My first interest in horses was sparked when a friend and I attended Mystic Lake Camp near Muskegon, MI in 1993. We went to the weeklong wrangler camp where we got to ride everyday, and ever since then I was hooked. I started riding lessons a year later, at Nottingham Equestrian Center, in East Lansing, Michigan, with a few friends. during the time I rode there, I took lessons every week and attended all the schooling shows and camps during the summer. Nottingham gave me a basic riding fondation, but it wasn't until I moved to Shilhouette Manor in Williamston, MI, that I was really introduced to dressage.

It was there that I got my first horse named A Date With Fate (or as we all affectionately called him, Taz). Taz was an eight-year-old QH buckskin gelding, and we learned a lot together. I joined the Kactus Creek All-Stars 4-H club, and the Ingham County Hippology Team (AKA the study of horses, basically 4-H vet school!). After a few show seasons with Taz, my trainer and I concluded that I needed a horse that could progress further in dressage. Reluctantly, I started looking for a new horse, and was lucky enough to be given a tape directly from Holland, Europe from a clinician I knew who frequently visited there.

We bought Wallack von Romansie right off that tape, and I don't think I've ever been luckier. I had no experience importing a horse, and I didn't even know what to look for on the video. But once Wallack arrived, riding was never the same again. He was a beautiful 4-year-old black Westphalian gelding, and I was awestruck by him. We bonded instantly, and I fell in love with his playful and loving personality. I got him in November, and that summer we had a successful show season earning a fourth place in the Region 2 Championships at Training level junior/young rider. Toward the end of our second show season together, our progress up the levels was beginning to fade, and I knew it was time to make some sort of change. Our training wasn't progressing, and I was always frustrated.

It's funny to think that I've lived five minutes away from Rowe Dressage Stables my entire life and I never even gave the farm a second thought up until that point. My mom and I would always drive by and she'd say, Look at all those horses, Lauren, they actually have grass to eat, and they look so happy! So finally I made that fateful phone call. I talked to Tracy, and she told me to come over and take the grand tour. The instant I met Tracy face to face, I knew that this was where we belonged. Tracy took me through the barn, telling stories about the horses and offering them an occasional piece of sugar. Then I met Sharon, and started lessons the following week! I remember my first experience with Jim, Sharon's husband. It was late at night and I was in the barn by myself. He nonchalantly walked up to me in the aisle with a smile on his face, and proceeded to guide me through a demonstration of the correct seat and hand position. Of course I was familiar with this by that time, but just the way he taught the concept is something that I will never forget. Since Wallack and I have been at Rowe Dressage Stables, we've improved by leaps (ahem, flying changes?) and bounds. Under the watchful eye of Sharon, we are learning new things everyday, always striving for perfection. I always feel positive when I ride, which is not always a very easy thing to come by. That positive feeling is reinforced again and again, with every lesson and every lecture, whether it be from Jim, Sharon, Tracy, or anyone else included in our awesome barn family. It's a great feeling. Walking into the barn, getting a kiss from Katie the dog, and knowing that you belong somewhere special.