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Terry
Tenzing
- Camp Founder, Terry Tenzing, has a
lifetime of experience with children,
horses and animals as well as an extensive
formal education. With an MA in
Intercultural Education and another
Masters Certification in Intuition
Medicine®, she has taught and
counseled children and parents in
parenting and healthy life skills
development for over ten years. Her career
as an Assistant Dean of Foreign Student
Advising at Boston College; designing
inter-cultural training programs for
student exchange; teaching European Au
Pairs in Manhattan; and working in the
nonprofit sector with the San Francisco
Foundation when she first moved to the Bay
Area, Terry refers to as her "other life".
This time also revolved around being
married to the son of the first man to
climb Mount Everest, Tenzing Norgay, which
afforded her many adventures and unique
opportunities. Most importantly it gave
her her beautiful daughter Olivia Daku
Tenzing Norgay. And although, she and her
daughter are world travelers, they cannot
imagine living anywhere else than where
they now make their home on the West Coast
of California.
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Terry's
extensive experience in equine care, land
management, and the study of people and horses is a
lifetime endeavor. Growing up in New England on a
small farm, her favorite memories are of their
family's campgrounds, their gardens and farm
animals. Terry got her first pony at age three.
That summer she and her brother were so small that
getting on their ponies was an impossible feat
alone. They figured out though to run out into the
fields first thing in the mornings while the ponies
were still lying down, climb on their backs, and
cling on for dear life! Oftentimes their ride was
brief and a quick mischievous buck would send Terry
or her brother tumbling off onto a patch of
grass!!! One of her favorite stories that her
grandmother loved to tell was of the day Terry's
pony Misty walked in the open back door of the
farmhouse and helped herself to a freshly baked
apple pie right off the farmhouse kitchen table!
Another story that brought great hilarity was when
her grandfather led both ponies inside the
farmhouse living room and one of the ponies pooped
right on their antique hooked rug!!! It is stories
like this, or her fond memories of raising Misty's
tiny baby foal, "Tonka", as a girl of only seven,
that have instilled in Terry a lifelong love of
horses and ponies. In fact by now, she considers
herself a "pony whisperer", but she would tell you
that she can "whisper" to children and animals as
well. These early childhood experiences, and the
healing love from her beloved pony Misty after the
tragic death of her father on the Thresher
Submarine, instilled in Terry a deep understanding
of the potential for connection between a young
heart and her special equine friend.
It was
these early-life experiences that inspired Terry,
when her daughter was just nine-months old, to
accept the position of Manager of historic Shamrock
Ranch Stables. Situated only twenty minutes outside
of San Francisco, nestled in the mountains, and
within walking distance from the sea on the
majestic California Coast, Pacifica, CA, and the
almost 300 acre working ranch, became their home
for the next thirteen years. During those years as
a single mother, Terry created for her daughter,
not unlike the magic of her own childhood, a life
of animals, ponies and horses, a close-knit
community, the joy of living close to the land and
a freedom for an inspired childhood. Their close
friendships with their own ponies and horses, and
the herd of 25 horses who peered inside their
bedroom windows every morning, taught them both
more about horses' feelings and their minds, their
needs and social behaviors, than any book ever
could. And while Terry is an accomplished rider,
she prefers to think of herself as being one with
the horse. She believes that it is the connection
that the horse and rider share, that makes the
ride...and the relationship.
Terry
understands ponies deeply for, in addition to Ranch
management, it was her commitment to being a
stay-at-home parent to Olivia, that prompted her to
found "Friendly Pony Parties and Barnyard Pals",
when Olivia was only 2 ½ years old. Now over
two decades later, her company is considered by
many as the premiere pony party and petting zoo
business in the Bay Area. Five years after its
inception, she established with the Pastorino's
Farms their "On-the-Farm parties" in response to
parents and little people's need to enjoy farm life
more. Two years after that, she began the Friendly
Pony Parties Camps programs for children to enjoy
their "special birthday pony" in a more meaningful
and substantive opportunity. Terry hoped that by
starting the camps that even the youngest child
would take away with them experiences that would
last their lifetime. After three years of watching
how hard it was for the children to separate and
have to wait from one summer to the next before
they saw their beloved pony and farm animals
friends again, Terry expanded the camps program
during all the school breaks and holidays, many
weekends, and throughout the entire
summer!
In a new
endeavor, Terry began managing Madonna Creek Horse
Ranch in Half Moon Bay, California in the Spring of
2008. A part of Cozzolino Farms, (a.k.a., 4-C's
Pumpkins and Christmas Trees), this
third-generation 230 acre parcel of land is a real
western working ranch. For our campers interested
in horses and farming life, having the chance to
experience the growing and harvesting of hay on
prime agricultural soil, learning about how they
raise their cattle, observing the abundant present
wildlife, hiking on their endless mountain trails,
and enjoying the growing of their pumpkins,
Christmas trees and flowers is an unsurpassable
experience. It could not be more ideal for our
campers and for many of our expanded camp
activities including our riding lesson program and
our "Be a Rancher for a Day"
Program.
While
subscribing to many of the Natural Riding
principles of Sally Swift and Natural Horsemanship
concepts, Terry's style of teaching focuses on the
child building "their" own sense of confidence with
their pony and to "listen from within". Terry's
goal is for them to develop their own "horse
sense"...to sense and read their pony's mind,
reactions, feelings and needs. Terry feels that
this is the necessary foundation of every good
horse and human relation and is the very
cornerstone of building not only the child's
confidence and own intuitive sense of trust and
awareness, but that it is the very basis for
eliciting a gentle, calm and trusting response from
their pony toward them.
She and
her staff guide their students and campers to feel
at ease and comfortable and to own their new found
confidence and skills set in their new special
relationship with their pony. Terry wants a child
to find more confidence in themselves, own a sense
of pride and accomplishment, begin to develop
riding skills, and truly enjoy their time
spent.
Terry
and her daughter Olivia, take great pride in their
ponies and animals' health, happiness and
well-being. They raise their animals from babies,
and Olivia has had an egg business and raised
guinea pigs, bunnies and baby goats which she still
sells to local pet stores or children involved in
4-H.
Their
animals are their family and both Terry and Olivia
feel that the kindness and respect shown them
directly translates to their capacity for trust and
enjoying interaction with people. They are
regularly told that their ponies and farm animals
are happiest and healthiest animals people have
ever seen. And nothing...could make either of these
two ranch girls happier.
Olivia Tenzing -
Olivia
is Terry’s daughter, a camp counselor, an
accomplished equestrian and has a unique way with
animals. A member of the United States Pony Club of
America, Olivia participates in horse shows and
barrel races on her quarter horse,
“Dash”. Her favorite thing to do with her
horse though is going horse-camping with her
friends where she doesn’t think twice about
riding up to 20-30 miles in a day! Since she was
six years old she could be seen cantering, bareback
down the Shamrock Ranch hill pasture slopes with
her friends...one with her horse and the wind in
her hair. That’s been her idea of really
riding since the beginning. She had the priviledge
of being an attendant for her friend’s 80-year
old grandfather when he rode in the 100 Mile Tevis
Cup Endurance Horse Race as its oldest participant.
Olivia’s friends have all learned to ride
under her apt instruction for she is skilled at
putting a young rider at ease while guiding them in
their mastery of riding and pony and animal care.
Olivia’s intuitive connection with animals is
very special and so much of the gentleness,
reliability and patience our ponies and animals
exhibit is in large part to in thanks to
Olivia’s time and dedication to
them.
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