Venita Naidoo

Venita was born in Germany. Although she spent her formative years here in Redwood City with her mom Monika, her dad Raj, and sister Tanisha, she learned to speak fluent German. Venita started riding at the age of 10, and her early experiences were in the Western world, with reining. She got into horse training at 13, serving for several years as Joan McLaren’s working student.

When Venita attended Feather River College, she took her passion and all that she had already learned about horses with her, competing in rodeo, as well as participating in a yearling training program. When she took a semester on reproduction, she cared for her professor’s pregnant mare, seeing her all the way to full term and a very healthy baby colt!

Venita’s decision to pursue a career as an equine veterinary assistant stemmed from her desire to gain a better understanding of how best to help her own horses and gain more knowledge of the equine industry. It was also stimulated by experiences like helping Dr. Mackenzie Adams (formerly with Steinbeck Peninsula Equine Clinics) care for one of the lesson horses at Webb Ranch who had a bad case of thrush. Venita recalls “how cool it was” to be able to assist with scraping out the dead areas of the horse’s foot.

Now riding English, Venita has competed in 1st through 2nd level Dressage and is currently schooling her 18-hand Oldenburg gelding Jay (his show name is LeMieux) for 3rd level, getting ready to go out for that bronze medal. She and her sister also have a chestnut Thoroughbred gelding named Manny (his show name is Armani’s World) who they debuted at his first Dressage event and have continued to successfully show through 1st level.

Venita and her husband Brandon have two trained hunting dogs: Mikey, a black Lab mix, and Buggy, a chocolate Lab who was a wedding gift and is a seasoned duck dog. When Venita is not working or at the barn with her horses, she and her husband and their “fur kids” enjoy fishing, camping, and hiking. They also love to work out, as well as spend time with family.