Emma M.

Meet Emma

• Speaks Spanish
• Comfortable with pets
• Has a car

I have been helping to care for children and animals all my life. My sister had severe special needs when she was born, and I helped my parents care for her. Making her laugh became the best thing in life. I have worked as a professional babysitter on and off for the past 20 years, including working as a live-in caretaker to pay my way through graduate school. I was first a live-in nanny for a 3 year-old boy and his 11 year-old sister. Later I lived with and cared for an 84 year-old, Roz, suffering from depression and what we thought at the time was dementia. Roz has since grown much stronger, mentally, and we remain close friends. I have also worked to train dogs and horses for the past two decades. I am a graduate HA Pony Clubber (an accreditation in riding, training, instruction, and horsemanship, as well Read more as barn management and veterinary care) and have trained riders and horses up to preliminary level eventing and 2nd level dressage. I specialize in anxious horses and riders who need individual attention to build confidence. For more than five years, I worked particularly with horses rescued from the race track who were recovering from several kinds of emotional and physical trauma. I continue to coach my sister, who has found horseback riding to be the most rewarding and empowering form of physical therapy. I have trained dogs, particularly those rescued from shelters, in many capacities. My current young dog, Toby, was born to a street dog in Mississippi and has overcome deep-seated anxiety to thrive. We currently compete at AKC Novice Rally and Obedience, and are in training with a local volunteer K9 Search and Rescue Team to become an air scent search dog and handler. As he grows and develops, Toby regularly goes through new stages of fear and uncertainty about the world, which requires new and creative approaches to desensitizing, counter-conditioning, and giving him the trust and confidence he needs. I have learned so much from this wonderful dog and look forward to bringing these tools to help other dogs build happy, healthy lives! I have also been employed as an instructor and professor at the university level for the past 10 years. I have spent a great deal of time working closely with differently-abled students, including those with severe physical and mental challenges. I am available as a tutor and writing coach as needed.

Trust & safety

Experience