In December 1981, after returning from her working student position with dressage master Henri van Schiak, Brenda opened Grafton's Riding Academy in El Paso, TX. It was a huge success, resulting in the building of a much larger facility and a new name of Desert Shadow Equestrian Center. Brenda and Michael married in 1990. The couple relocated to Martinsburg, WV in 1996, changing the operation’s name to Deer Shadow Farm. In 2005, they moved their operation to Leander, Texas.

Brenda has been involved with horses for over 35 years, competing both nationally and internationally. She is a certified instructor, USDF L Graduate. more about Brenda >>   Michael has been actively involved with horses for over 15 years and he oversees the management of DSF.

OUR PHILOSOPHY

The most important aspect of teaching a new sport is understanding the needs of your student. To ensure that we offer the very best riding instruction available, we keep our class sizes small and custom design each package of lessons to fit the needs of the participants. And the same goes for our training program; each horse's individual needs and abilities are addressed to form a customized program to help the horse and its riding partner achieve their goals.