About Michelle

Raised in Colorado, Michelle fell in love with horses and specifically the sport, Eventing.  Always curious, she studied and took lessons and clinics in Hunters, Equitation, Jumpers and Dressage to broaden and improve her riding and horsemanship skills.  Michelle believes continuing education is important, and regularly trains with various professionals, including Holling Eventing, to ensure she keeps improving her skills.   She has competed up to the FEI levels and does well with green and high-strung horses and has a calm way around them.

Teaching Philosophy

Communication and patience are of the utmost importance in creating a relaxed and confident horse and rider.  Confidence begins and ends on the ground.  Feeling comfortable in interpreting how a horse is feeling as you tack them up, learning how to treat basic issues, like cuts and learning basic horsemanship skills like wrapping a horse’s leg are important for a rider.  Once in the saddle this level of horsemanship continues to ensure you are listening to the horse as you ride them.  This level of education and communication with the horse helps create a relationship between horse and rider which allows for trust, and ultimately a fun experience.

Listening to your horse while in the saddle ensures that you are helping your horse perform at his/her best.  The Trainers job is to help interpret the horses communication for the rider.  For example, if the horse prefers to have a longer neck in dressage in order to better achieve the working trot, then it is the Trainers job to ensure that is accurately communicated to the rider. 

In addition to the above, Michelle believes in setting goals and finds that it helps keep rider and Trainer on the same page throughout training.

“I’ve always been very goal oriented and laying the road map ensures I can accomplish that goal.  I try to do that with my students too.  I know their goal, and I’ll create a road map for both of us to follow to ensure they can reach that goal.”