Cindy L. McGinley

      Cindy is a respected trainer and breeder of Percherons and Percheron Sport Horses in Chittenango, NY. With over 25 years as a professional horsewoman, she has diverse experience with horses and horsemanship. She was a teaching assistant for the Draft Horse Driving class (under Professor Richard Higby) at Morrisville College, where she was responsible for teaching students how to groom, harness, hitch, and drive teams of Belgian show mares. She received the Outstanding Student Award for Draft Horses at Morrisville and was a tutor of Equine Anatomy & Physiology. She worked as Assistant Trainer for Rocking Horse Manor in Pompey, NY, where she was responsible for the day-to-day care, training, and handling of the Percheron stallion Maxwell's Doc and several mares, geldings, and foals. She traveled to county and state fairs and school presentations with Rocking Horse Manor's six-horse hitch of Percheron geldings representing Niagara Mohawk Power Company. She also worked briefly as a veterinary technician at a local small animal practice.

     Cindy has been teaching English and Western riding, driving, and horsemanship to both children and adults for several years on her own horse farm, Rivendell, in Chittenango, NY, which she established in 1985. She has also been quite successful showing her own horses under saddle. 

      Cindy graduated cum laude in Equine Science from Morrisville Agricultural & Technical College at Morrisville, NY, and was a member of the Phi Theta Kappa National Honor Society. Some of her coursework at Morrisville included:

• Horse Husbandry
• Horse Breeding & Management I & II
• Horse Judging
• Anatomy & Physiology of the Horse
• Equitation I & II
• English Riding
• Breaking & Training
• Equine Nutrition
• Horse Health
• Fitting & Showmanship
• Farm Management
• Agricultural Science
• Special Projects in Agriculture: Draft Horses

    She works continually to stay current in her field, and recently completed these courses under Dr. Eleanor M. Kellon, VMD:

• NRC Plus
• Cushings and Insulin Resistance
• Nutrition as Therapy
• Arthritis and Other Lamenesses 
• Care of the Older Horse 

       Her special interest is the care and feeding of Cushings and/or Insulin Resistant horses.

       Cindy holds a bachelor's degree in Education from the State University of New York at Cortland. One might say coaching comes naturally to this former classroom teacher, and indeed, Cindy feels that she is just putting a formal name on what she has already been doing in one form or another for a very long time. 

     Cindy became interested in traditional healing methods over 15 years ago when some serious issues with her own health came upon her suddenly, and the medical profession really had no answers. After two years of inconclusive medical testing, numerous specialists, and just as many misdiagnoses, she found out that she has a rare heart arrythmia, and is also hypoglycemic and insulin resistant. This lead her to learn more about proper nutrition for those with blood sugar irregularities and to work on losing the extra pounds that had been creeping up on her over the years. She then began studying herbs for healing, and in 2006 became a formal herbalism student in the Family Herbalist Program at Clayton College of Natural Health. A minister ordained by the Henge of Keltria, Reverend Cindy spent many years studying the ways of Nature and Spirit, during which she became aware that the balance between body, mind, and spirit is essential for all of us to achieve complete wellness. She is trained in the way of the shaman, and continues to develop in shamanic healing and counseling through the Foundation for Shamanic Studies as well as other workshops and seminars. She has apprenticed under Connie Grauds, a shamana and pharmacist who specializes in energy work with the healing plant medicine of the Amazon. She also trained for several years in Aikido, a strictly defensive martial art, under Yousef Mehter Sensei, 6th Dan, of Aikido of Central NY, and was greatly influenced by the philosophy of the "Way of Harmony."

      She has completed nearly 100 hours of professional Health Coach training:

      Cindy is a member of the American Herbalists Guild, the New York State Farm Bureau, and the Society for Shamanic Practitioners. As a member of the International Coach Federation (ICF), she adheres to its Code of Ethics.

     Cindy is also a licensed Wildlife Rehabilitator.   

  Click here to see interviews with Cindy McGinley of Black Horse Consulting!