An important part of your career was withHUGE as an Interaction Designer. Tell me about what an Interaction Designer does?
Huge is now one of the biggest global digital agencies with offices in NY, Rio, Singapore and London, but when I started out with them in 2006, we were just a scrappy 28-person shop. I worked as an Interaction Designer, someone who — at a basic level — tries to help clients answer the question “what should be the online experience for one of my customers?” and “how can I get customers to do what I want on my site?”. It’s a role that combines business thinking with an empathic sense of design in a way that I’ve found consistently challenging and rewarding. In my time there, I was working with some very big clients on challenging work with a team of very smart people!
You made the transition from being a amateur rider to being a professional rider and trainer. Are you finding this Fulfilling and balanced?
When I was riding as an amateur it was a constant struggle to balance work and horses. I was living in Brooklyn and flying to meet my horses at shows. I remember times when I’d jump off my horse at the ring and run to the exhibitor’s lounge to get on a client call. After several years of this I felt like I was not doing justice to my horses or making the personal progress that I had hoped. Thankfully, in my amateur years, I was able to be successful, but I never felt like I was 100% on my game and I never felt like it was the best for my horses.
To jump start my professional career, the first thing we did was pack up our horses and head down to Aiken, SC for the month of January. The goal of that was to escape the cold and snow of the north and allow me to dedicate my now full-time attention to the horses. I rode between 8-12 horses a day, which helped ease the transition to my professional career, and it was also the perfect opportunity to condition, train, and get the horses competition ready. Between the polo fields, the perfectly maintained jumping arenas, and the roads for hacking, we had everything we needed to get me and the horses competition-ready. We had 13 horses in Aiken and I’ve never seen a happier group of horses in my life.
Now that I’ve been able to fully commit myself to the sport, I’ve seen such marked improvement in my horses and my show ring efforts. I’m sharper and my horses are fitter, stronger, and happier. It’s been extremely fulfilling.
Is it a challenge running your business as a trainer and being able to train for yourself, and get to the shows you want to compete in? Do you have students who can show at the same shows you compete at?
I’m lucky in that I have a great group of people with me at Cerulean Stables. We have a nice mix of hunters and jumpers, as well as both young and more experienced horses. I’m able to work with our clients’ horses during the week, which is really helpful to both set-up the horse for them, but it also helps me truly get to know them, understand them, and then apply that insight to help the client get the most of out their rides. On top of that, I have a string of horses that I’m bringing along, so I get to work on developing and competing them, which gets me in the ring a lot.
Like any riding professional, my role is a balance between riding and competing myself, and training and coaching clients. Luckily, I have a great team, and with the help of my co-trainer, Debbie Wilson, we’re able to work together to train and develop the horses and riders. It certainly helps to have the two of us at the shows when we have hunters and jumpers in every ring all going at the same time! As for the shows that we all go to, we plan our show schedule together to make sure that we’re able to go to the shows that are best for our horses and will be a fun, positive experience for everyone.
Tell me about your decision to form Cerulean Stables.
Throughout my entire Junior and Amateur career I rode out of my family’s farm, Journey’s End Farm. With my decision to leave the corporate world and ride professionally, I wanted to form an independent sales and show operation that represented my new venture. New name, new brand, new horses, new goals. Cerulean Stables now exists as the training, sales, and competition entity that my team and I represent.
I know you’re in Aiken now, is that going to be your primary residence now?
Our physical farm is based in Glenmoore, PA. Aiken was our home for the month of January, which we needed to escape the cold and snow of the north and as our training grounds to prepare for the winter circuit. That worked out perfectly for us, and I would definitely consider that to be an annual option, if not a more frequent destination. From Aiken we headed to Gulfport, MS where we are now for the 6 weeks of competition of the Gulf Coast Classic. From there we continue our show season and we’ll pick our schedule based on the progress of the horses and what works best for them and our clients.
Tell me about your new string of horses. Do you plan to keep them for your own showing/competing or are you planning to bring them along and then sell them?
I wanted to make sure I started this venture with a great string of horses. My goal was to have quality young horses that I could bring along in the young jumper divisions as well as horses that could get me in the Grand Prix ring jumping the big tracks. I certainly have that now with my current string and I couldn’t be happier with how they’re all doing.
Because most of my horses are young or inexperienced, my goal is to train them to be competitive at their respective levels. They all have great minds and good hearts - so that’s the consistent foundation - but I’m working on fine-tuning their natural talents, working on ridability, balance, and giving them the positive experiences they need to be successful with any rider. Since this is a business now, my goal is to produce quality horses that are ridable, competitive, and marketable.