From a respected A-circuit show barn in Del Mar to the rolling pastures of the Kentucky Bluegrass — a horsewoman's long road to Cherry Knoll.
Jeannie Scalise grew up on the East Coast, training with several highly accomplished professionals. After moving to California, she had the opportunity to train and ride with two of the sport's most respected horsemen — Bernie Traurig and John French.
In 1995 she opened Avalon Hunters & Jumpers in Del Mar, California, and built it into a respected, competitive A-circuit show barn — later expanding her program into Northern California's Bay Area.
In 2019 Jeannie purchased Cherry Knoll Farm in Lexington, Kentucky, with the goal of building a versatile facility that would be an oasis to both riders and horses. The 2020 barn that followed — and the historic 1855 house that anchors the property — is the result of that vision.
"I was tired of horses spending their days moving between a dark box stall and a small dirt paddock. Here, they have room to be horses."
The work at Avalon — from foundation flatwork to the show ring — turns on a single belief: the horse comes first, and the ride that follows is the reward.
Cherry Knoll Farm sits atop a hill overlooking thousands of acres of prime Bluegrass countryside. When Jeannie found it, the goal was simple: a place where serious sport and genuine horse welfare could share the same fence line.
The result is a program run at the pace good horsemanship asks for — generous turnout, attentive daily care, and a barn engineered around the comfort of the horse, all minutes from the Kentucky Horse Park.
