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The year I turned 45, I began shopping for my dream horse, a warmblood dressage partner. It didn’t take long to realize that the only warmblood dressage horse I could afford was either a weanling or one with health problems. I opted for a colt and had visions of the two of us growing old together.

I thought that mini-horses would be a great way to ease back into horse ownership. I could not have been more mistaken!

For about five years during my thirties, I endeavored to have a horse again. Unfortunately, none of my attempts lasted more than a few months.

Danny and Blitz were going to be my “dream team.” I would train and show them as a way to build my reputation in the horse business and attract more clients for lessons and training.

My love affair with Sherman began long before I ever rode him. In fact, if you had told me that I would one day ride that exuberant gray Andalusian stallion on a daily basis, I would have told you that it was just a dream of mine! Sherman had spent time traveling with The Royal Lipizzan Show as a solo act and I had seen Barbara ride an exhibition on him at my first horse show four years earlier before I had even met her. He knew all of the Grand Prix dressage maneuvers, as well as fun tricks like cantering-in-place, rearing and bowing.

Barr could do it all…and then some! From the very first show that my trainer, Barbara, allowed me to ride him in, we were a winning combination. He was a plain-looking quarter horse gelding, a far cry from the fancy Arabians I had been riding, but such a talented athlete.

She started me off riding Squire, an Arabian stallion, in a dressage saddle. My love affair with dressage and all things fancy began there.  Squire was so incredibly sensitive that with the slightest touch or shift of weight he would be moving sideways. I never realized that a horse could respond to such a light touch.

When I was twelve, I started taking riding lessons. My first riding teacher introduced me to the English saddle on her horse, Khuzabar. I immediately fell in love with riding English and learned to ride over cavalettis and small jumps.

Since my first two trainers had graciously let me show their horses, I easily became hooked on the horse show world!  Now, at thirteen, I was ready for a show horse of my own, who I hoped would also be my forever horse. Lucy-B came to live with me in Montana from Tulsa, Oklahoma. She was a 3 year old gray Arabian who had the most lovely floating trot and such a kind eye. She was perhaps the sweetest horse I had ever met.

Armed with my 4-H Colt Manual, I set out to train my new filly. I didn’t realize, however, that being a hot-blooded breed, CLI was more on the reactive side of the spectrum. With no tools or knowledge for how to train a reactive horse, I learned to “tip-toe” and “sneak” around very quietly so as not to set her off. I had never heard of desensitization, except for the paragraph in my manual about “sacking out” your colt, which just seemed cruel to me at the time…

He was a three-year-old, green-broke Morgan/Arabian cross. I absolutely loved him! I’m pretty sure I didn’t take him for a test ride or learn how to handle him. I was eight and we had no experience with horses. To this day, I wonder what my parents were thinking!