Sunrise Stables
 
  About Us
  Facilities
  Students
  Sales
  Events
  Contact Us
  Quick Links:
  Lessons
  Boarding
  Training
  W&L Eventing Team
  X-Country Schooling
  Broodmares
  Senior Equines
  Related Links

About Us

Sunrise Stables is a first-class horse facility with a friendly backyard feeling.

Nestled in the beautiful Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, Sunrise Stables is a family owned and operated professional facility, providing a full range of equine services. Located just 4 miles from the Virginia Horse Center in historic Lexington, we board, breed and teach, as well as provide retirement care for older horses.

Annually, Sunrise Stables hosts two combined training and dressage shows and two hunter paces which are run by Penny and Brian Ross of the Virginia Horse Trials. The shows are part of a Spring and Fall circuit composed of several barns from Lexington, Staunton and Charlottesville where riders compete for end of season awards. Sunrise Stables also hosts several clinics with renowned professionals such as Advanced three day riders and trainers Kim Severson, Molly Hooper - Bull and Grand Prix dressage instructors Gerd and Sarah Reuter. Sunrise is also the home of the Washington & Lee Eventing Team.

Our facility includes 27 stalls, a 100' x 200' outdoor sand riding ring, a beginner novice, novice, training, and prelim cross country schooling course, a mown 1-mile outdoor conditioning track, indoor and outdoor washstalls with hot and cold running water, heated tackrooms and bathroom, all board fencing, sheltered fields, 215 acres of beautiful trails and much more!



Who we are:  
   

Gammon Castellvi - Nuckols

Barn Manager and Riding Instructor.

Gammon grew up in Venezuela where she spent most of her childhood riding jumpers and was lucky enough to take her fabulous horse "Tex" all the way thru Grand Prix. She was later given the opportunity to live in Europe for a little over a year where she got to study dressage. She moved to Virginia for college and was introduced to the wonderful world of eventing and got hooked! She has successfully ridden several horses to Preliminary level, completing her first CCI* in 2005 and is planning to move up to Intermediate in the spring with her wonderful mount "Doug".

Gammon currently instructs the Washington & Lee Eventing Team as well as her regular students thru Preliminary level. She is also the Volunteer Coordinator for The Virginia Horse Trials and North American Young Rider's Championships.

   

 

Vicki Nuckols - Kruse

Proud owner of Sunrise Stables and lovingly known as "Aunt Vic", she is one of our biggest cheerleaders and great supporters. Vicki has volunteered her property and built us a wonderful equestrian paradise for all our boarders and students to learn and enjoy.

Vicki manages the finances and takes care of the office work while Gammon gets to do the fun stuff. ( Gammon is eternally grateful!)

Although she does not ride she is always at the barn checking in, feeding treats and taking all the beautiful pictures of the farm that are on this site.

   

Sarah Berhalter

Assistant Barn Manager and trainer, in other words, she is the working student we would not let leave!

Sarah has been with us since she was a freshman at W& L and upon graduation we hired her full time. This is a family owned and operated facility after all so we like to think of her as adopted (the whole family agreed, although we did not consult her parents on this one). Sarah is a very talented rider and has proved to be a wonderful trainer, all our young horses love her and do exceptionally well with her.

   

 

Jeff Nuckols

Property Manager and Gammon's wonderful husband. He keeps everything at Sunrise beautiful and jumps in to help with the horses any time we need him. Without all of his long hours and super help there is no telling what things would look like around here!

Jeff is a W&L graduate with a degree in Geology. He uses his love for rocks and the outdoors to build all the beautiful rock walls that surround the house and stone jump on our xc course.

Even though Jeff did not grow up with horses he learned fast and they sure do seem to like him! Jeff takes care of the barns and horses while we are away at horse shows and clinics. Jeff is a key member of our team and we could not do this without him!

   

Richie Nuckols

There is no title to describe what Richie does for us... everything and anything! Richie is the co - owner of the property we trail ride and turn horses out on and the best father in law one could ever want!

He retired after many years of working for the state to farm for us. He takes care of growing, fertilizing and cutting of our hay- yes, we do it ourselves! We can also guarantee that no one knows the inner workings of a piece of farm machinery like Richie does! He specializes in equipment maintainance and helps Jeff with anything that needs to be done. Richie is very special to us and we would not give him up for anything!

Tori Nuckols

The littlest rider and member of the Sunrise Team! Tori is Gammon and Jeff's daughter and in charge of bringing smiles to everyone's face. You just have to see her riding her ponies to know why!

At the ripe old age of 11, Tori is also a big help both at the barn during the summer and weekends and at the shows where she has become quite the little groom!