Owner/Director Joan Promen was a horse crazy kid that would sleep with a bridle every night. It all started when 3-year-old Joan had her picture taken in front of her house in Canton, Ohio on a Pinto pony named Tony who “parked out” on command. That night she had a dream about Tony and was a horse crazy kid from then on. She bugged her parents for the next 9 years for lessons and for her own horse. When she turned 12 her parents arranged hunt seat lessons, and then at 14, Joan got her own horse. Souix-sy was a pinto just like Tony. Joan had her beloved Sioux-sy for 26 years and to this day a Pinto (or Paint) is her favorite.

In the early 70’s, Joan started her professional career as a barn assistant and hunt seat rider at Riverby Farms in Dublin Ohio with reining trainers Fred Boggs and Will Thomas. They had a couple of “English” horses that they took over to Gene and Harriet Delaney’s Stillwater Farms for jumping lessons. While she showed Souix-sy and others in hunters and equitation classes for years, Joan got a real “jump” start while showing Riverby Farms horses on the Quarter horse circuit.

In 1972, Joan got a job of a lifetime working for a barn in New Jersey that had George Morris as their hunter trainer, Frank and Mary Chapot as their jumper trainers, and a then-recent Maclay winner named Leslie Howard (then Burr) as the show rider. As a barn manager, groom and assistant rider, Joan took lessons with George, went to many A-circuit horse shows and prepped a Good Twist (Gem Twist’s dad) filly for George to show on the line at Devon. George was wonderful to work for, as was the Chapot family. Taking lessons and working for them gave Joan a solid blueprint on how to be a good horse woman.

Joan moved back to Ohio to show Quarter Horse hunters and jumpers at the Quarterhorse Congress and across several states. Many State championships resulted with a little 15.2 ex broodmare that consistently beat out contenders where fences would go as high as 4’6 in the jumpers. A client’s 17-hand appendix gelding won many state honors also.

In the mid 70’s Joan was an instructor at Rita Day’s Twilight Stables, and learned much about running a riding academy. From there she was the manager and sole instructor/trainer at Esquire stables, a 40-horse operation with 14 school horses, six college programs and a string of 16 show horses.

Joan left the horse business in 1978 to go to college and work in the corporate world, gaining knowledge in customer service, marketing and management, all while teaching, riding and showing at hunter jumper barns in the Columbus area on weekends.

The opportunity of starting Colts Neck Equestrian Centre in Blacklick, Ohio in 1989 was a chance to get back into the horse business full time. Joan and her business outgrew the facility in five years and moved to the 26 stall Underwood Farms in Gahanna, in 1994 to continue to develop horses, riders and new instructors.

After leasing so many facilities, Joan and her family were able to obtain 33 acres of land east of Highway 310 and Morse Rd SW by Lynd Fruit Farm. After only six months to plan and build the facility, Bookmark Farms was opened in September 2000. In 2003, Joan obtained the adjoining 5 acres and house to make Bookmark Farms a 38-acre facility.

Over the years, Bookmark Farms has grown to be known as a premier hunter jumper educational and training center.