Patty has been riding since childhood, starting bareback on her pony, Gigi. As a teenager working at Walmart to support her horse habit, she graduated to hunters and trained with Nancy Sobba at Lucky Acres in Jacksonville. She took a few years off to spend time with her son - well, not completely off: she was trail riding.
Dressage claimed her 30 (something) years ago. She has trained two of her own horses, Rustler's Icy Prince ,"Ike" (some of you will remember the big leopard Appaloosa) and Der Donnerstag (Oldenberg), to Prix St. Georges and brought her third horse, Velvet (Westphalen), back from 4th Level retirement to PSG as well, earning her USDF Bronze and Silver medals along the way.
Patty is now bringing along an Oldenberg mare, CC and 3 German Riding ponies.
She also has developed an addiction to Haflingers and has aspirations of taking one of them (at least), Doc, to Pony Cup.
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"Riding a horse is not a gentle hobby, to be picked up and laid down like a game of solitaire. It is a grand passion. It seizes a person whole and, once it has done so, he will have to accept that his life will be radically changed..." Ralph Waldo Emerson