Authors

Julie Winkel

Julie Winkel is one of the foremost trainers, judges, clinicians and educators in the country. She's held her U.S. Equestrian Federation R-rated judging licenses in hunter, hunter breeding and hunter/jumping seat equitation since 1984 and has presided over many of the country's most prestigious horse shows, such as Devon, the Pennsylvania National, Washington International, the National, Capital Challenge, the USHJA International Hunter Derby Championship, the USEF Pony Finals and the USEF/Sallie B. Wheeler National Hunter Breeding Championships, just to name few.

Julie has also designed courses and judged the ASPCA Maclay Finals, the Dover/USEF Medal Finals (on multiple occasions), the Platinum Performance/USEF Talent Search Finals-West and the New England Equitation Championships.

Julie is one of the first United States Hunter Jumper Association Certified Trainers and has trained and shown hunters and jumpers to the top levels, nationally and internationally. She has many grand prix show jumping wins as well as hunter championships throughout her career and continues to compete today.

She's also a committed volunteer to the sport and has served on many committees and task forces. Julie was the co-chair of the USEF Licensed Officials Committee for a decade. She's also former chair of the USEF Continuing Education Committee as well the USHJA Officials Education Committee and former member of the USHJA Board of Directors. She's currently a member of the USHJA Emerging Athletes Program Task Force and past member of the USHJA Trainer Certification Program Committee, the USHJA Judges Committee, the USEF and USHJA Equitation Committees, USHJA Trainer Symposium Task Force and the USHJA Zone 10 Jumper Committee.

In addition, Julie is a sought-after clinician who travels the country teaching riding and horsemanship. She wrote the monthly column "Conformation Clinic" for Practical Horseman magazine for more than 10 years and currently contributes to USHJA In Stride, The Chronicle of the Horse, EquestrianCoach.com and many other publications.

Julie owns and operates Maplewood Stables Inc., a 200-acre training, showing, sales and breeding facility in Reno, Nevada

Tricia Booker

Tricia is a lifelong equestrian who has been fortunate to make horses her vocation and avocation. Tricia is a U.S. Equestrian Federation R-rated judge in hunters and hunter/jumping seat equitation and hunter breeding and has more than 30 years of judging experience.

She’s judged horse shows of all levels throughout the country, including Lake Placid, Old Salem, The Franktown Meadows Hunter Derby, the Interscholastic Equestrian Association Nationals, the Northwest Autumn Classic, the Pacific Crest Open, Thunderbird, SBS Farms and Upperville, to name just a few.

She owns and operates Cameron Green Media LLC and is an award-winning editor, writer and photographer. As the editor of the United States Hunter Jumper Association’s In Stride magazine (2010 to present) and former editor/staff member of The Chronicle of the Horse (1991-2010), Tricia has traveled the country and world taking photographs and covering equestrian competitions for more than three decades.

She’s written thousands of articles for an array of magazines, newspapers and websites and has taken hundreds of thousands of photographs of hunters, jumpers and equitation horses. Her articles and photographs have earned dozens of honors in the American Horse Publications Equine Media Awards, most recently with two wins for In Stride for material published in 2022.

In the show ring, Tricia has earned countless hunter/jumper tricolors from coast-to-coast, from the Winter Equestrian Festival in Florida to the Upperville Colt & Horse Show in Virginia to the Sonoma and Paso Robles Horse Park shows in California. She’s ridden and shown with some of the country’s top trainers, including Julie Winkel, Denice Perry, Ginny Edwards, Patty Foster, Mary Lisa Leffler, Jack Towell, Susie Schoellkopf, Jeff Gogul, James Toon and Gary Zook.

Tricia lives in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, and continues to compete aboard hunters and jumpers. She currently owns two hunters that will be competing in the Green Hunters and derbies in 2023.