Elisabeth Austin

The Beginnings

Elisabeth Austin's riding career began at an early age. Her mother, Madeleine Austin, would argue that Elisabeth was riding in-utero, as Madeleine rode well into her third-trimester. Elisabeth grew up on Madeleine's Dutch Warmblood breeding and training facility in northern Vermont, and although she was never pushed to ride, it was clear that she wanted to follow in her mother's footsteps. "One of my first words was Bobo (horse) and I spent many hours in the barn, even as a toddler. My mom said that I used to sit in my little chair and cluck at the horses going by," Austin said.

Elisabeth got her first pony when she was a year-and-a-half: a 9-hand white pony of unknown breeding (although she thinks there was some hippopotamus in there). Unfortunately, Mrs. B wasn't broke to ride, so many of their outings had some unintentional aerial acrobatics. Except for bucking Austin off 75% of the time and running her through a few fences, she was a wonderful pony.

"Hey, 9 hands isn t such a long fall!," Austin joked. "I still remember when I was seven or eight, trying to teach her how to piaffe in hand. She wasn't too keen on learning to piaffe (which probably had something to do with the fact that I knew nothing about in-hand work) and thought levading was more fun, so she just became our resident Lipizzaner, instead."