I'm actually originally from Maryland. My aunt and my mother, they all grew up taking riding lessons. In Maryland, horses are so big, like it's everywhere. I could ride my bike to my barn where I kept my horse. It was so close. If you go back to that town now, there's a polo farm, there's a hunt club, there's a pony club. They have public parks that are riding parks. The same way you would go to Powderhorn Park in Minneapolis, there'd be a park right there for horses next to public property. It's really out there, so it's kind of an expected sport to do and DC is like, all Black folks. It was just incredibly diverse.

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I got my first pony when I was four. Her name was Tessa and I rode a few horses off and on until I started pony clubbing at the age of 12. I did pony club, I did FFA at my school, and rode in the homecoming parade. I had another pony named Lady Jane. Then, we didn't call them appendix horses, she was just a quarter horse cross. I pony clubbed her and I got to fox hunt a little bit. As a teenager, I worked on horse farms. I worked on a polo field and that was mucking stalls, like that's what you do. I always loved riding. I spent every day in the saddle as a tween and teen and then eventually sold my horse to help pay for college, which brought me to Minnesota. I went to Macalester, so that was a very bittersweet time to let go of my horse because I knew I had to go to school and get an education, but through those years I always missed riding and missed horses and I always carried my saddle around with me. I moved with it so many times and back then pony club was exclusively three day eventing: showjumping, dressage and cross country. So, I've always ridden English. I've done a couple of trail rides, on vacation or whatever, or ridden a friend's horse, but I didn't really get to ride again until about six years ago. That was when I got back into it seriously. I didn't experience segregation until I came to Minnesota, and was like, "Oh, I want to ride and I want to ride English in the Midwest."