Volunteer of the Month

SWFDA is very grateful to all our volunteers.  We truly appreciate all of your hard work and dedication.  Each month we will be nominating a volunteer of the month.  If you have a person you would like to nominate, please email your suggestion to Karen McCulley. 

Email: Charger733t@aol.com

Note:  Some members have elected not to submit a bio & photo

April 2010: Be Engler

I had my first riding lessons when I was six. My newly divorced dad was trying to think of fun things to do with his two little daughters on his one day a week with us, and since we’d both been horse crazy since birth, he took us to Joy Farm, a grand old polo stable in Milwaukee, for up-down lessons. After he watched us bounce around for an hour that first time, he figured “that’ll be the end of THAT!” Silly man. We couldn’t wait to do it again. After a couple of years of occasional lessons, we moved on to trail riding together, then my sister and I each bought a horse when we were in high school. Mom was supportive of the concept, but we were on our own financially, so ever since age 14, I’ve worked to fund the horse habit.

I first learned of dressage while I was going to college in Santa Fe, New Mexico. As you can imagine, dressage in New Mexico in the late 70s was pretty abysmal. The Swiss woman who was teaching all of us wide-eyed Western trail riders about dressage later turned out to be a convicted murderer, drug runner, and escaped convict. And even worse, I have to say she was about the lousiest so-called “dressage” rider I’ve known. But I was hooked! In 1980, I moved to California to take REAL dressage lessons from Tracey Lert, and in five years under her instruction brought along my new TB gelding Curtain Music (Muncie) from Training to Fourth Level. (We even showed PSG one time, but it was pretty bad.) Muncie and I showed a lot, including AHSA regional finals and CDS championships, and I earned my USDF bronze medal with him in 1984.

In 1986, I moved to Washington state and took lessons from Stephanie Blockley-Clarke for the next 17 years, with a variety of horses over the years. My beloved Wynnston came with me when I moved to Florida in 2003, but he only survived 16 months in Florida before somehow getting pythiosis (“leeches”) in his throat.

After a few weird twists and turns horse-wise, I am quite ecstatically partnered with Cataplan. He is an angel with four hooves and a fuzzy forelock. We understand each other, each with our quirks and baggage. Besides dressage, we do lots of trail riding and a teeny bit of jumping. And he’s just a delight in all of it. What a good fellow.

Oh yeah, some humans grace my life too - Michelle Gerlach keeps us challenged and entertained in our lessons. And my beloved husband, Roy, makes everything in life sweet.

March 2010:

February 2010:  None

January 2010:  Anne Ross

December 2009:  Holly Chernoff

I am a woman living my dream.  As a little girl growing up in North Miami Beach I began riding in Greynolds Park at the Lester Stagg School of Equitation.  My mother, who rode horses, was sure that riding was the answer to my awkwardness. Little did she know that she created a monster, a little girl who lived and dreamed of nothing but horses.  The stable moved to Davie, Fl. We were picked up in a truck and driven there by our instructor. We drove down a road where there were three beautiful houses which were set back on their property.  In front were horses grazing around a lake. I knew then that I would have such a house when I grew up.

My family was poor. I had to work for my riding.  And I did, all day just to ride for one hour, never once resenting it.  Lester taught pseudo dressage.  He taught theory from the book “Dressage” by Henry Wynmalen. It sits on my bookshelf today.  Lester taught that your relationship with the horse was everything. Mutual respect was the key. The scrawny little girl soaked it all in. I became a lead rider teaching beginners and trainer of the lesson horses.  I rode everything.  I never had a horse of my own.

 Then I went to college at UF, GO GATORS.  They had program where students could qualify to ride the horses at the horse teaching unit.  I did. I graduated and went back to Lester’s.  Then back to UF for law school. Now I became the person to break the young saddlebreds.  I fell in love with Fantasy, who became my first horse.  Did you know her name was UF Cameo’s Fantasy. I showed Fantasy saddle seat at first and then converted her to dressage.  Fantasy was a star. She would do anything for me and I for her.  Then she foundered. Lexus was next.  Lexus (Beauty when Deb Stafford owned her) taught me about the power and capability of a warmblood. She also taught me patience.  Then Laddie. Need I say more.  And now Sunny.  I am one lucky girl.

  I am not just all about horses. I have two children. Leon and Erica.  Leon is a physician and Erica is a senior at Florida majoring in nutrition. I am a very proud mother.  And I am a lawyer, a divorce lawyer, turned mediator. I am often asked whether I love my job.  My answer is , I like my job and I love that it affords me the opportunity to live the life I do with my horses.  My dream.

November 2009:  Lesley Pryce

I first caught the riding “bug” from a school friend at the age of 11. My riding lessons began at a local riding school/dairy farm; the farmer’s daughter was a certified BHSI (British Horse Society Instructor).   It was not a fancy center, there was no formal “arena” but I learned good basics. We did a little jumping, local riding club gymkhana events, the occasional “mock hunt” & of course many wonderful hours of trail riding over the fine English countryside that I was fortunate enough to live near.

In my late teens & early twenties I started having lessons at a more formal BHS certified equestrian center that not only had an indoor riding arena, but also offered me the opportunity to take some of the introductory BHS Horse Master tests.

At 29 I moved from England to Fort Myers with my husband & two children. It took a couple of years before I began looking for somewhere to ride and quickly realized that the area did not offer the same choice of quality riding facilities as I was used to finding in the UK. I finally started having some lessons with Judy Williams, who no longer resides here, but I’m sure some of you older club members will remember. It was with one of Judy’s boarded horses that I first showed at a SWFDA show when they were held at Jan Bass’s location.

Later I started having lessons at a small boarding facility that used to be located on the corner of College & McGregor, now home to Publix & Racetrack Gas Station. It was here that I came to find Junior a ¾ Hanoverian, former A circuit jumper, who I would come to lease for 3 years.    

During this time that I met Tori Polonitza, BHSI at one of the SWFDA shows, in those days held at Gateway. She started giving me some lessons on Junior, who was not the best of dressage horses, much preferring to go with his head high jumper frame. At Tori’s encouragement I started to volunteer with SWFDA as a scribe to further my Dressage education and I have been volunteering ever since, probably 15+ years.