I was fortunate when I found Sandy Howard and more so when she took me on as a student in 2003 for a few lessons on a borrowed horse. A few years later I proudly and timidly showed up at Sandy’s American Sport Horse in Watsonville, CA. I unloaded Carol Babington’s Iditarod (“Ditto”), a 14-year-old confirmed FEI dressage horse wearing the jumping saddle I still favored. Sandy accepted us (though said archly, "surely you, of all people, could find a dressage saddle?"). Thus began a journey down a path I still follow.