Meet Our Team

Roberta BrownleeOffice Manager

Free Rein’s Office Manager is Roberta Brownlee, comes to us from Indiana. Roberta holds a B.A. degree in Business Management from Indiana University and has extensive experience in banking relationships, inventory accounting and control, budgeting, non-profit management and project management. Roberta, her husband Gary and favorite canine, Mufasa love being retired and living in Transylvania County. She enthusiastically subscribes to Free Rein’s Mission and Vision and also volunteers as a side walker.  Her friends back in Indiana say “You have the best job” and it is true!

Brittany McCathernProgram Director - PATH Certified Therapeutic Riding Instructor, ESMHL, Mentor
Brittany McCathern joined Free Rein in 2011 as Horse Care Coordinator and was certified in 2012 as a PATH instructor, and in 2018 was promoted to Program Director. She earned an Arts & Associates at Blue Ridge Community College. From the age of 8, Brittany has owned and ridden horses, mostly in hunt seat, cross country, lower level eventing and most recently has taken up dressage. Brittany’s favorite thing about working at Free Rein is the ability to build relationships with fellow staff members, students, families and volunteers in conjunction with horses.
Kara McCarsonProgram Administrator/Volunteer Coordinator- PATH Certified Therapeutic Riding Instructor
Kara Franks started working at Free Rein in 2012 as barn staff. She received her PATH certification in 2014 and began working as an instructor that year. Kara received her Associates Degree in Arts at Blue Ridge Community College. She started taking riding lessons at the age of 11 and received her first horse on her 16th birthday. Combining her love of horses and helping her community is what brought Kara to Free Rein.
Toni GarrettPATH Certified Therapeutic Riding Instructor
Toni grew up in West Texas and has been riding since she was 8 years old. She has owned horses off and on since then and her love for them is what originally brought her to Free Rein as a volunteer in 2015. Her passion for her students ignited a calling in her to become a PATH Certified Instructor which she achieved in March 2020. She spent 21 years as a Flight Attendant for a major airline and now lives in Brevard with her Husband Jim, who is a Free Rein Board Member, along with their very spoiled dog and cat.
Mary StoehrPATH Certified Therapeutic Riding Instructor
mary hugging horse
Sadie Mae & SimbaBarn (Office) Cats
No barn is complete without a few kitty cats. Sadie Mae is our little lady and Simba is our adventurous little man.
SkidThe Printer Boss
John Colflesh
I grew up on a small dairy farm near Delaware, Ohio. I graduated from Ohio University with a B.S. in Physics then spent eight years in the U.S. Navy as nuclear power trained submarine officer. Much of my time in the Navy was spent in Connecticut, where I lived for forty years.
After the Navy, I attained an MBA from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. I worked in the nuclear power industry for 36 years at Westinghouse Electric Company in Windsor, CT and Pittsburgh, PA. I had many roles and responsibilities over the years including; project management, marketing, field services management and quality assurance. As part of this work, I traveled all over the U.S., western Europe and parts of Asia.
Also, while in Connecticut: I owned a bicycle shop; served on the board of the local chapter of A Better Chance, in Glastonbury, CT; owned a reining horse (did lots of trail riding); and was a member of the Granby, CT Horse Council.
In 2017, my wife and I both retired from Westinghouse and moved to Brevard. For the first two years here, I did some part time consulting work as an industrial incident investigator and analyst.
I first volunteered for Free Rein as a Horse Leader in 2017 weeks after moving here and have been doing so ever since.