About Me
Victoria and Sonyata
My Background
My mom bought me my first horse when I was 7 years old. Her name was Lacy and I was officially hooked! After Lacy came Cocoa, Patchey, Jewel, Comanche, and then my beloved Sassy. Comanche was very young and was the first horse I watched being trained. Sassy was the first horse I trained completely by myself when I was 12 years old. She was my show horse through my teenage years and was one of the best horses I ever had. We even bred her. I raised, trained the baby, and eventually sold the baby. Throughout my teenage years, I trained many horses, showed them, and sold them.
I took a break from horses to join the military. I learned a lot of life lessons during the deployment to Afghanistan, but that time changed me. I spent the next few years working through those changes. Then, I got back into horses and bought Cruiser followed by Sonyata. Never before had horses been so therapeutic for me. Now horses change my life. The minute I sit in the saddle, everything melts away. I feel a sense of complete peace. It is just me and the horse forming a partnership, a perfect harmony.
In the following years, I realized that horses are my passion. I decided to get my bachelor's degree in Equine Studies at Wilson College. At Wilson, I took classes in the Teaching and Training specialization and the Facility Management specialization. I got an amazing and formal education to understand how the horse thinks, behaves, and moves.
My Goals
My education is crucial to training horses and teaching students. We have all been in lessons where the instructor tells us to do something; we do it but we don't understand why. One of my goals is to create thinking, feeling, independent riders that understand their horses.
But the most important goal I have is to help my riders be the best versions of themselves, in and out of the saddle. To accomplish this, I use Coach John Wooden's Pyramid of Success. When we focus on things like industriousness, friendship, loyalty, cooperation, and enthusiasm, horses become fun, non-intimidating, and help us build positive life long relationships.