Trainingandlessons

Michelle spent much of her childhood either on or near a horse. She began taking riding lessons when she was seven years old and
started dressage lessons shortly thereafter. As a teenager, Michelle spent several summers at dressage facilities on the east coast and
was able to watch and take lessons with top instructors, including Danish Olympian Lars Petersen. This exposure to top riding and
training was both invaluable and inspiring.
In 1992, during her senior year in high school, Michelle began participating in the Young Rider program with her horses Wolken
and Marc O’Polo. Later that year, she and Marco qualified to compete in the Festival of Champions in Gladstone, New Jersey at
Prix St.Georges and at the Young Rider Championships in Bromont,
Canada, finishing second in the preliminary test and in the top ten in
both the Team and Individual tests. Michelle continued participating
in the Young Rider program while enrolled at Augustana College. In
1993, she was the high-scoring rider of the gold medal Region 2 team,
finishing 2nd place in both the Preliminary test and individually in the
Team Test.
In 2001, Michelle graduated from Drake Law School with honors
and later worked as a Judicial Law Clerk in the Frederick County Circuit
Court in Frederick, Maryland. During this time. Michelle continued her
dressage instruction with Bereiter Fred Weber. In 2003, she returned
home to Iowa to begin her own equestrian business at Shellhaven Farm.
Michelle has been honored to have studied with and/or participated in
clinics with top instructors including the Spanish Riding School Bereiter
Herwig Radnetter, Jochen Hippenstiel, Head Trainer at Tempel Farms,
German Bereiters Fred Weber and Felicitas von Neumann-Cosel,
Conrad Schumacher, Gerrit-Claes Bierenbroodspot and Paul Kauthen.