Converse University

Amelia Nowicki enters her ninth full season as the coach of the Converse Equestrian team during the 2024-25 season. Nowicki is owner and operator of Hidden Valley Farm in Inman, S.C., a hunter/jumper boarding and training facility that will become home to the Converse program. 

Nowicki is on the board of the Foothills Chapter of Brooke USA, which is an international charity that benefits equines in impoverished nations. Also, Nowicki is the current President of the Board of Directors for the Blue Ridge Hunter Jumper Association. 

During the 2021-2022 IHSA Show Season, Nowicki coached a program best three riders to Zones and one rider (Madison Montgomery) to the National IHSA Show.  

An experienced rider and trainer who competed at the University of Georgia, Nowicki provides hunter, jumper, equitation and horsemanship training for both horse and rider at Hidden Valley Farm. She has also ridden and taught for Kelly Kocher at Blockhouse Sporthorses.

Nowicki grew up riding in Atlanta, Ga. with Sunny Stevens, recipient of the Old Salem Lifetime Achievement Award. She went on to study Equine Science at the University of Georgia while competing on the college's Intercollegiate Horse Show Association (IHSA) team, with which she qualified for and ribboned at IHSA Nationals. At UGA, she rode with 'R' hunter judge and trainer Kat Demas Mulkey, and assisted former Grand Prix rider Kylee Johnson-Duberstein with teaching students and training young horses. She also worked with international show jumping rider Callan Solem of Callan Solem Show Stables in PA, learning to care for high level sport horses.