Background

(How I got “this way”)

By the time I was four, it was clear to my parents that I was obsessed with horses. Living in suburban San Diego County, it was easy for us to find a place for me to begin riding lessons. I am so fortunate that I was born into such a supportive family, for although my folks had no interest or experience with horses them selves, they continued to support my equestrian endeavors. They may not have had any idea what they were getting themselves into.

After an initial year of riding at a little place called "The Pony Lady," I moved to another stable where the trainer, Lucia, taught eventing. I was riding her horses and ponies and even jumping by the age of six. We moved to a new house that was less than a mile from Hap Hansen stables, an international competitor in show jumping. Although I never rode with Hap, the quality of training I received was second to none.

I rode for many years with Marion Hadden, who gave me every opportunity to develop my equestrian skills. I also rode with Marcy Gherke and Kathy Everman, a dressage trainer. The Rancho Riding Club in Rancho Santa Fe, CA continues to provide top quality instruction for riders of all ages. My childhood friends, Niki and Athina Zarcades, have replaced Marion and are carrying on her tradition of excellent horsemanship training. Initially, Marion gave me lessons on my first horse, Tigger. He was a lovely grey thoroughbred cross who packed me around hunter courses for years. I had lessons several times a week and rode every day. I showed successfully in the children's division, but soon grew tired of the politics of the show ring.

By the time I was 13, I had tried a few novice events, which I enjoyed but Tigger did not, and I quit competing altogether. There were miles of bridle paths through the community, and I would ride these all day on the weekends. Marion let me move Tigger to a neighbor's backyard, where he could live in a pasture with other horses, and I let his mane and whiskers grow and stopped using my saddle completely. It was soon known that I would ride anything, so boarders at the stable down the street hired me to ride their horses, which allowed me to keep myself on a horse as long as I wasn't in school or sleeping. I was a very lucky kid, riding several horses a day through orange groves in sunny San Diego.

Since I rode a lot of different horses, usually bareback, I developed an excellent seat and learned to cope with whatever came up. It was a great education, and since I was usually unsupervised, it gave me a lot of confidence in what I could accomplish with a horse.

As a freshman in high school, I moved to Colorado Springs to attend the Fountain Valley School. There were horses to be ridden there, too, and this was my introduction to western riding. We had a herd of horses, cattle to work, and acreage to ride on. I remember we had some pretty nice horses in the herd, although they were all donations.

I tried gymkhana on a really special little appy cross named Apache, who knew his job so well that I could drop the reins and he would run through the poles all by himself. He wouldn't stop, either, just went up and back over and over.

There was an amazing international dressage judge, Anita Owen-Henderson, who was married to the music teacher. She would give us lessons on these old horses, and she knew a lot! She helped me jump an old wall-eyed paint mare, Dee, over four feet. That was the highest I'd ever jumped, and it was exciting.

We would also do team penning as well as just move the cattle around from one pasture to another. Sometimes my friends and I would sneak out under a full moon and ride around in the pasture bareback, swimming the horses in the reservoir and irrigation ditches. I really appreciate the freedom I had to learn about horses by just riding without many limits. It seems this was a pretty unique opportunity, and I am very grateful.

I went to college in Olympia, WA, and the only horses I found to ride were my cousins', which was fine, but there wasn't really any place to ride them. They were pretty green and I had to be resourceful to get them to comply with my wishes. I putzed around in their backyard on the weekends.

After about six months, it was pretty clear to me that I'd rather be on the back of a horse than behind a desk, so I left school and moved to Lexington, KY. I figured that if I really wanted to work with horses, then that was the place to go. I worked at a couple of breeding farms, one of which was Darby Dan, a huge facility with a lot of employees and a lot of work to be done. We moved the mares and foals out, mucked countless stalls all day until we fed and moved the horses back in. I was dying to get on a horse and ride. It was hard for a horse crazy college girl from the west coast to break into Thoroughbred Racing. I remember all the guys I worked with telling me I was nuts; the money was in computers, not horses. I worked a little at the horse park, too, before I finally moved back west to Colorado.

In Colorado, I found some mustangs to train for a leather craftsman, and his little strawberry roan gelding with the unique name of Roanie was my initiate into the world of wild horses. He was the coolest horse I had ever met, he had all his instincts intact and he would go anywhere. I found all kinds of hidden places to trespass and explore. That summer, we took a big group up Pike's Peak to watch the Aspens change. I got a custom made pair of chaps in trade for my work with Roanie.

After a few years of just getting by in Colorado, I figured I would try to go to vet school. I moved to Oregon, where my folks lived so I would be a resident. While at U of O, I worked for Mike Gallaway training hunter/jumpers again. Mike leased me a fantastic little thoroughbred mare of his, Misty. She was the most athletic and ready horse I have ever had the good luck to sit on. She could jump five feet from anywhere, and she would do it, too, if you would just get out of her way. I felt like I was maybe 20% in control. I might be able to aim her at a jump of my choice, if I was real careful and quick. I jumped her as high as I have ever jumped, and she taught me a lot of humility, among other things. Mike had me riding many other horses, and I had hours of good instruction when he was there and a lot of independence when he was away at shows. I spent more time at the barn than in school or studying, so I again decided to leave school.

I went to New Mexico to work on a cattle ranch breaking colts. The N Bar Ranch is in the Gila National Forest in Southwest New Mexico. It is owned by Preston Bates, a fellow horse fanatic who has been on top of winning racehorses, behind logs drug by Percherons, started mustangs in droves, and has the X-rays to prove all of it. When Preston hired me to ride horses for a living, I was in heaven. I worked five 16-hour days a week, and two five-hour days on the weekends. I lived in a log cabin with no plumbing or electricity, just six walls, and it was about a half a mile from the cook tent. The first month I was there, I rode a mule named Fannie Mae to work each morning at sunrise. It was all worth it.

I rode at least 40 hours a week, and this was almost without getting off at all. I started a lot of horses and a few mules, and as soon as they were broke enough, I would have to start another one. I rode nothing but green horses. I fell off a few times. I saw a lot of cow's butts, mountains, yucca, and intense sunshine. I learned more in the time I was at the N Bar than I can explain in words. And best of all, there were mustangs! I finally ran out of energy, I wanted to get soft and have a kitchen and a stereo and even a hot shower, so I came back to California.

I found horses to ride and made them and their owners happy, and I started to realize that I could get away with riding for a living. I worked for various trainers as an assistant, trained horses privately, and made up the rest of my needed cash by working for local vets' as a technician. I also became exposed to Natural Horsemanship for the first time. At first I was skeptical, because it seemed like such a bandwagon, and there was almost a cult following Pat Parelli. The more I learned about these methods, I realized that this wasn't new stuff, it's just that someone has finally found a way to explain true horsemanship in a way that's easy to understand.

I appreciate that the recent popularity of Natural Horsemanship has made important information more accessible and has made good equipment easier to find. I have spent some time studying with Karen Hagen, nee' Parelli, and I learned quite a bit in a short amount of time. I also learned some Parelli Natural Horsemanship principles from Deb Cooper in Santa Cruz, mostly by osmosis. I have since had the good fortune to attend clinics with Mike Beck, Bryan Neubert, Dave Ellis, Richard Winters, Ed Dabney, and Ray Hunt, and am a better person for the experiences!