Keena Haynes-France
Head Trainer for Cypress Farm
Keena was born and raised in Seattle, Washington. With years of riding experience already under
her belt, Keena began an apprenticeship at the age of 16. She worked as a barn manager/training
at a “backyard” riding school. There, she rode mostly young or troubled horses and gave them
their first experiences on the cross-country course or the Hunter/Jumper show ring. At an early
age, Keena learned to be patient and the understanding of a horses individual needs and limits.
She was fortunate enough to take instruction under many different trainers with many different
styles. Keena gained experience in several disciplines including dressage, cross-country, and
Hunters and Jumpers. She began to assist in buying trips to Canada to find good school horses
for lesson programs. At age 18 she put her knowledge to the test and bought, trained and sold her
own young horse.
After the apprenticeship, Keena went to work for a very successful Hunter/Jumper show barn.
She, once again, became the “jack-of-all-trades”. She worked with the head groom to perfect the
special techniques to care for show horses. Keena learned about managing and running a show
barn at home and at the shows; including customized feed and supplement planning. She
established a lasting relationship with local vets and learned first hand how to care and manage
many different health and fitness issues that sport horses may come across. In addition to refining
her stable management skills, Keena also had riding and teaching opportunities. She was able to
ride and work under a great team of show trainers.
When Keena was 21 she was offered the opportunity to develop her own competition program.
She managed and trained her own group at the facility where she was employed at the time. The
team became very successful at the barn and at “A-system” Hunter/Jumper shows all around the
Pacific Northwest. She had students who qualified for USEF Pony Finals several years in a row.
She attended the finals in Lexington, Virginia in 2005 with one of her students. The group had
proven to be successful in the Pacific Northwest as well as Canada and California. Keena has
experience in managing large groups at shows and has successfully shown her clients horses as
well.
In 2007 Keena started a partnership with the McCreights and established Cypress Farm. Cypress
Farm has taken all of Keena’s experience and knowledge and has gone one step further to gain
the friendship and teamwork of International Trainer, Christian Garweg. Keena has traveled to
Germany and experience the world of importing with Christian’s assistance. Currently, Christian
makes trips to the USA to train with our team several times a year. Keena has enjoyed integrating
the German techniques in to her regular routine and believes that it makes Cypress Farm Training
Program unique and even more special. Keena is a big advocate in continuing education. She
tries to give her clients opportunities to learn and interact with their horses at home and away.
Keena believes in hard work, sportsmanship and the well being of the animals. She strives to
customize a program for each unique horse and rider combination. She works hard to teach her
clients to have goals that they can work towards and encourages them to be healthy competitors
that never lose sight of sportsmanship and the health of their horses. Keena knows what it means
to put her life into the sport and hopes to continue to work, compete, teach and grow for a lifetime!