Submitted by Heather Boo: I am a Neuroradiologist who found horses as an adult. I practice full time, and my horses are my refuge. It is tough when I cannot take clinics or lessons or be adjustable because I’m always working! The horse in the photo, Liberty Light, taught me how to ride and helped me get my gold medal and took me through my first CDIs.
Adult amateurs, it’s your time to shine! We are featuring all things adult amateur throughout the month of April.
We recently asked our social media followers to share a photo of themselves and tell us a little about their journey for a chance to be featured in an upcoming gallery on YourDressage, and received an overwhelming response!
Did you know… dressage riders who are designated as an adult amateur with USEF are eligible for amateur exclusive year-end awards, including Master’s Challenge, Vintage Cup, Adequan®/USDF Adult Amateur Awards, All-Breeds Awards, and more!
❤️❤️❤️spots❤️❤️❤️❤️ – Nicki P.Kingston — my horse of a lifetime — and I are currently working towards second level bronze medal scores and L Program Part B scores…so adult amateur but hopefully not for long! My day job is in IT, specifically cloud phone systems! 🐎✨ – Jennifer H.My horse Koda Bear had colic surgery February 2025, and shortly after he returned to work I tore my ACL (NOT riding 😩) and had replacement surgery in July 2025. Needless to say rehabbing both of us has been a full time job in addition to my full time job AND managing several family health crises. Koda 🐻 is 19 and has been my partner for 6 years, mostly in eventing, but we dabbled in dressage shows. Before 2025, we regularly checked off goals and increased demands (and naturally with every achievement the bar got moved farther). Now, as I build back my out of shape muscles, I am focusing on having a grand old time with my wonderful friend and trying to ride him at my best to his best, whatever that looks like. For a while it was hacks to get us back in sync, and now I’m strong enough to start taking lessons and fine tuning my aids. Hoping that this year we will try some recognized dressage shows together! – Merrilyn RBThis unbelievably kind chestnut gelding is DonnerPrince aka Boomer. He is 24 and blind in one eye. I am 69 and only have a learner’s permit for Gran Prix so we weren’t terribly competitive but we had a blast! – Anne F.Day job working in cancer research and diagnostics and lifelong equestrian. Landed in dressage about 15 years ago. But I was a divorced mom of one son with ASD. So not much riding for many years. My son told me he was moving out of my NC home in 2022 and I sold everything to move to Wellington FL full time. Got my bronze medal in 2023. Ended up with 4 herniated discs and had to get a smaller horse to continue riding. And now, I am Back to competing! Bought a new smaller horse so that I can continue on my medal journey. This picture was March 15 – my first time showing at fourth level. This was a moment in our warm up. I just love this horse – we call him Tito. He’s teaching me so much along with my amazing coach. – Carrie B.ICU nurse for my paying job, Mom of 2 boys, wife and AA rider the rest of the time. Jumped into the dressage world 4 yrs ago when I thought my mare had more talent for dressage then Eventing and haven’t looked back. I’ve taken her from green broke to earning our USDF Bronze Medal. Looking forward to continuing to move her up the levels in the years to come. Enjoying the love between horse and human and enjoying the ups and downs of our journey. 💗 Hannah Draughan Photography Sarah W.From the time I was 12 years old, I was a leaser. Opportunities to purchase my own horse would pop up but never went anywhere – the match wasn’t right, the timing wasn’t right, or both. One day, my trainer approached me about a few sales horses she had, and she thought I’d better check them out. This is how I found myself on a cold March day in Minnesota, armed with a cookie each for a few sales horses, entering each horse’s stall and jokingly asking “Are you my horse?”. 2 years later, we are early in our journey but Benny has already shown me how incredible he can be, with a recent highlight being four ribbons in all four of our qualified classes at the US Dressage Finals. However, the best gift he will ever give me will remain the first one – a heart and soul to carry right next to my own. ❤️❤️ Photo by Amanda Morse for JumpMedia/USDF – Mary GalleAdult Ammy who is a new convert to classical dressage. My goal is to earn our Bronze medal. Dressage is my release from an incredibly demanding job as a provider for the medically underserved. I love studying the books by the masters, and then taking Clinics with current professionals who teach these classics. Thank you to USDF for carrying this on. – Jennifer L.Incident Response and Cybersecurity Engineer by day and AA all the time! On a showing hiatus since 2017 due to what first was college, but now building financial security and stability in my 20s, but always have stayed involved in the dressage community and riding. I take weekly lessons and always stick around to help clean tack and make sure the horses are comfortable before we leave for the night. I love participating in the USDF Bookclub and utilizing the USDF University catalog! When I’m not working, in a lesson, or further expanding my dressage knowledge, I serve as a Director at Large for the Metropolitan Horsemen’s Association in Oakland, CA! I am managing our dressage schooling shows and doing outreach to our state/local GMOs like CDS and CAWDA to build a relationship and encourage more riders to attend schooling shows of all different backgrounds/disciplines. A huge highlight for me being on MHA was getting to attend the Black Cowboy’s Academy at Children’s Fairyland in Oakland with MHA and our president’s horse (and honorary mascot), Harry Potter, to meet community members and bring horses to the city! I attached a photo of us meeting some kids! I’ve been riding Harry to in hopes to do a test or two at our summer schooling show so I can dig out my show coat and whites ☺️ – Caitlin A.Knighttime Phantsy+/ a 6 yr Half Arabian/Half Saddlebred gelding bred by Peggy Nickerson. I purchased him as a weanling and have brought him along myself with the help of fantastic instructors ! Our dressage journey wouldn’t be where we are without the fantastic instruction of Anne Zaharias. We are going out in First Level this year! He has excelled as a sport horse winning multiple awards with AHA , USDF and WDAA. He has also toted my autistic son around the dressage ring to success! Andrew Ryback photo – Krissy P.Adult ammy here, as a rider that didn’t come from a wealthy background I found myself grinding in the work force to be able to buy my dream horse. I am part of the 4% of women in the construction industry working 60 hours a week, riding five days a week while also picking up shifts at the barn to fuel my riding goals. I bought Dionysus as a 3 year old and have backed him myself with the help of my lovely trainer Nicole Day. We are now looking forward to show season 2026 and anticipating showing T3 with a little over a year under saddle. This partnership has been my light at the end of the tunnel. I am forever grateful and proud to take center line with a self made horse. – Shania P.I work a demanding career as a Critical Care RN and ECMO Specialist. My love and passion is Dressage. I came back to horses like most Adult Amateurs after College, Career, and family. I rode in Hunters and mostly Jumpers for a decade, before finding my way to Dressage. Actually my jumper decided he was done jumping, and I could either find him a new career with me or sale. I chose a new path, and have never looked back. I show monthly through the season in California, and finally have the right Trainer and Clinician to help reach my goals. Me and my current gelding Fanfare are prepping the Prix S George for competition in the coming months. I love everything Dressage! – Brian I.I’m self employed and have to juggle my work and my riding. I also have been juggling multiple chronic health issues like hEDS, POTS, and MCAS. All which make riding and caring for my horse a challenge. Finding a way to keep my health a top priority but also my riding and work is a daily task. But I’m Hoping to be back out showing first level this year. My horse Drogon is a 10 year old Trakehner gelding who I have owned since he was born! – Amanda M.67 year old Adult amateur who is riding a second generation homebred that I have trained myself up the levels while being a veterinarian and having a small event horse breeding operation. Reserve champion 4th level Vintage Cup, ISR /Oldenburg NA open and AA 4th level Champion Liz Crawley photo – Elizabeth C.As the daughter of an AA dressage queen it was always in my blood and when I was 8 my mom got me the most perfect pony and from then on I was hooked. It’s been a winding road with college,med school, residency, work and 2 young kids so riding had to take a backseat as a priority for awhile but then 5 years ago my friend asked me if I wanted her 3.5 year old Holsteiner gelding Luxor who she had bred from the mare my mom had bred (my mom had to sell her after my dad passed away). It didn’t seem like a smart or financially wise choice at all given I had a full time job and a 1 and 3 year old but then again whatever is when it comes to horses? Anyway I obviously couldn’t say no and that’s where it all started again and now I’ve got 4 (okay maybe 5 😬🤫) horses and last year was USDF AA I -1 freestyle reserve champion on my most amazing boy Zante pictured as we shook it out to Taylor Swift. It’s not always glory and there are a lot of sweat and tears but every day I get to be with my horse kids is a dream. Okay maybe also a bit of an addiction. – Lon F.AA who loves the training process and showing and somehow fits it in between a full time, executive-level job in cybersecurity. I’ve brought 5 horses from training level to the small tour over the years and hope my current guy will get me to my Gold Medal! – Amanda S.Adult ammy with a demanding corporate job who is on a mission to learn the training process from weanling to Grand Prix! I have one 6 yr old mare and two coming 4 year olds that I had since they were weanlings. I previously rode through PSG on trained horses but now learning how to teach a young horse all the basics. – Nicole R.Orthopaedic trauma PA by day so that I can be an adult amateur by night and on the wknds! After taking 15 years off from riding for school and starting my career I am Back! It feels so good to be back where my heart and soul are the happiest 🩷 – Meghan R.I came back to riding as an adult 9 yrs ago starting with English while working full time. I started w Sat & Sun lessons then progressed into a partial lease on a horse shared w a junior rider who showed Western Dressage. Fast forward a bit & my mom found me a very cute grade gelding on an online auction who came to us with an unknown past. My trainer helped me restart him from the ground up and his obvious Western background along with falling in love with the Western Dressage community led us to our current work & home. We won our first World Championship in 2025. My full time work in functional medicine practice development has morphed into part time plus taking on extra projects like managing my husband’s small business and volunteering for the Western Dressage Association of America WDAA all because the journey as a AA, a love to grow w my horse, and the devotion of my trainer. We are very much on the journey. CB Photography – Candy H.I’m a now 66 year old AA who purchased a 4 year old Arabian 12 years ago, my first horse in over thirty five years (competed in eventing as a youth). After several years competing successfully in competitive trail, including 3-day 100 mile finishes in FL and VT, we switched to dressage full time. A few years ago I earned my Bronze Medal on AM Hamlet. We are now competing at Fourth Level, and I just learned that Hamlet was the USEF Region 12 Arabian Dressage Fourth Level Horse of the Year for 2025. Andrew Ryback photo – Ashley C.“Snax” (Jabberwocky Eden) is my amazing Oldenburg mare that won AA finals last year at training and first level. I’m lucky to have my trainer Lauren Chumley who has been by my side every every step of our journey. We have already accomplished so many cool things including multiple awards at Regionals, Finals, USDF AA, USDF All Breeds, and Devon! I work a normal corporate operations job and spend all of my free time at the barn with many early mornings and late nights to make sure our training schedule stays on track. This year the goal is to try to qualify for the 5yr olds at lamplight as well as regionals and finals. My ultimate goal is to bring her along to show in my first Grand Prix and earn my Gold! Susan J. Stickle Photography – Mila P.
