A little bit about me

I have spent the better part of two decades trying to understand what horses are actually telling us.

It started when I was 23, working at a classical dressage facility. A group of photographers came through to take photographs of the stallions, and one of them was also a bodyworker. I watched her offer to work on a horse who was guarded, almost intimidating in his usual demeanor and within moments of her hands on him, his eyes softened and his head dropped and I could see the relief on his face through their quiet conversation. The head trainer looked at me and said, "I could see you doing some 'woo woo' shit like this." and I know I was supposed to be offended (I was there to continue my professional education to pursue life as a trainer, not a bodyworker) but instead I thought: yeah... me too.

About a year later, my horse Stella was diagnosed with chronic Lyme disease- full body soreness, inflammation, and a horse who already didn't love being touched. I was, by instinct and coincidence, already mid-way through an Equine Myofascial Release course. Our first session was the first time I ever saw her truly relax into bodywork - no side eye, no shifting away, just a quiet conversation as her tissue began softening and chronic snags began to resolve. She was also a mirror: working with her taught me how deeply horses are shaped by their riders, so I went back to school to learn human myofascial release, too.

That beginning became years of layering in everything I could find to understand horse and rider more completely: biomechanics, somatic movement, Neurokinetic Therapy, advanced Pilates certification (built in part to correct my own dysfunctional patterns in the saddle), and a deep immersion in classical dressage that has shaped not just how I ride but how I see horses and people in movement and partnership. I've had the privilege of studying with some of the most respected trainers and practitioners in the world, and each one left something in my riding I carry forward.

I came to all of this with a background and BA in sports and performance psychology, so I've always been as interested in what happens between the ears as what happens in the body- the rider's and the horse's both.

Writing has always been part of how I process what I learn. I've written two Pilates-for-equestrians manuals, developed and launched the PilatesEQ app and six-week program, and written a children's book about Stella. I'm  currently working on a novel, and Medicine Horse Journal is now home base for all of it.

My work is rooted in the belief that riding challenges are rarely just about riding. When something isn't working in the saddle, I look at the whole picture- the body, the mind, the history and the horse and that's usually where the path forward begins.