Equestrian Career
In a lifetime with horses, Joan has focused on quality communication, appreciating each horse as an individual, and creating confident, willing equine partners. She also specialized in helping riders build confidence and overcome fear—and on the whole suite of performance issues involved in high-performance athletics in a risky, high-pressure sport.
Joan is a United States Dressage Federation bronze and silver medalist, she showed in FEI dressage and the hunter/jumper rings and graduated from the prestigious the United States Hunter/Jumper Association Trainer Certification Program.
She has coached riders to regional and national USDF year-end awards, championships and reserve championships in the hunter and jumper rings, and top-ten placements in regional equitation Medal finals.
In addition to having her own program, Joan was assistant trainer to Olympic showjumper Peter Breakwell as well as Jennifer Kallam of JK Training at the Horse Park at Woodside.
When Joan first started working in the horse world, her mentor was Debra Thomas—the first person to train a Thoroughbred stallion to the FEI level in dressage. Deb is trainer to whom she owes a huge debt of gratitude for the skill, analytical ability, equestrian tact, maturity of outlook, and adventurous attitude towards life she modeled—and for being the best role model a 16-year old aspiring professional could ask for.
Education is a passion of hers and she has been fortunate to clinic and ride with some of the best: Major Anders Lindgren, Sandy Howard, Mary Wanless, Major Miguel Tavora, and Tracey Lert. Some of her equestrian heroes who have gone to the great arena in the sky are William Steinkraus, Sally Swift, and Wilhelm Museler.
Joan also helps riders build confidence and achieve their dreams in and out of the arena, from moving up the levels in jumping and dressage, to truly understanding and bonding with their horses to cantering across country for the first time—for riders previously too terrified to leave the arena. She especially loves to help riders learn from and listen to their horses. This always brings so much joy to the horse-rider relationship. She helps people improve their communication skills and strengthen their leadership in order to inspire confidence in their horses and, most importantly, it allows the horse to be a true partner and teacher in the relationship, not a dominated servant.
In addition to competition riding and training, since becoming a professional over 20 years ago, she’s been fortunate to meet a very a wide range of horses in a broad range of equestrian pursuits including starting young horses, racehorses at and after the track, carriage driving, endurance, working cattle from horseback in feedlots and on the open range of Nevada, and rehabilitating “dangerous” horses who had put their former trainers in the hospital.
