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Some of her favorite Equines:

This is Bug Eyed, (Bugsy to most).  She's a 5 year old Thoroughbred mare,
15.2 if she's standing on her toes, and cheerful as she can be.  She is my
current competition horse, and the horse I've like the best of all of the
one's I've owned.    This picture was taken at Mayfest Horse Trials in May of
2001, (her second horse trials) where she finished 7th in Open Novice on her
dressage marks.    

Yoda, (officially Wesertip) is a gray Hanovarian gelding. I got him in 1993 after he had been donated to Ohio State University for being such a bad actor. Heck, for the money, how could I go wrong? We've had our ups and downs, but on the whole, he's been a favorite of mine. It takes a sense of humor to ride and show this horse, as he either wins a championship or is dead last at just about every show! Yoda's prone to bucking, rearing, and shying, but when I can keep him focused his work is wonderful. Some of his Championships include the 1993 Indy Dressage Classic, the 1993 Centerline Dressage Classic, the 1993 Serenity Dressage Show, the 1993 Indiana First Level Horse of the year, and the 1993 Overall Highpoint Rider of the year, we showed a little in 1994 at 2nd level, and won classes at Second Level, but spent most of 1994 through 1996 training. We won Championships at Third Level in 1997, as well as doing our first Fourth Level test together.  In 1998 we won Championships at Riparian Farms at 3rd and 4th Levels, and won the Indiana Dressage Society's Third and Fourth Level Championships, as well as being Reserve Champions in the High Point Divisions (in spite of only showing at 4 shows). Unfortunately Yoda tore a suspensory ligament in 1999, and had a 6 month lay-up. He just returned to work in February of 2000. In 2001 Yoda moved to Colorado to continue his dressage career with a new rider.

This is a picture of Yoda from the 1993 Indy Dressage Classic, his first show. He was quite a bit darker gray back then! He spent the first half of the first day leaping about, bucking, snorting, spinning and generally being a pain, but by his last class he was fabulous, earned a 76%, the highest marks awarded at First Level, the show, to an IDS member and earned the championship. It was also the single biggest improvement in percentages, as his first ride that day earned a barely sufficient 50% (and I think she gave me that simply because he didn't manage to buck me off).

Calypso belonged to Kathy Betelak and I started her eventing for Kathy. Calypso was a 16 hand thoroughbred mare, one of the most honest and trying sort of horses you could ever hope for. Whatever you put in front of her, she jumped. She did her first event at Training Level and placed 3rd. I had a lot of success with her, both at the dressage shows (through second level) and at the horse trials. Probably the high points of my association with this mare were winning a huge First Level class at the Kentucky Dressage Classic with a 67% over all the warmbloods (the judge stood up and thanked me at the end of the class--that doesn't happen often!), and winning a division of Training at the MSCTDA Team Challenge Horse Trials (on her dressage score) over the likes of Kathy Weischoff, Ralph Hill, Diana Rich, and Susan Harris.

This is Miss Cricket (another one of my all-time favorites) who owns Sandy White. Actually, Cricket ranks right up there with Yoda, even though I don't own her. This is a little (14.2 hand) Morgan mare that doesn't realize that she's the wrong size, breed, and type. Cricket will jump the moon or trot all day long on a 50 mile endurance ride if you ask her. She's honest and kind, and is just at home winning at a horse trials (over all the bigger, fancier horses) or giving a little kid a beginner riding lesson. Her competition record is phenomenal, and if you want to know more about this wonderful horse, go to Sandy White's page & look at Cricket and her equally amazing offspring.

Chance, a non-colored appaloosa mare I competed in the early 80's. She was the second horse I ever evented. This picture is from the New Britton Hunt Horse Trials, in 1984. Chance did a little bit of everything, She was a (not-so-very-good) pleasure horse when I bought her. I fox-hunted her, did some jumpers, evented, and did through 2nd Level dressage on her. She was not the most talented horse in the world, and she would stop on a fence if you gave her any opportunity to, but I had a lot of fun with her, and learned a bunch.

This is Tim (shown as Verbatim). Amazingly, this is the only picture I could find of me showing him. He was the first horse I trained to Fourth Level. I got this horse from John Young, a savvy old cowboy buddy of mine, as an unbroke, range-raised 4 year old from Texas. He'd never been in a barn or seen a bucket until he came to Indiana via a loading ramp and a stock trailer. I thought I'd bitten off more than I could chew for the first couple of months--it took an incredible amount of patience and perseverance to win this horse's confidence, not to mention that he had penchant for jumping out of whatever pasture you'd leave him in when he got the urge to leave. He had a lot of funny quirks for quite a while--it was an adventure. I had him for a year before I took him to his first show--he trotted and cantered around the ring on the first hand, then jumped out of the ring and took off back towards the trailers; I turned him around, jumped back in, and finished the test (much to the judge's amusement). By his third show he was winning at First Level. He did his first Third Level test by the end of his second season, then showed Third and Fourth Levels in his third season of showing. I did my first halfpasses, flying changes, and canter pirouettes with this horse. Unfortunately I was unable to continue on to FEI levels with him as I was in the process of earning my Bachelors at the same time, thus time and money were tight. Luckily for me, Michelle Goldner bought him in December of 1990, and I've been able to keep him as a member of my extended equine family, and all the while he's been teaching Michelle to do the work. Just recently (at 19 years young) he's been doing sequence changes and small steps of piaffe.

This is The Traveller (he belongs to John Dodd) and me competing in the pouring rain at the MSCTDA Dressage Show. It was about 50 degrees and poured all weekend. I believe this picture was taken during the Team Challenge Championship Class, which our team (Lisa McKinney Goldner on Court Jester, Christy Fitzwater on Theur, Michelle Goldner on Verbatim and me on The Traveller) won.  John was good enough to let me use Traveller to stand in for Yoda while Yoda was recovering from a foot bruise, and also for another horse at the Culver Horse Trials, where we finished second (in spite of the fact that the first time I jumped the horse was in the warm up area getting ready to go cross-country). He's a fun horse, uncomplicated to ride, and very, very scopey over his fences. John went on the next year to win many horse trials with Traveller.

Spring Flourish "Risha", a TB mare that I competed for Angelique Hill. Jumpstart-Training Division

OutBack's Moon Shadow (also owned by Sandy White) is Miss Cricket's eldest son (Tonka owned by Michelle Goldner and 2001 arrival, Casey, being the other members of this talented family).  I  started this gelding in his event career at beginning novice in 1996 before turning him over to Sandy who went on to win her next 6 events with him!  Shadow is currently showing at first and second level dressage.  In 2000, Sandy and I performed a Pas de Deux demonstration for the Indiana Morgan Classic horse show at the Pepsi Coliseum.  The photo shows Shadow and me in the foreground with Sandy and Cricket against the rail.  Shadow is continuing his dressage with Sandy.