I was born in Charlottesville, VA, and started riding horses there at the age of 7. Though I was learning to ride at a hunter/jumper barn, my true dream was to be a cowboy (inspired, I am sure, by watching too many John Wayne movies and Gunsmoke episodes). When I was 13, my grandparents took all of us out to the historic Valley Ranch outside of Cody, Wyoming to celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary, and that is where my dreams of heading West were realized. I spent summers through high school and college horse-packing through the Absaroka Mountains, and then spent time working as a guide for the Elkhorn Ranch in Arizona and as a horse-packing instructor for NOLS out of Lander, Wyoming.

Over the years, I have been fortunate to have learned from amazingly talented horse people such as Martin Black, Buck Brannaman, Jim Hicks, and Micaela Love. I have also had a very diverse set of experiences in the horse world - starting out riding in the Eastern world, horse packing through the mountains of Wyoming as both a guide and teacher, starting colts, being a farrier, learning the basics of driving teams, doing bodywork on performance and rehab horses, returning to the Eastern realm later in life to learn about dressage,…. Horsemanship is a lifelong journey!

In the leadership realm, I have spent thirty-plus years working as an educator and guide, including stints with the Nature Conservancy and NOLS. In 2018, I was invited to give a TEDx talk on what I have learned from horses about communication. I have also assisted in facilitating leadership and communication seminars with teams from NASA, the US Naval Academy, GOOGLE, and the Wildland Firefighter Apprenticeship Program.

These days, the intersection of horsemanship and communication/leadership is where I find my passion for both learning and teaching. I believe that improving my horsemanship requires me to improve my leadership and communication with horses, and, if I am paying attention, that improvement will spread to the rest of my life….