His students may or may not know it, but teaching is Mark Lamb’s second career. He is a part of a distinguished family of horsemen and women; his mother the owner of two national top 10 championships.
“I grew up breaking horses. I began showing about age 13,” Lamb said.
After graduating from Pecatonica High School, Lamb packed up his horse and tack, heading to the University of Illinois.
“There were a number of stables around campus where students could board horses relatively cheaply. Through my horse, I made a lot of important connections,” he said.
Lamb graduated with a master’s degree in animal science and went to work for FS while trying to decide whether or not to commit to training full-time.
“The FS job was seasonal. I was 22 and had some college debt, so I signed up to drive a school bus,” he said.
Lamb was assigned to a bus bearing special needs students.
“Over time I realized I loved that population; loved making connections with the kids. It was a lot like working with, connecting to and gaining the confidence of a horse,” Lamb added.
Lamb continued with a foot in each world as he opened a stable.

He hired a young stable hand named Dhea and made a connection with her, too.
“Yes, after working together for about six years, we decided to get married,” he said.
The Lambs raised two daughters. Amanda is an RTHS graduate. Kendra graduated Belvidere schools and is a college student. Confident Dhea could run the day to day operations at the stable, Lamb returned to school to complete a master’s degree in education.
He took work as a teaching assistant in Belvidere and did a lot of substituting.
He really enjoyed teaching, so he put together his resume and scheduled an interview at the Ogle County Education Co-op where he learned a principal named Terry Roderick was hiring. Roderick was the principal at Rochelle Township High School. Doug Creason was his superintendent.
Like Dhea Lamb, Creason’s wife is a gifted horsewoman. Another connection was made and Lamb joined the RTHS staff in 1993.
Lamb has enjoyed 25 years in Rochelle making connections with students using a slow, steady approach, sprinkled with plenty of positive reinforcement.
“Whether I find myself struggling with a student or a horse, it is always because we’ve lost that connection,” he said.
World-renowned horse whisperer Monty Roberts has written, “You must somehow understand that as horsemen we can do very little to teach the horse. What we can do is to create an environment in which he can learn.”
In his classrooms, Mark Lamb has created small, safe, intimate environments that enable his students to learn.
You could say everything Lamb knows about teaching he learned from from his horse.
Mark and Dhea Lamb keep a small stable today, boarding and training about 15 horses. They own two mini-horses and carts that Mark’s mother enjoys.
“Me, I’ve discovered fishing,” he said. “That’s how I intend to spend retirement, in my boat fishing.”
Boat fishing is seasonal in northern Illinois, so don’t be surprised if he finds some way to reconnect with his life’s great loves; perhaps something like Pegasus Special Riders.
Donna Fellows, president of Pegasus Special Riders says, “Therapeutic horsemanship is a unique partnership between riders, horses and their certified instructors.”
Hey Mr. Lamb, sounds as if there are more connections to be made.