My Story
Growing up I was fortunate to spend time around different stables in Ontario, Canada – enjoying all aspects of horse care and getting to show some pony hunters (with limited success). When I reached my teenage years, I felt like those pursuits had run their course and I transitioned to other sports - football in high school and Olympic lifting and hammer throw in university. Largely ‘self-taught’ in these pursuits, I trained with my brother and a great group of likeminded friends, as well as spent countless hours in the library reading books, scouring scientific journals for relevant information, and reviewing training videos.
Going through my undergrad at the University of Guelph (Biomedical Science), I took many human kinetics courses to strengthen my understanding of physiology, anatomy, biomechanics, nutrition, and neuroscience. Always thinking outside the box, I decided to get Facebook and used my profile to reach out to leading international athletes through the messenger app, and to my surprise many did respond and would engage in interesting discussions about how they trained and challenges they faced.
Reflecting on my ‘athletic career’, I am proud of some of the weightroom numbers I achieved and the different skills I developed, but I would have benefitted greatly from expert guidance and could have accomplished so much more.
After finishing my undergraduate degree in 2010, I wanted to take a gap year before beginning grad school and decided to return to the equestrian world – this time as a groom. I worked for Margie Gayford, who showed me the importance of not rushing young horses, and Jackie Tattersall, who fostered an inclusive and fun environment for young riders. I also met Canadian Jumping Team rider Chris Sorensen, who shared my passion for novel approaches to advance performance.
I returned to the University of Guelph in 2011 for my Master’s (Biomechanics and Neuroscience) followed by my PhD (Biomechanics) – both supervised by Dr. Lori Ann Vallis. My research focused on obstacle avoidance – studying how humans accurately perceive their environments and update stepping patterns to safely cross a dynamic obstacle. I also undertook a handful of projects examining stability during walking and the impact that various external perturbations could have. At the same time, I began to collect data on jumping horses by running a few small experiments (for example how jump build impacts mechanics and longitudinal performance monitoring for FEI jumpers).
With this foundation, I was tapped by Equestrian Canada to assist in developing a basic sports science program in 2014/2015 for their jumping team, which introduced me to many of the top Canadian riders and their training philosophies. Building on this, I began consulting for different international FEI riders - providing performance analytics, evaluating training programs, and collecting high speed video recordings of their warm-ups and rounds.
After my PhD, I took on the role of barn manager for Millar Brooke Farm (Ian, Jonathon, and Amy Millar) for a few months, and then transitioned to a remote supportive role as Director of Sponsor Relations and Outreach, while returning to academia for a full-time position in a research lab studying spinal cord injury. I also began to travel to conferences to present my research and opinions on training theory, wrote for various equine publications, and brainstormed training ideas with different riders.
In 2020, I became a founding member of the Equine High-Performance Sports Group (now IGNITE), which focuses on developing programs to support the health and performance of sport horses. Alongside Nicole Lakin, I co-hosted the Sport Horse Podcast for two years, which showcased exciting recent scientific findings being published by researchers around the globe. I also became more involved with the designing of training programs for a handful of riders - from young horse developers to 5* jumping riders. Over the past few years I have had the opportunity to visit with leading members of the equestrian community throughout North America and Europe - learning a lot along the way.
This website represents my attempt to ‘give back’ and honour those who have helped me learn, grow, and contribute to different programs while doing what I love. Here, you will find articles that I have authored, presentations I have given, and some new content I have been working on. I have always enjoyed problem-solving and better understanding how training and recovery modalities can be applied and manipulated to get the best performance from athletes, and that passion informs every topic I explore on this website.
I work hard to ‘vet’ information the best I can, but some of this content outpaces research that has been published, and thus must be interpreted with caution. Further, this work is meant for horses and riders that are at an elite level (the workloads discussed and exercise complexity will be too great for young and developing horses). It is important that you work with your own trainers, veterinary and support teams, etc. before applying any of the training concepts discussed on this site.