Meet The Team
Tami Stockwell, Owner, and Instructor
As a lifelong horse enthusiast, Tami began teaching kids in 2005 at the Horsemanship School in Washington State following the completion of her CHA Instructor Certification in English and Western. In 2008, she taught English for Cornerstone Farm for a few years then went onto teaching English and Western for TCR both located near Boulder, CO. She has taught over a thousand lessons over the years including all other types of programs: kids camps, workshops, birthday parties, adult and corporate gigs. She served as Program Director and grew the program to include 3 other instructors. Now, she’s doing it here in Oregon.
Throughout her professional career Tami has cared for dozens of horses and has found that understanding horse behavior is paramount to a horse’s happiness. She prides herself in providing an environment where horses feel well cared for, safe and being a member of the herd.
“It is my philosophy to make riding fun and safe. I incorporate vivid images that will help you understand and feel the skills of riding. Learning to ride with harmony with your horse while using correct aids brings success to riding. I'm here to teach you how to enjoy riding and have the wonderful feelings we all get from being around the horses”.
Hannah Modesitt, horse care, groundwork and exercising
We are so happy to have Hannah as a member of the Tesoro team. She started riding horses at the age of 3 advancing her skills to vaulting, western and then moving up to English. She has been thoroughly trained in equitation, dressage, and jumping. She enjoys doing groundwork with horses as much as she loves to ride them, and the horses connect to her from her applied softness and intuitive nature. She gentled a young, spirited mustang when she was in high school that started her fascination with working with mustangs and groundwork. She has spent most of her life working with horses, whether it be cleaning stalls to exercising top-notch dressage horses. Hannah brings confident horsemanship in horse care, riding and exercising to Tesoro Equine and Vine.
OUR STORY
What seemed like only yesterday but was over 15 years ago Tami and Mark had a Christmas that changed both their lives.
At the time they were living in Woodinville WA, well known for its wineries and equestrian scene, and both had discovered their shared passions for wine and horsemanship. So, what does that have to do with Christmas you ask, hold on I’m getting there…. For Christmas in 2004 unbeknownst to one another Tami and Mark each invested in the other’s passion. Mark purchased a week-long immersive horsemanship program, that he thought was a class that would advance Tami’s horsemanship skills, Tami had for the last nine months been interning at The School of Horsemanship and Riding, a stable teaching CHA based horsemanship and riding which she helped care for the horses and learned to teach beginner riders. What Mark ended up purchasing was a certification program held by the Certified Horsemanship Association, which upon completion, if you had the right stuff, provided nationally recognized certification as a trained horsemanship instructor! Never to shy away from a challenge Tami decided to work with the team at the school to prepare herself to earn her certification, a few months later she attended the week-long course, took the written, teaching and riding exams, which she passed and well the rest is history, she had found her career path that she was truly passionate about. Now you’re probably wondering what Tami’s investment was… well that same Christmas Tami purchased a starter wine making kit for Mark. So, in the little room beneath the stairs in their home on Hollywood Hill Mark started to make wine.
A couple of years pass and Mark’s career takes the family from WA to Boulder CO, 5 gallons of kit wine turns to 10, then kit juice to 5-gallon buckets of frozen must, then to ordering fresh fruit shipped from CA, the little room had now expanded to a 15x15 foot room equipped with small stainless tanks and 5- and 10-gallon oak barrels, together Mark and Tami were making some great wine. In 2014, they decided to send a few bottles off to the 2014 WineMaker International Amateur Wine Competition, the largest amateur wine competition of its kind in the world, 3111 entries spanning 7 different countries and to their surprise they left the competition with Best of Show Red for their 2012 Rhone Style red blend of Syrah, Grenache and Mourvèdre as well as a Gold Medals for their 2012 Pinot Grigio and 2012 Riesling.
Meanwhile, Tami had leaned into her career, she had taken a position as an instructor teaching English for Cornerstone Farm, a Hunter Jumper discipline and Triple Creek Ranch, an established equestrian facility near Boulder CO, where she developed, from the ground up, a variety of instructor lead programs including individual and group lessons “school of horsemanship and riding”, horsemanship camps, birthday parties and workshops for both youth and adult taking the role of Program Director all in addition to continuing to teach English and Western horsemanship and riding.
Fast forward a few years, Mark and Tami’s kids now in college, the two of them sat together in a local pizza joint, the discussion turning, as it often had, to when they would make a run at owning their own vineyard, producing wine from their own fruit, and having horses and a facility of their own. They stared at each with a bit of fear in their eyes but in that moment the timing seemed right, they put their house up for sale, packed up two 26-foot U-Haul trucks with their cars in tow and headed for southern Oregon. In the years prior, Mark and Tami had been scouting for up-and-coming wine regions on the west coast visiting Fair Play in CA, the Boise Idaho area, Eola Hills and the Rogue and Applegate Valley’s of OR. They fell in love with Southern OR, the climate, rolling hills and emerging vineyards and wineries that were beginning to produce award winning wines.
The drive from Boulder CO to Medford OR has its own stories, each behind the wheel of a 26-foot truck with vehicles in tow using their walkie talkies for communicating back and forth an adventure in its own right but we will save those stories for another day….
Within a few months Mark found work and the two began looking in earnest for property that would support their dreams of having a horse facility and vineyard. The search was difficult, the market was right but properties, affordable ones, were tough to find. One day while scouting they found themselves on Carpenter Hill Road, an Italian Tuscan feel, they were doing a drive by on a smaller property with a north facing slope and while driving first laid eyes on the property that would one day be theirs, perfect for horsemanship and grape growing. The property wasn’t for sale but they both remarked how perfect it would be if it had been for sale. Their search continued, without much luck, they were frustrated and approaching a point where they were considering other options. While at work one day Mark received a call from Tami, the property they had seen, months before, had just been put on the market! Tami quickly called me and said, “My heart is a pitter pat”, found an agent to work with, had them make an appointment to see the property that evening, and within minutes of seeing the property made an offer and wrote a check. Then the start began making the property their own, establishing what it is today with hard work and dedication, hence the name Tesoro, Italian meaning “Treasure”.