Sanaa Pharayra - Head Trainer

Sanaa spent her childhood years growing up in the suburbs just outside of Portland, Oregon.  She had a deep passion for horses from an early age, and began taking formal riding lessons when she was 9 years old.  Once a week riding lessons on a school horse soon snowballed into leasing and eventually getting a horse of her own. 

During this time Sanaa was exposed to a variety of trainers and types of riding sports.  The majority of her early childhood riding education and show experience was in dressage and three day eventing, later on Sanaa turned her attention to the sport of show jumping and began training and competing with top Jumper trainers in the area.

When Sanaa was 17 years old she got her first job as a professional trainer when she was hired as the Director of the Lake Oswego Hunt Riding School, the largest riding school in the Pacific Northwest region.  She was the youngest person ever hired into this position at the historic facility and she successfully ran the program as well as produced multitudes of talented young riders for the facility during the two years she was there.

In 2000 Sanaa was recruited to come to Southern California and ride and teach as an assistant trainer at an “A” rated show barn.  For the next couple of years she worked at area show barns riding and training top hunter, jumper, and equitation horses as well as coached many child and adult riders to success in the hunter and equitation divisions.

Throughout her riding career Sanaa has developed a reputation not only of being an elegant rider but also of being a very effective horse trainer.  She has a unique ability to take difficult horses and get to the “root of the problem” as well as greatly improve already good horses through her systematical and gymnastic training approach.

In 2003 she began her own training business, Sanaa Pharayra Stables, and began taking on students and horses in training.  She teaches and trains in the disciplines of Hunters, Jumpers, and Equitation.  In 2007 Sanaa relocated her business to Spirit Equestrian where she now resides.

Breanna Johnson - Trainer’s Apprentice and Riding School Instructor

Breanna has been a student and apprentice in Sanaa Pharayra Stables Advanced Training and Competition Program since 2008. Before moving to Spirit Equestrian to train with Sanaa, Breanna had already accumulated a great deal of experience and diversity in her riding background. Breanna’s accomplishments as a young rider include training and competing in: Dressage, 3-Day Eventing, Hunters, and Equitation. She has also successfully competed in the Pony Hunter Divisions, and worked as an apprentice for previous trainers. Currently she is focusing on training her very talented young horse, “Access Denied” (barn name: Ace), to compete in the Jumper divisions.

In the past several years Breanna has spent countless hours working to increase her depth of knowledge on riding and horses, and in 2009 she began teaching the Introductory thru Intermediate level lessons in our Riding School Program. Because she is a protégé of Sanaa she is able to teach her students using the same principles and philosophies of the Advanced Training and Competition Program that she herself has trained in. Breanna is also one of the lead counselors in our Summer Camp Program. Recently Breanna’s first group of up and coming riders went to their first horse show and competed very successfully!

Gilberto Melendez - Head Groom

Gilberto has worked for Sanaa Pharayra Stables since 2007. During his tenure in our program he has developed a well deserved reputation for being a great horse handler as well as a meticulous groom. Gilberto manages all of the routine horse care and stable management duties in our program, as well as the show preparation and body clipping of the horses.