I have always dreamed of riding dressage, ever since childhood. My parents pacified my interest with horse books, so I started at an early age to study horses. When I was 15, new veterinarians moved into town, and I jumped at the opportunity to work for them. Carol Dell DVM started me off on the right foot riding English; everyone else in our area in Southeast Wisconsin was riding western.
At age 20 I graduated from horseshoeing school and started a farrier business. I searched every where for a dressage teacher and during my pre-med studies, inspired by the works of Alios Podhajsky, I learned German and obtained a scholarship to study at the Goethe Institute with hopes of becoming a student at the Spanish Riding School in Vienna. I spent a year in Germany working at dressage barns and with a farrier. I rode "by the seat of my pants" and when the trainers saw that I was fearless and could stay on anything, they put me on all the green youngsters - I rode lots but learned little. After hitch-hiking to Vienna, I realized my goal of becoming a student there was unattainable.
Returning home, I finished pre-med and then medical school. When I had the opportunity, I attended riding clinics, but never could quite grasp what they were talking about. During my residency in Tacoma, the Washington race track closed, and suddenly the market was flooded with thoroughbreds. My good friend Sheila Verdon took me along to the knacker man on Winter Solstice, 1990. There, in a barbed wire fence in the dark, in mud to her knees, a black mare towered above the rest. Sheila was not interested in her since they did not have possession of her papers and Sheila wanted a mare to breed. I however was taken with the mare, despite not being able to see her! I borrowed the money from Sheila to bail the mare out and thus Solstice Farms took root. When I tracked down her papers from her lip tattoo, I found she was a Seattle Slew granddaughter with a great pedigree.
I started her in training, and rode her every day, but I felt that what I was being taught was not working. The mare was obedient and kind, but I just never felt that I was able to learn what "on the bit" or what "thoroughness", or anything else, felt like or meant. Riding seemed so illusive. What people said didn't translate into their riding, even with many of the famous trainers on the videos I bought and watched. It all seemed so illogical. Then I read an article in Wisconsin Dressage and CT about the Orlov-Rostopchin. Probably what clicked was the similarity of the O-R with my thoroughbred mare. Both were tall, dark, elegant movers
My focus turned from riding to obtaining and helping re-establish this breed, which had been nearly decimated during the world wars and Russian revolution. Samantha Matson imported several horses, including my stallion Iskusnik. By then I was practicing with the National Health Service Corps in rural Minnesota. I bought 240 acres 2 miles from the hospital. There were only 2 physicians on staff - I was covering the ER every other night and nearly every other weekend, with clinic during the day. I fenced nearly the entire farm and the horse herd grew. I loved the herd and loved the farm, but was isolated from other dressage enthusiasts, and continued to ride by the seat of my pants.
When I moved back to my home town to be near my parents and seven siblings, I started my own practice and built an arena where I could start the youngsters under saddle. I heard about a trainer, Lois Aller, who came to give a neighbor instruction once a week. Skeptically, I asked her if she had time for another lesson. She agreed, and when the arena was finally done spring 2004, she came to give me a lesson. During the first lesson, I realized that I'd finally found someone who knew what she was doing and more importantly, could communicate it to me. That was the start of my journey learning dressage - after nearly giving up, I'd finally found the teacher I was looking for, and she'd been in my back yard all along.