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Imagine being a teenager and showing in Medal/Maclay classes with the Leone brothers, "Stormin" Norman, Buddy Brown , and the Cheskas, and even managing to sometimes get a ribbon! Growing up in upstate New York gave me lots of opportunities to ride and learn from some of the best jumper riders our country has to offer. We had a small family farm with about five horses - none of them were fancy but each was reliable and competitive in the eventing world.
At 17 years old I tried for my Pony Club 'A' but wasn't quite confident enough on the cross country course on an unfamiliar horse. I devised a great plan to be ready the next time by riding lots more horses and then the test was split into two tests: H-A for horsemastership, and A for riding ability. I took one test each of the next two years and passed confidently. The riding exam was always on borrowed horses and we each rode about three different ones in each phase. I even had to jump 3'6" courses without stirrups on horses I had never met before. It was a wonderful experience to prepare for and accomplish this goal. I wish it was as popular here for our juniors as it was on the east coast!
Many people believe that eventing is the ultimate test of a horse and rider combination. Eventing continued to claim my attention as I competed in National Pony Club Rallies , shows in Quebec, Canada, and at the Radnor Hunt in Pennsylvania. I went on to enjoy lots more eventing in New England until I began attending a four-year equestrian program at Lake Erie College in Ohio. The riding program was great and we certainly had a lot of "interesting" donated horses to train and compete on. I seemed to get the most difficult ones but thoroughly enjoyed the challenge of making them into something. I spent most of my vacation time riding my classmates' horses when they went home for holidays. When I tell my students that I've ridden hundreds of horses in five states I'm really not exaggerating!
The one thing I've learned from the countless clinics with top event, dressage, and jumper pros is that 'the
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horses are really our best teachers'. I had several unique opportunities of riding internships and a term abroad in England where I did the BHS certification. Everywhere I went I saw how much the horse gives to us and all the different ways they attempt to teach us.
After graduating from Lake Erie College I managed a thirty-stall facility in East Lansing, Michigan, that had many events, each within 1 ˝ hours of us. The business grew and I quickly found myself teaching non-stop, eight hours every day. With the help of staff, a working student program, and assistant instructors I had a total of 120 students!
At this point I became very interested in dressage and attended every Vi Hopkins seminar with Bill Woods and Major Lindgren (as an auditor). I groomed for other riders at some of their competitions,including the North American Sports Festival. I did get a few lessons on other horses, but I wasn't getting how important the accuracy and refinement of the aids was. This took twenty more years to put into practice.
For three winters I decided I needed an adventure and took my clients' horses to Florida for the winter dressage shows. This time away did, however, help me to realize that I preferred to be where the best riding weather was and that I did not want to deal with frozen buckets and teaching in sub zero temperatures with moon boots on and a coat like the Pillsbury Dough Boy!
In 1988 I went to my first TEAM clinic with Linda Tellington Jones and this forever changed how I am with horses. I have been a TEAM Practitioner for over ten years, and I am really thankful for what this has added to my "horse knowledge" base. The most memorable experiences with TEAM have been the Reiner Klimke clinic two years ago in L.A. and the Paralympics in Atlanta. Watching Reiner Klimke teach and feeling his love for the horses was unforgettable. Ten of us got to do bodywork on the horses before and after their lessons. It was an honor to be a part of that great learning event!
At the Paralympics there were twenty practitioners to work on eighty of the
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horses that were selected to be in the games. Each team from 26 countries got to try out the horses they had drawn to make sure they were suitable for the riders. The horses came from all over the east coast and were incredibly sound, sane and willing to participate in this dressage competition up to second level. The riders were amazingly confident and rode with all types of disabilities from missing arms and legs to MS and even cerebral palsy. I saw a man from France with one arm and one leg vault up onto his 16h horse each day. Wheelchairs were as common as golf carts at a hunter show, and the horses were led around by the riders in wheelchairs as if this was completely normal. The horses were saints and the riders were very tough. We did bodywork to assess the horses before the competition, and lots of TEAM leading exercises to get them used to the in-gate area and the big competition area surrounded by bleachers. The bodywork continued for two weeks during practice trials and throughout the events to keep the horses comfortable with each of their new riders and new equipment. It was a time of great learning and inspiration for me.
My last three-day event was at Kentucky Horse Park at the Area VIII Team Championships before moving to Arizona and before my experience with the Tellington Jones method. I won the individual competition and loved the beautiful cross country course (except for the ski jump fence where I closed my eyes). The horse that I had been competing on a few months later developed something like EPM and slowly deteriorated at the Michigan State Vet hospital and eventually died there. During that time another horse that I had been showing in dressage was kicked in the forearm and had to be put down. Within three months my own horse who was 18 suddenly died of a ruptured spleen. Three wonderful horses in less than a year….
This made me really look at my life, my love for the horses, and what to do next. I quit riding for a few months and decided to move out West. I fit everything I could into my Mazda Pick-Up with topper on the back and headed (Continued on page 13)
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