I came into eventing by a circuitous route. Like many young girls, I was “horse mad” as they say back in my home country, England. As a teen in the 1980s, I failed to convince my parents that buying a pony was a good idea. Instead, I had to be content with following the likes of Lucinda Prior Palmer (now Green), Ginny Holgate (now Leng), and Richard Meade, on television, as they braved the elements and the ginormous fences of Badminton and Burghley. In time, I grew up, I emigrated to Northern California and I forgot all about eventing.