Christa grew up volunteering and working for the Tempel Lipizzans, where her family kept their Haflinger pony. In high school she earned her USDF Bronze and Silver Medals, with the generous guidance of Andi Patzwald, who taught her about precision, commitment, and how to get a feel for many different horses.

Since then, she has worked for various dressage, eventing, lesson, and therapeutic riding programs in the US and Ireland.

Christa is always learning, and always looking for more ethical ways to care for and work with horses. Her interest in using training to help heal horses physically led her to studying classical dressage.

After reading Reaching the Animal Mind, by Karen Pryor, and learning about the Humane Hierarchy of procedures for behavior change in animals (https://iaabc.org/hierarchy) she knew she had to learn to use positive reinforcement in her work with horses. She adopted her horse Sage as a twenty year old horse from a rescue with minimal handling. Sage has been her patient teacher as she has learned to shape behavior with positive reinforcement, and delved into the classical work both on the ground and riding.

In recent years, Christa’s biggest influences have been Dr. Susan Friedman, Anja Beran, Alexandra Kurland, and Monty Gwynne with Equispeak.

Christa is dedicated to continuing her understanding of horsemanship, lightness, balance, and feel, as well as her understanding of teaching, behavior, and positive reinforcement training.