I've been horse-crazy all of my life. I first cajoled my way onto a horse at the age of six, and into lessons when I was seven. As kids, my friends and I couldn’t ride often enough or go fast enough, escaping with our horses from everything. In the summer we raced through the bridle trails of Indian Hill. In the winter we took off through snow into woods where you could ride all day and never come back on the same trail.

I found Desiree, my first horse, a beautiful bay Arab, just out of college – or maybe I should say she found me. You often hear about people being powerfully drawn to a certain horse, a mysterious mutual attraction that at first seems to defy logic and then blossoms into a life-changing relationship, and that’s how it was for us. I met Desiree at a camp where I was a summer counselor and felt an immediate pull toward her. When I heard that she was going to be hauled away to slaughter, I knew I had to save her.

That first year, Desiree and I went everywhere, and we went there very, very fast. Then one day as we were jigging along the trail, someone rode up to us and said, "You know, Buck Brannaman is going to be in town next weekend. You might get a lot out of his clinic." So I went to watch. I came away inspired and excited about the changes he was able to make with the horses, and the way he made those changes – forging bonds based on leadership, trust and kindness.

The next year I brought Desiree to his clinic. She dragged me into the arena, and I remember when Buck asked me to tell him about her I said, "Well, she’s a little neurotic." After that clinic, I came home with a different horse and she came home with a different person. I realized that in order to have the relationship with her that I longed for – I was going to have to throw a large part of what I knew out the window.

I wasn’t raised looking at horsemanship from the horse’s perspective. In the hunter/jumper training of my early years, I was taught by my instructors to use pressure to force the horse to do what you want. We didn't listen to the horse. When I saw at Buck’s clinic that there was a very different way – and how powerful and kind that way is, for both horse and human – I knew it was going to change my life and I was hooked. Absolutely hooked. This journey began for me in 1990, and to this day I feel so privileged to have been introduced to Buck and to many other gifted teachers. It’s extremely humbling as I continue to study with these great masters of horsemanship. I recognize that this is a lifelong journey and I have so much yet to learn and refine.

The years since then have brought many changes, as they will. In 2008, I lost my beloved Desiree, my teacher, my friend. As anyone who has loved and lost a horse knows, it is never an easy goodbye, and they remain in our hearts as long as we live: we’ve become the men and women we are today because of the paths we traveled with them.

That first experience with Desiree remains the defining moment in my life, the turning point that marks "before" and "after." I understood even then that every quality I develop as a horsewoman carries beyond my work with these sensitive, powerful creatures – it carries into my own development and way of being in the world, into my friendships and relationships, into the way I parent my children. I look back with deep gratitude and I look ahead with joy to share what I've learned with others.