I have been in barns my entire life. I started riding at eight years old at Rolling Hills Equestrian Center in Palos Verdes Estates. I trained under an Olympian in high school. I competed nationally and internationally for two decades. I started over 350 horses.
And in every single barn I walked into, I saw her.
She was the kid who could not sit still in geometry but could spend twelve hours at a horse show without once checking her phone. The kid who failed three quizzes in a row and then got on a 1,200-pound animal and read its breath, its weight, its intention, before a single stride had been taken. The kid who was restless, bright, and completely mismatched to the bell schedule she had been handed.
I watched her choose between the sport and the grades. I watched her patch together tutors, miss semesters, fall behind. I watched some of them leave the sport entirely because the school system could not flex. And I watched others leave their academics because the training schedule never would.
The system was not built for her. I knew it for twenty years. I kept waiting for someone to fix it.
In 2024, I stopped waiting.
EACPA, Equis Amare™ College Preparatory Academy, is the school I spent two decades wishing existed. An accredited, 9 through 12, college-preparatory academy built entirely around the equestrian life. Not an online school with a horse nearby. Not a barn program with some academics tacked on. A real school, with credentialed faculty, peer-reviewed wellness outcomes, and a curriculum that travels with the rider from the barn to the classroom to the competition and back.
Penn Valley, California. 37.9 acres. Adjacent equestrian facility. 501(c)(3) approved January 2026. 345 families on the waitlist.
Doors open Fall 2026.
If you are the parent of that kid, or if you were that kid, you already know what this is. I built it for you.
Laura Bruner, Founder