Dee Doolittle

Founder ~ Executive Director

 

 

 

About Dee:

On any given day, the first person you will meet at Mitchell Farm is Dee Doolittle our Executive Director and Jill of all trades! Dee ’s warm smile and welcoming attitude is well received by both two-legged visitors and the four-legged residents. Dee, a horse person for most of her life, comes to Mitchell Farm with a wealth of talent and equine knowledge. She draws on training acquired in the Veterinary Technician program at Becker College and the pre-veterinary program at UMass. She worked as a Vet Tech for many years in Connecticut and Virginia .

It was as equine manager of High Hopes Therapeutic Riding, Inc. that she discovered her love of older horses. She states that there is something wise and wonderful about them that is incomparable to horses at any other stage of life. It was also there that she discovered her talent for coordinating volunteer groups. Pony clubs, and corporate groups as well as individuals would volunteer to help care for the horses and grounds.
 
During that time, she also was Co-Commissioner of the Equestrian Events for the Special Olympics World Games. The following year she did the same for the Special Olympic State Games in Pennsylvania . She spent 7 years working at the offices of Steed Read Horseman’s Classified, a classified magazine dedicated to the horse enthusiast. Dee ’s personal connection with horses spans her whole life. Dee grew up in Glastonbury , Ct. and through the auspices of Glastonbury Pony Club grew to know and love the equine mind.

As an adult, she has had the full gambit of experiences with her own horses. She has had the experience of owning a young colt which developed wobbler syndrome and was deemed un-rideable. Until his death in 2007, she owned Splash, a 31 year old gelding who was retired and infirmed but enjoyed his quiet life at Mitchell Farm.   As Dee puts it, un-rideable doesn’t mean un-loveable. She firmly believes that horses have a right to their life even if they are no longer useful to man.