I began riding horses at the age of seven and never looked back. I grew up in the Midwest where I rode English, Western, Saddle seat and bareback, including swimming horses in a nearby pond. My family moved to Southern California during the start of high school where I spent four years riding at the renowned hunter/ jumper barn Foxfield. As owning my own horse was not in the cards, I was given young horses to bring along under their guidance.
I left Foxfield to attend college at UC Davis majoring in Managerial Economics. As a freshman, I scraped up the funds to buy my first horse. I worked hard to support both “Attie” and myself during college, including teaching at the UC Davis Equestrian Center. I took a quarter off from school to be a working student at Pebble Beach Equestrian Center where Attie and I were exposed to eventing thru Derek di Grazia.
After graduation, I moved to Sonoma County and had a busy career in lending while riding, raising a family, and developing our horse property in Petaluma. I spent a number of years training race horses into event horses with instruction from Yves Sauvignon. I also had a small breeding business and would start, train and sell the young horses myself. I gained valuable insight into the growth and development of the horse as my babies matured mentally and physically over the years. I also was successful reschooling sensitive jumping horses with behavioral issues into reliable competitors. I competed in eventing, dressage, and hunter/jumpers, depending what discipline most suited the horse, under the helpful guidance of Andrea Pfeiffer and Dusty Blackwood.
With the collapse of the real estate market and the mayhem in lending, I decided 25 years was enough time juggling horses and lending, and began focusing more energy on the horses. I had been teaching and training on a part time basis, but wanted to do more. With the support of Pete and Benita Mattioli at Hunter Lane Equestrian Center, and my friends, I decided to move full time into the horse business. I will focus on teaching which I love, training, reschooling, sale horses and attending Hunter Jumper and Dressage shows. I recently moved my business to a lovely facility in Petaluma called Equus Springs.
Please give me a call to discuss your horse needs @ 707-338-5202
Monica.Lukes@yahoo.com
