Bios

ADAM BOWDEN, OWNER & GENERAL MANAGER

    After enjoying  the experience of family owned racehorses throughout childhood, Adam realized the missing “something “ in his adult life - horses. While pursuing a degree in biology from Bates College and the University of Southern Maine, he spent summers doing internships at Hanover Shoe Farm, learning the practical aspects of running a breeding farm. After completing his degrees, Adam decided to attend farrier school in the bluegrass region of Kentucky. As one cannot live in the bluegrass region without falling head over heels for the land and horse culture, he decided  to put down roots in Bourbon County for the creation of Diamond Creek Farm.
    After two full years of developing land, building the broodmare band, and  creating the race stable, Adam still maintains an  intense passion  for the sport of harness racing.  After long days of administrative work, he can usually be found in a field, playing with foals- before post time, that is.
    Adam developed  leadership skills throughout high school and college as the captain of his respective swim teams, and still maintains school records in multiple events. “He still leads and motivates much like a coach”, says Sarah Smith, farm manager.



SARAH SMITH, YEARLING MANAGER

    After deciding to home school for a few years during middle school,  Sarah apprenticed herself to a dressage trainer, spending long mornings  working the daily grind of a busy training farm in exchange for  rides on cantankerous school horses. The experience was invaluable, and her resume reads like many others in the horse industry: hard work, long hours, and very broad spectrum knowledge of the business.
    During high school, Sarah maintained a six day a week job on a horse farm, showing on the local dressage circuit on the weekends,  and working long hours to pay for her horse habit. After high school, she attended Midway College in Kentucky, studying equine nutrition research, which she still maintains a high level of interest in today. 
    After making the decision to leave college, Sarah shifted from training young horses to breeding. The challenging, technical nature of reproduction was a good fit, and she spent several years moving up through increasingly larger breeding farms, until finding Diamond Creek purely by accident. “Honestly, I contacted Adam to lease a house on his property”, she says. “The rest, as they say, is history”.  She joined Diamond Creek Farm two weeks after it’s inception, and  was the very first employee.
    Now nineteen years into her resume, Sarah is happy to be settled  at Diamond Creek, where she  maintains her own small breeding operation, and will tell anyone who will listen- “I still feel like I’m on vacation”.



ANNE RICKER, BROODMARE & FOAL MANAGER

    The search for a broodmare manager was all but abandoned  when Anne joined the DCF staff in early 2007.  After demonstrating  an amazing work ethic and true empathy  through the long and demanding foaling season, she earned  her title of broodmare manager at it’s conclusion. “Sarah and I have very eccentric personalities, which is perfect for us, but proved to be a challenge  in finding management that we could work closely with”, Adam says with a laugh.
    Anne grew up in Indiana, showing hunters and jumpers extensively throughout her youth. She attended Purdue University, finishing a degree in animal science, spending  an intense internship in New York at a stallion station, collecting several stallions daily, and becoming familiar with semen handling and evaluation. Hence was born  her love of, and dedication to, equine reproduction.
    After college, Anne managed a dual purpose breeding and training facility for two years. A desire to grow led her to Diamond Creek Farm in early 2007. She has settled right in, making the whole broodmare herd her own.
    “She has a wonderful rapport with the mares, and her connection with the foals is exactly what I was looking for”, says Sarah. “She is a wonderful addition to our team”.