Tom and Karen Avinelis both grew up in farming families. They met while studying agriculture at Cal Poly SLO. After Tom and Karen spent years farming, they had the opportunity to purchase what was to become Quiet Meadows Farm. They started by developing and farming organic blueberries, miniature kiwis berries, and hazelnuts.

In 2020, Karen’s lifelong desire to own a quality dressage horse was realized with the purchase of Wimenta CL, a PSG-level KWPN mare. This mare led to their decision to focus on Dutch Warmbloods. When they bred Wimenta CL to the world champion KWPN dressage stallion Kjento in the spring of 2021, they were thrilled to launch Quiet Meadows Farm’s Dutch Warmbloods breeding program.

Makenzie has been an avid Equestrian since she was six years old. She was accepted into the U.S. “Ecole de Légerèté” course in 2015 and studied in Europe in 2019 and 2020. She studied under Bertand Ravoux, Augustin Aubé, Olivia Lyard, and Alain Corcial.

Makenzie has studied in the U.S. under instructors Carol McArdle, Linda Kaye Hollingsworth-Jones, Julien Beaugnon and Siegfried Wutte. She enjoys competing in Eventing, teaching horses to their full potential using classical methods, and showing riders how to bring out the best in their partners. Makenzie will teach anyone interested in better communication with their horse using gymnastic exercises and without the use of restrictive training aids.

In addition to horses, Makenzie works in her family’s winery – St. Innocent. In 2019, during her stay in Europe, she was an intern with Weingut Friedrich Becker. She made her first wine in 2021 and will continue making more wines alongside her stepdad, Mark Vlossak.