1. How would you describe yourself, in general?
I am much like a caterpillar, in a constant state of metamorphosing and reinventing myself and always competing with myself to be better.
2. What was your childhood like?
I grew up in a small town in Ohio, where I started my first job at age 10 to support my equine habit. I showed horses competitively and played guitar in a band, things one does when you live in the middle of nowhere.
3. What was your first exposure to poker?
Every Sunday I went to my grandparent’s house for a huge family dinner, followed by card playing, including poker and pinnacle. Card playing is deeply rooted in my family history.
4. How did you evolve your professional career?
After graduating early from high school, I received my court reporting certification, and at 19-naive-years old, I started my court reporting career. I started competing in National Court Reporting speed contests, where winning fueled my deep competitive desire.
Although I played draw poker throughout high school and college, my career took over my life after college, and court reporting became my new obsession — to be the best, the most accurate, the fastest, the most requested, and I achieved my goals. Court reporting became my identity.
5. How did you build your family life?
I got married, had four amazing children within six years of each other, and I continued to work as a court reporter. My life was very full and exciting. Along with having a wonderful family, I was traveling for work and enjoying experiences this small-town girl never imagined.
6. Were there any pivotal incidents that changed your life path?
I felt like the Titanic, strong and unstoppable, able to be a super mom and a successful court reporter at the same time, meeting all the demands both required. One day, at age 37, an accident shattered my seemingly strong facade and left me incapacitated, unable to use my hands to lift my eight-month-old baby or write on my court reporting machine. I was completely devastated and broken.
After years of therapy, I started to regain some use of my extremities, but my court reporting career was over, along with my marriage. I went from being on top of the world to feeling totally hopeless, just lying in the fetal position in bed most days. Then one day a lightbulb went on in my head. I realized that this accident was a gift from God in disguise. Maybe the ship needed to be sunk for me to slow down, think, reinvent myself and discover what greater gifts awaited me.
7. What direction did you go after this life change?
Animals were always a huge part of my life, particularly large animals. My daughters all showed horses competitively, just as I had. I decided to sell my house in the city and buy a ranch in the country and start rehabilitating large animals. This may seem like a very large undertaking for someone who couldn’t lift a toothbrush some mornings, but a strong mind and will can conquer all.
8. What was the focus of your help for animals?
Most of the large animals I rehabilitated were injured or abused and purchased from a livestock feedlot auction. The animals’ instincts told them I was trying to help them, and miracles soon began to happen.
9. How did you manage this passion, with the physical constraints from your accident?
If I needed to treat a horse’s hoof, but I was physically unable to lift the hoof to treat it, I literally would sit with the horse for hours and calmly ask with my mind and gestures for the horse to lift its hoof. God knows I had the time to be patient.
My patience paid off, and before long all the horses in the barn were lifting their hooves on command, counting to ten with their hooves, giving kisses, bowing, and some even learned to lay down to be mounted.
10. How would you summarize where your animal rehabilitation brought you?
My life had purpose again and I saw miracles happen every day. Kids were taking riding lessons on horses that were saved from the slaughterhouse, and I was living my dream.
