athlete's Senior Volunteers

The McDaniel's family are some of our favorites: Jane and her husband Nyles plus her two children Jackson and Journi come out and help us every Wednesday and  Saturday. They are such devoted volunteers and work so hard at the daily chores and care and upkeep at the farm. Journi and Jackson work just as hard as our adult volunteers whether it be filling hay bags, scrubbing buckets or even helping their parents in stalls; they are true troopers. Jane has also helped us set up and coordinate events and fundraisers. They have recently moved to the country and are interested in purchasing a horse for their property so what better first step then to volunteer with us. Jane is also a teacher and her and her family breed Belgian Malinois. 

Thoroughbred Athlete's Senior Volunteers

Danielle and her two children: Sam and Caroline are some of our greatest helpers. They come out to the farm on Sundays and are always willing to come help on any day we are shorthanded. Danielle and her family go above and beyond for TAI helping us with day to day chores, the farrier, fundraising, running events and more. She is also an adopter of one of our favorite horses: Hezsational. We couldn't be happier for them, they are the perfect pair. Danielle is an inspiration working as a teacher for special needs children. We cannot thank this family enough for their continued hard work and dedication to Thoroughbred Athletes.  Our cats also would be ever so lonely without Caroline's visits, she makes sure to pay them extra attention and love every time she is here.

Thoroughbred Athlete's Senior Volunteer and Event/Play-day coordinator

Kesia and her daughter Kloe are amazing volunteers. Kesia is constantly coming up with ideas for fundraising and play days, offering to help in any and every way she can. She also comes and does our day to day chores with us on almost any day we ask her. Kesia and her daughter own horses, including one of our own: Boogie Toogie.  Her daughter is actively on the rise to becoming a barrel racer. Kesia is an absolute blessing to TAI stepping up and working hard every chance she gets and her daughter is working on moving up in the horse world and now is able to ride some of our OTTBs for us. 

Thoroughbred Athlete's Senior Volunteer

Bree Smotone has been a volunteer at TAI since late 2020. She is originally from Ponca City, and is a student atOSU-OKC, where her goal is Veterinary School at OSU, in Stillwater,Oklahoma. Although Bree didn’t growup around horses, she has taken riding
lessons since her childhood. Bree has now adopted our very own Mare-dith and is boarding with Kesia Samborski and Boogie Toogie.
Bree loves her time volunteering at TAI, as she views it as a learning experience that will help her in her goal to manage her own veterinary/rescue one day! We appreciate Bree’s dedication – especially during the recent frigid weather, and look forward to her continuing her volunteer work at TAI, as she approaches graduation. Our barn manager Lauren has nothing but praise about Bree and how much she steps in and volunteers. 

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