I was born in Kansas in 1959 and raised in a suburb of Kansas City until 1971. My sister takes the blame for my addiction to horses. She begged for a horse and at 15 she got her wish and I, at 9 got a pony, so I'd leave her alone. My sister taught me what she had learned from her horsey friends and my parents sent me off for a week with the trainer of my sister's horse and my pony. There began my equestrian education.

We rode bareback most of the time. It was just too hot in the summer, you know, and you couldn't go in the pond with all that tack on. We'd use the saddle in the winter because we could tie our ice skates around the horn. My mom always said that pony was the best babysitter she ever got.

We moved to southeastern Virginia in 1971. My dad was the founding Dean of the Eastern Virginia Medical School. I got my sister's horse and she went off to college. I went through the 4H horse program, graduated high school and we moved back to Kansas.

I graduated from Kansas State University with a BA in Mathematics. I hired on with an oil service company in Tulsa, OK. As soon as I could afford it I bought a horse. A 2 year old mare I was going to show as a Hunter. This is the Appendix Quarter Horse I trained and showed through I1 named Mornin' Promise, the one Axel Steiner reamed me on, the one I rode in front of Stefan Peters before he went to the Olympics, the one Debbie Bowman mentored me through the levels, the one who I thought I was teaching but she was the real teacher. She's still alive at 27.

I married in 1986, had my first son in 1987 and we were transferred to Houston. I tutored High School math so I could be a stay at home mom. My second son came along in 1991. In 1997 I decided to try training horses for dressage as a profession. Roseate Dressage, Inc. was formed in 1999. 2005 was the end of my marriage and my career really began to take off.