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About Me -
Biography of Elizabeth T Hugill
Memories
Descendant of pioneers crossing the prairies in
a covered wagon, third generation this continent, fifty percent fierce Highland Clan, fifty percent Border Scot. Possessed
of a logical, linear approach to problem solving and an organized nature bar none. My maternal grandmother was at Fort Buford in 1883
when Sitting Bull was being held
prisoner by the U.S. Govt. My father and grandfather raised and trained Polo Ponies near Brooks, Alberta. My first memories are my father's stories of his family. His inevitable chuckle referring to the "poloponies" (pronunciation as the game Monopoly); raising a string on the prairies; he and his two sisters fording the Bow River each ponying three of the polo string to the
farrier; wintering over of the stock; how his favorite mare, Mayou, no matter how old, managed to toss him the first ride each spring.
One could not have found a happier eight year old on the planet,
on her first horseback ride - at Banff Springs, in the Canadian Rockies!!
Georgia
By age ten, I was riding 3- and 5-Gaited horses near Atlanta. Advancing quickly to Hunters and Jumpers, then on to Combined Training and all the U.S. Pony Club levels. I had the distinct good fortune of training with both Col. Wm. George Morris and General Jonathan R. Burton, both former
U.S.E.T. riders; riding to hunt as Junior Master;
and traveling through the southern
States attending various Combined Training Events. After high school, while the family moved to San Carlos, California, I spent summer in the Berkshires of Massachusetts,
setting up stewardship of a stable, buying the horses,
and teaching the summer camp kids to ride.
California
At end of summer I joined the family in California. Almost immediately, off to the Sierra's east of Fresno attending the Pacific Coast Equestrian Research Farm (P.C.E.R.F.), with Linda Tellington-Jones,. At P.C.E.R.F. we were expected to care for a rotating string of horses, from yearlings to well broke, to learn rudimentary Equine first aid
- including fecal analysis, drawing
blood, giving injections and
experience riding in several disciplines, including 3-day
Eventing at Ram Tap Horse Trials, Hunter/Jumper Shows, and training for Endurance Rides. I was soon riding in a stock saddle, in the western style.
After Business College and downtown San Francisco as a Secretary, I returned to City College of San Francisco, majoring in Horticulture. My career led me to Golden Gate Park as a gardener, and "sponsorships" for owners without time to attend
to their horses. By 1983 I owned my own
again - a part mountain goat Appaloosa.
1985 brought my first registered Quarter Horse. 1989 found me moving my Quarter Horses and myself to property in Sonoma County. My
Dream-Come-True...My Horses on My Property. The first Quarter horse is now
26 years old, and a mare, acquired at 9 months
of age, is now 17 years old.
Through the Years
As with wings, the years have flown. My thirst for continual education involved Equine studies in Nutrition, Principles of
Horseshoeing, and Reproduction through Santa Rosa Junior College, and the daily care and study of horses.
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