My name is Karen, and I am a horse addict. My first vivid memory is of meeting the Budweiser Clydesdales when I was four years old. The addiction snowballed from there. I started taking lessons at 9, and began competing at recognized events in beginner novice and novice a few years later. I also competed in dressage for a little while at training and first level.

I switched disciplines to hunter/jumper when I started college, keeping mainly to the jumper ring. I competed at rated shows in the Adult Amateur jumpers for a number of years–long enough to graduate from graduate school twice–before taking a break from showing (but I kept riding!) and going to law school.

I dropped out of law school and went back to being a librarian in 2008, and later fell obsessively in love with an off-track Thoroughbred, Eli, that I wound up buying in 2014. I have been riding at the same Austin-area barn since 1997, my junior(ish) year at the University of Texas. A lot has changed over the years but my niche is the Adult Amateur jumpers and I hope one day to get back there with Eli. He re-ignited my interest in jumping and showing, so I can’t do it without him!

Horses fuel my passion the most, but I’m also into dogs, books, cocktails, and football.

Keep asking for a pony, kids. Eventually, you’ll get one.