Hi! Welcome to Aware­ness In Riding and my person­al page! It is excit­ing for me to have the oppor­tu­ni­ty to inter­act with so many amaz­ing eques­tri­ans on such an intense level, and I want to invite you to be part of this educa­tion­al revo­lu­tion that seems to be happen­ing all around us!

It has been my fortu­nate expe­ri­ence that anything is possi­ble with hors­es, even some of the most unbe­liev­able of goals can be attained, and still most riders get stuck at a very low level of horse skills. I was a part of the major­i­ty for a long time and it wasn't until I quite liter­al­ly stum­bled into oppor­tu­ni­ties that helped show me a differ­ent way that I under­stood just how much of an impact I could have with other riders.

The way I see it, horse­man­ship is a reflec­tion of the way in which we func­tion in the whole of our life. When we strug­gle with our horse we are usual­ly strug­gling some­where else as well and the connec­tion isn't hard to find with the right ques­tions. Horse­man­ship is an art which can be infinite­ly refined and subtle - but only if we are aware and conscious of what we are doing as riders. Once one element is out of place it makes riding success­ful­ly diffi­cult if not impos­si­ble - and that is with only one piece out of place!

For exam­ple, riders are taught to ride with their shoul­ders back, though many strug­gle with this. Now, take into consid­er­a­tion that most people will complain at some point of their shoul­ders being sore - it is the #1 complaint to massage ther­a­pists. The vast amount of shoul­der pain when there hasn't been an injury is caused by a person's posture. Also consid­er that our pectoral muscles (the ones on our chest) are used more than the muscles on the back of our shoul­ders, lead­ing to knots, trig­ger points and poor posture which cannot be correct­ed with­out strec­thing and/or body­work. With­out know­ing the under­ly­ing cause we will contin­ue to strug­gle with the same issues, or devel­op new ones as we try to over­come the symp­toms.

This is why I put so much empha­sis on learn­ing how to think crit­i­cal­ly, as well as learn­ing how to nurture ourselves phys­i­cal­ly (through nutri­tion, fitness and body­work), mental­ly and emotion­al­ly (through life coach­ing)! That, in a nutshell, is what I am so excit­ed to be able to offer you. A chance at creat­ing an envi­ron­ment with your horse that is laugh­ably simple, fun and exhil­a­rat­ing!

My Back­ground

Hors­es have played an impor­tant part of my life for as long as I care to remem­ber. I began riding when I was nine, short­ly after start­ed volun­teer­ing at a handi-capped riding program. I was taught some of the basics of english riding and then initi­at­ed into prac­tic­ing Natu­ral Horse­man­ship via John Lyons' meth­ods. My first horse, who is still with me though in a slight­ly less ambi­tious demeanor, was a Paso Fino geld­ing who partic­i­pat­ed in a pletho­ra of activ­i­ties with me through my teenage years. Togeth­er we mastered trail riding, played around in drill team, parades, team penning, and even tried out polo one night (we won't discuss that any further... ahem).

My parents support­ed my inter­ests as much as possi­ble when I showed my commit­ment and we moved to the coun­try ourselves in 1998. In 2000 I start­ed breed­ing Bashkir Curly sporthors­es which last­ed until 2004, during which time I served on the board of my breed's asso­ci­a­tion as Sporthorse Liason. It was imme­di­ate­ly follow­ing that I decid­ed to become certi­fied in Massage Ther­a­py and enrolled in school that same fall, grad­u­at­ing from the top school in Wiscon­sin with a 98% on my final Thesis research paper.

I was given the life chang­ing oppor­tu­ni­ty to move to Seat­tle and study French Clas­si­cal Dres­sage in 2005. I also gained invalu­able time and prac­tice as an instruc­tor through­out that year which has carried over since my return. In 2007 I returned to the Seat­tle area to learn Neuro­Mus­cu­lar Ther­a­py, and later to write my first book "Centered Self, Centered Horse."

2008 brought the publish­ing of my book. I also began teach­ing The Core Work­shop. This spring I began broad­cast­ing an online radio show to discuss eques­tri­an topics called Hors­es & Humans. I have performed demon­stra­tions and exhi­bi­tions at vari­ous horse fairs and events over the years.

Today

My focus today is on help­ing eques­tri­ans find their own center and balance, to find a lifestyle that supports their love of hors­es. I am also commit­ted to offer­ing educa­tion which helps bring about more humane riding and train­ing prac­tices. That is why I began Aware­ness In Riding, to bring you a system that connects your love of hors­es with a healthy diet, a healthy body, and self-aware­ness.

I also offer you an open invi­ta­tion to come and sit in on any of our class­es, lessons or events to see how they can impact you!