Born and raised on a Colorado ranch, horses have always been a major facet of Carmen’s life. As a child, jumping over sagebrush and swimming rivers bareback lead to an early love of equine athleticism, but it was only after she had the opportunity to ride with her first Eventing instructor that she discovered the sport that would shape her career.
After graduating from college with a B.A. in English and a B.A. in French, Carmen worked with 4* Eventer and gold medalist Stuart Black (Canada), with whom she discovered a love for dressage and the art of riding in total lightness. While riding with Stuart, she completed a full season of competition at Prelim Eventing.
Returning to Colorado as head trainer at a private dressage barn, Carmen worked for 2 years with a collection of 12 Andalusian stallions and over 20 mares, performing in traditional Spanish dressage exhibitions and personally training the young horses. Aa a frequent translator for Jean-François Favier (former headmaster of the Cadre Noir in Saumur, France), she had the opportunity to study extensively with him during his summers teaching in Colorado. She also rode with visiting Spanish instructors from the Real Escuela Andaluza del Arte Ecuestre. Thanks to these international influences, Carmen developed a solid understanding of classical dressage and its implication for the modern sport horse.
Establishing her own training and coaching business in 2016, Carmen focused on developing and selling quality dressage and Eventing horses to a solid clientele of youth and adult clients, as well as teaching lessons from beginner to Third Level dressage and Novice level Eventing. She developed her own program for starting young sport horses using a combination of natural horsemanship, classical, and Young Event Horse methodologies. She also assisted several clients in finding their dream horses, both domestically and internationally, and rode extensively under the tutelage of USEF S and FEI 4* dressage judge, Janet Foy (another Colorado native!).
During a horse shopping trip to Holland in 2019, Carmen was invited to ride with an affiliate stable in Sulzbach-Rosenberg, Germany. For 3 years, she worked her way around Europe as a presenter of sale horses in Germany, trainer of young horses with 5* Eventer Karin Donckers in Belgium, home rider for a FEI showjumper in Norway and head rider at a world-class show jumping facility in France.
Eager to rebuild her business presence in the United States, Carmen is now Head Trainer at Marigold Stables in Forsyth, GA and welcomes new and existing clients. With a knack for teaching riders what part of their body influences each part of the horse, Carmen emphasizes the importance of balance before speed and self-carriage over force, so that horse and rider understand each other’s roles and work together in harmony. As translated from the classical riding school of Saumur, “first calmness (submission), then forwardness (or speed).”