ABOUT US
TEAM ALORA
SAVANNAH JENKINS
PROFESSIONAL RIDER, TRAINER
Savannah was raised in Virginia Beach, VA and started riding with Chris Wynne at the age of 6. From an early age Savannah displayed natural talent as a rider, winning locally on ponies and then on horses in her early junior riding years. She got opportunities to meet people she admired in the riding world like, Olympic rider, Laura Kraut, who encouraged her to put her head down and work hard if she wanted to make it to the top. At 15 years old, Chris Wynne, introduced Savannah to Karen Healey, and Karen advised her to move out to California as her working student. While riding with Karen Healey, Savannah rode to a 7th place finish at the Maclay Finals and 2nd place in the USEF Talent Search finals. After much success as a junior, Savannah attended Baylor University in Texas on a riding scholarship for their Division 1 team. During college, she was NCEA All American rider on the flat and over fences, she helped the team win at the Big 12 Conference, and was one of the top riders in the nation. She graduated Baylor University with a BBA in Entrepreneurship and Corporate Innovation, and immediately after accepted a job working in California as a professional rider.
In 2017, riding in California for Georgy Maskrey-Segesman, Savannah started her career in show jumping, beginning with her first 1.20m class and moving up to the 1.50m that same year. In 2018, she rode Quitana 11 in her first 1.60m World Cup Qualifier in Sacramento. In 2019, she focused on accumulating points for the FEI Ranking List to be able to qualify for team events, attending Spruce Meadows, the Washington International Horse Show and the National Horse Show, and at each venue she earned top placings. During her time working for Georgy, Savannah accomplished some of her biggest goals and started working along side head groom, Johny Capito. In 2020, after huge success at HITs Thermal Circuit placing 4th in the $100,000 Grand Prix and many weeks in a row earning Champion in the Hunters and Jumpers classes, Savannah and Johny decided to break out on their own and start Alora Sporthorses. Starting her own company, has been a life long dream of Savannah’s and she knew with the perfect partner by her side, anything was possible.
IONUT (JOHNY)
CAPITO
HEAD GROOM
Ionut (“Johny”) Capito, has been working as a top groom / horseman for from a young age. He was born in Bucharest Romania, and moved to Italy at the age of 10 where he learned to appreciate grooming horses from his stepfather who was a professional groom. Johny wanted to travel the world and grooming opened up doors for him to be able to do so, so at the age of 16 Johny got a job grooming for Rory Marzotto and traveled around Italy going to shows and learning to speak English.
At the age of 18, Johny was offered a job at Stephex and moved to Belgium where he worked as a head groom for one of their professional riders. During his 2 year employment for Stephex, he went to a new show every week and traveled around Europe gaining knowledge for what it took to be a top groom with professional riders. Moving on, he went to work for Olympic rider, Royne Zetterman at Magic Park Stables for the next 2 years. Afterwards he briefly worked for Tal Milstein, who then introduced him to Steve and Ashlee Bond. Steve Bond offered Johny a job in 2015 and asked him to move out to California to be their head groom. During his time working for Steve and Ashlee, Johny learned many valuable lessons about training horses on the ground, reading horses behavior, lunging, and saddle breaking young horses. The lessons Steve taught Johny have helped mold the type of horseman he is today, learning things such as, “better a good lunge, than a bad ride.” Johny worked for Steve and Ashlee for 3 years and then moved on to do his own freelance grooming.
Working at the Oaks Horse Show in San Juan Capistrano, CA, Johny was introduced to Savannah. Johny has been a huge part of Savannah’s success in the past year and a half, giving her tips on her riding and being her eyes on the ground. Realizing what a great team they made, both very dedicated to the horses, horse care and reaching their goals, they decided to embark on their own business together, Alora Sporthorses, in 2020.
SERVICES
COACHING
Alora Sporthorses, has a limited amount of boarders who get training and coaching with Savannah and Johny at home as well as at horse shows. Savannah's coaching methods are geared towards those looking to be competitive in show jumping. She helps riders build a solid foundation for their riding and teaches them to be confident and knowledgable riders. Savannah is a very hands on coach who has the skills to take any rider to the top of their abilities as a rider. She gets to know each horse so that she can help maximize the relationships with their riders.
If you would like to hear more about our coaching options please contact us
TRAINING
Alora Sporthorses offers a very specialized training program for our horses. Each horse has a program tailored to their specific needs. We make an assessment about each horse and then develop a training program to help them excel in their job. We work with them thoroughly on the ground and in the saddle to develop their knowledge base and get them to their peak performance level. For a horse to reach their peak performance they have to be happy doing their job so we develop trusting relationships with the horses to figure out the best path to success for each of them.
If you would like to hear more about our training options please contact us
LOCATION
HOME BASE
LAVENDAR CREEK RANCH
Alora Sporthorses is based at the Lavender Creek Ranch Facility in Moorpark California. The beautiful property has a large outdoor ring with all-weather footing, a lunging ring with all weather-footing, plenty of turnout including a grass turnout, and eurosizer and treadmill to keep the horses in shape, or for rehabilitation purposes.
For more information about this property visit their website www.lavendercreekllc.com