Frequently Asked Questions
​When did you first fall in love with horses?
I don’t remember a time in my life without horses because there hasn’t been one. Growing up as a horse trainer's daughter you eat, sleep, and breathe horses and horse care. I think it’s less that I fell in love with horses and more that the center of who I am as a person would not exist without horses.
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When did you start competing?
As a young girl my family competed in ranch horse competitions, I was showing and sharing horses with my parents by the time I was 8 or 10. Throughout my teens i dabbled in a few other disciplines including equestrian vaulting to where I competed at the Copper Canter level, endurance riding where I completed several limited distance winnings best conditioned at one and a few 50 mile rides placing top ten in one…. And I started Eventing in my late teens as well when I decided to put a plastic wintec saddle a client left in my dads tackroom on my quarter horses and started jumping logs in the woods. My dad thought “hmmm she better get some lessons for this before she breaks her neck” so i started riding some with a trainer not far away who had the task of teaching me and my quarter horse how to jump.
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What are some of the early challenges you remember?
As a horse trainer's daughter I usually ended up competing on what we’d call “throw away” horses. Meaning horses that other disciplines didn’t think were good enough or were too hard to manage. So I remember is was hard to compete against others with more made horses but I enjoyed doing well on horses that other people thought weren’t good enough.
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What are some of your early wins?
As a junior and senior youth ranch competitor, I won quite a few year end award and championship belt buckles and even a saddle my last year as a SR Youth showing in SSA (southern stock horse association ) and ARHA (American ranch horse association) and some top places in extreme cowboy races. Endurance rides - top ten placings and a Best conditioned win.
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What formal training do you have?
Aside from growing up immersed in natural horsemanship and watching and absorbing much of what my dad would teach and do…. after graduating high school I was attending a local community college, working full time at a local hunter/jumper barn while also managing another barn where I lived, I thought to myself that if I was going to be an event rider I needed to get some serious education and immerse myself in it. I had just finished riding Denny Emerson’s book How Good Riders Get Good. A key message is when he talks about being a working student for someone to gain lots of knowledge in a short period. I decided that was the road I wanted to take and who better to be a working student for than Denny himself? So I applied and was accepted into his program starting in the winter of 2013.
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What apprenticeships have you done?
After high school I worked under h/j trainer Alicia Wilkinson and rode with well known event rider Lesley Stevenson. In 2013 I become a working student for the legendary Denny Emerson of Tamarack Hill Farm where I learned the ins and outs of Eventing, Equine fitness for Eventing and the art of using pedigree knowledge to help find quality Eventing partners. Since then I trained with Grand Prix dressage riders such as Jennifer Baumert, Diane Ritz, and Kelsey Dunlap and have spent time riding with 5* Eventers Jimmy Wofford, Lucinda Green and Simon Eades. I currently train with Olympic/5* rider Becky Holder and I have a great working relationship with advanced Eventer Daryl Kinney who I often bounce training ideas and concepts with.
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Anything notable about your career that you thought was a disaster at first but later turned out to be a huge opportunity to learn and evolve?
On May 4, 2017 while grooming at a polo game I was kicked by a pony while untacking and ended up the hospital for a week with a grade 5 liver laceration. I underwent multiple surgeries during that stay and after. That incident changed my outlook on life and while it was scary and painful I am glad to have been so humbled and to have been lifted up and supported by so many who know me and my family. It was a few months later that I had my win at American Eventing championships, only 8 weeks after getting back in the saddle.
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Any notable mentors or stories that you must tell/make you you?
Denny Emerson, Jimmy Wofford, Becky Holder, Daryl Kinney, Simon Eades.
Nearly dying in May 2017 to winning a national title in September 2017 was really a fairytale story about resilience and how having true help when you’re down is key to future success.
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Let’s talk about Hounds Creek. Why that name?
Anyone who knows me knows that I am in love with hound dogs! For the last few years of my life I have been inseparable from hounds, and I tend to have too many of them. They play a big role in my life and my husband’s life so the name Hounds Creek Equestrian is really an ode to our past, present, and future houndy partners and how much they mean to us. .
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What does a day in the life in at Hounds Creek feel like?
Hounds Creek Equestrian is a boutique style facility meaning that I keep the program on the smaller side so that I can devote more of my time and energy to each client for a very individually catered feel. Each day I ride a couple horses and teach a couple lessons, I avoid stacking my days super full so that I can take as much time that is needed for each horse and rider.
​What makes your program unique?
I feel like my program offers a much needed respite from the very busy lesson and training programs where a rider might feel overlooked or as if they’re just another penny in the jar. Personal, positive, catered training in a relaxed and lowkey fun environment is hard to come by, especially if you still want to pursue rated shows and aim for zone and national championships like we do!
The tapestry of your life....
Growing up with a horse trainer as a father, this is all I have ever known, and all I will ever know. Horses have always been my life and will always be my life. I was very blessed to meet my husband because of horses and he is now a very talented Farrier who is a key support member in our program. We met because of horses, and we fell in love because of hounds… both are in the tapestry of our life. We now have a daughter together, and I truly can’t wait to raise her in the barn Around the animals who have shaped both myself and my husband and our entire life together.
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