to have goals in life and a drive to succeed,
and to surround yourself with the things and
the people that make you happy - this is success!”
- Sasha Azevedo
About Hilary
FEI Competitor
USDF Associate Instructor
USDF "L" Judge Program Candidate
PVDA Board of Directors
USDF /USEF Advanced Young Rider Graduate...
Hilary's background makes her a capable and involved coach, for the competitive Junior/Young Rider and the dedicated Adult Amateur.
As an "L" Judge Candidate and USDF Associate Instructor, Hilary also takes her own equestrian education seriously. She enjoys sharing what she learns as a resident blogger for Dressage Today and frequent contributor to multiple equestrian publications.
She regularly attends the Region 1 Youth Team Championship and Lendon Gray Youth Dressage Festival with students. In 2009, she also coached a Junior student to the CBLM Championship at First Level and a Reserve Championship at Training Level.
In Hilary's own Advanced Young Rider years, she was nationally ranked every competition season. She is one of the only former Advanced Young Riders to have simultaneously competed at the YR levels of FEI dressage and Prelim eventing. At the same time, she was also a member of Mount Holyoke College's Intercollegiate Dressage Team during their National Championship years.
Influential Instructors
Influential Clinicians: Nicole Uphoff-Selke, Gunnar Ostegaard, Jimmy Wofford, David O'Connor, Lois Yukins, Gary Rockwell, Janet Brown-Foy, Sandy Howard, Lendon Gray, Melanie Tenney, Linda Zang
Outside the barn...
Hilary holds her B.A. in English from Mount Holyoke College, with a year of coursework at Amherst College. Not only a rider, Hilary is a also freelance journalist and graphic designer. She was the 2006 Eleanor Merrill Fellow, awarded for graduate coursework in Journalism at the Philip Merrill School, the University of Maryland, College Park. She has written for Dressage Today, Equine.com, the PVDA newsletter and several publications owned by the Washington Post Corp. while on staff there.
When not riding or writing, Hilary enjoys volunteering... a lot.
She has acted as assistant chair for the Dancing Horse Challenge since its creation at the PVDA Ride for Life to benefit the Johns Hopkins Breast Cancer Center, Committee Chair for local events to benefit the equestrian community and Demonstration Rider for educational dressage clinics.
Hilary regularly donates her graphic design skills to silent auctions, including: the PVDA, Holly Bergay and many therapeutic riding programs around the country.
Life would not be complete without travel. Both of her parents live abroad and Hilary makes it a point to go overseas at least once a year. She has cantered through the rainforests of Belize and schooled the piaffe in Germany, always making a point of noting the barn's architecture and local horse-keeping secret.
From Top Left:
Adding a little sparkle to Socrates, 2007 PVDA Ride for Life.
USDF Young Rider Graduates in Florida, January 2008.
Visiting with Francis Ford Copolla's yearlings after a hack.
Hilary's dog, Ty, is very small... much smaller than a horse. However, pictures prove that he has ridden an 18h FEI horse (Degas).
Hilary and her mom, Elaine, sailing in the Grenadines with the rest of the family. Each year the women of the family "forget" how to sail, while brother, Justin, is forced to pilot the boat almost single-handedly.
Feeding goats.
Visiting the Panda baby at the National Zoo, after volunteering as an overnight "babysitter" for pregnant mommy panda.
In the co-pilot's seat.
Passing the USDF Instructor's Workshop - Advanced Lungeing of the Horse and Rider.
Vaulting with Francie Dougherty, aboard Goldie -- with the PVDA Sugarloaf Chapter's Book Club.