Volunteer of the Quarter Missi Stone: Riding High on Community Spirit
The San Diego Country Estates Association is proud to congratulate Missi Stone for being our second quarter’s Volunteer of the Quarter. She is a dedicated equestrian whose passion for horses is matched only by a deep commitment to the community.
Nancy “Missi” Stone has served as chair of the Equestrian Committee since 2024. Stone was nominated for Volunteer of the Quarter by Equestrian Manager Lisa Everett, and all of the managers agreed that Stone was an excellent choice.
According to Everett, Stone’s role in organizing the new Equestrian Committee involved setting a purpose, developing agendas, and fostering teamwork. She became the chair of the new committee and has been instrumental in working with staff to lead and accomplish equestrian projects. She takes the time to listen to and advocate for all boarders and equestrian members and works to find compromises for concerns.
“I am the committee liaison to management,” says Stone. She is an instrumental leader on the committee and in the equestrian community. She is assisting in the development of the master plan and helped organize committee events at the IEC in 2024. The master plan that she is helping with is an infrastructure plan that will renovate the equestrian facilities. It will bring the barns up to standard, help bring in new boarders, and showcase SDCE’s two incredible equestrian facilities.
Some of the events at the IEC that Stone has helped with include the First Aid and Evacuation Clinics, held by the committee, as well as the 2024 Halloween Fun Show. She has been a long-standing member of the SDCEA equestrian community and is committed to continually improving the facilities and strengthening the community.
Stone is an SDCE homeowner and moved here in 2013. She became involved with equestrian activities when she started boarding her horses at the Casey Tibbs Western Center in 2015. She is a single mother and couldn’t imagine raising her daughter, who is now 18, anywhere else. “Moving here was the best decision I have ever made,” says Stone. They came from El Cajon, and her daughter attended James Dukes growing up. She credits the Casey Tibbs Western Center for being an instrumental part of her daughter’s upbringing. The equestrian world teaches children to compete against each other while also working together. It taught her daughter patience and responsibility. She says she is so blessed to live here and wants to give the same opportunities in the equestrian world to others living in the area.
“It’s really quiet, and I get to go and enjoy my horses,” says Stone. When she started boarding her horse in 2015, she started with one at the Casey Tibbs Western Center. Three months later, she moved her second horse to the facility. At one point, she had four horses, and now, she has three—a Kiger Mustang, a reservation horse, and one Pinto pony. Her Mustang was attacked by a mountain lion years ago, and he still has anxiety from the incident and is very cautious about who might be a predator. Stone says she is committed to him and will have him until the day she dies.
The reservation horse is also a Mustang, and a group of people from Ramona picked him up at a feedlot in Fallon, Nev. She got him when he was 4 years old. Her daughter, who was 10 years old at the time, spent countless hours working with him, both alone and alongside trainers, and did a remarkable job. Stone met her pinto pony when the pony was 9 months old, and now she is 22. She was her daughter’s hunter jumper pony in 2018. Stone’s daughter is the one who inspired her to start keeping her horses at the Casey Tibbs Western Center, as she loved to ride. Her daughter began showing in 2017 and continued through 2021. She participated in open shows, hunter-jumper, gymkhana, and barrel races. “I was a horse show mom,” says Stone.
Stone loves volunteering; it gives her a chance to give back to the place she calls home. She wants other kids to have the same opportunities her daughter did growing up. “It’s what it’s all about,” says Stone. She wants to help parents get their kids involved in the horse world to help them become well-rounded, responsible individuals and develop good character. She adds that club sports can be just as expensive as owning a horse.
Stone has a law degree and previously worked in California legislation, coming from a field where she was actively involved in numerous community activities. She is a busy woman, currently working as a senior investigator for a local company, but still makes time to give back.
She enjoys working with SDCEA management and says it takes every one of them to make a difference together. “I stand on the shoulder of giants,” says Stone. “We are all important.”
We celebrate Missi Stone not only for her time and energy but for setting the standard of what true volunteerism looks like. Thank you, Missi, for helping SDCE remain a vibrant, horse-loving community.
