I started riding as a child in Germany at a small barn in Nürnberg and then at the Stuttgarter Reit- und Fahrverein. There I also vaulted with a team that placed second nationally and performed exhibitions at international horse shows. My specialties were the shoulder-stand and flying angel.
After returning to the United States, I came up through the ranks of Pony Club and earned my USPC "A" rating at the age of 16. My horses and I placed near the top in three National Rallies (Intermediate level eventing). Later I also competed successfully in big East Coast three-day events. After the horse I was campaigning heading toward the 1978 World Championships was injured, I turned solely to dressage, which had long been my favorite.
After graduating from Vassar College and then living and working in San Francisco for three years, I returned to Virginia, where my brothers and I built a house for me with our own hands. In conjunction with this, I built a clientele of ~25 dressage and eventing students, continuing the teaching I had started when I was 14 years old. Years later, my husband David and I moved back to the West Coast, where I carried on teaching, training, competing, and judging. During this time David and I also brought up two wonderful girls.
I had become a nationally licensed dressage judge at a young age, was promoted to R in 1981, and judged for 36 years. During this time I judged in every USDF Region as well as Canada and participated in 14 national/international dressage judges’ forums. My contribution to the dressage world has been my work with Jeff Moore on the USDF Dressage Glossary of Judging Terms, from its inception in 1989 through its Sixth Edition in 2015.
Competing for the purpose of learning, I earned the USDF Bronze, Silver, and Gold Medals (competition through the Grand Prix level). In addition to working with excellent trainers in the dressage world, I’ve always paid attention to and drawn from alternative approaches, especially those of the “new age cowboys” and various bodywork/awareness modalities.
In 1999, we bought the property that adjoins the land where we live, and I’ve been operating it as Lane’s End Farm ever since. Here I board a few horses, do some teaching/training, and ride my own horse Wisper, with whom I competed at the Grand Prix level in 2023.