![\"Katherine](\"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/greatminds\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2016\/03\/Katherine_Body-300x197.jpg\")
<\/p>\nUMW sophomore Katherine Lambert strides through the barn, tall black boots clicking across cold concrete. She stops near the end at a stall on the left.<\/p>\n
\u201cMikey,\u201d the espresso-colored thoroughbred she\u2019s owned since last summer, is happy to see her. He shuffles in his stall, swooshes his tail. And one other thing.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Lambert just shrugs at the pile and fetches a pitchfork. It\u2019s all in a day\u2019s work for a girl who loved horses before she could walk. \u201cI think it\u2019s in my DNA,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
An accomplished equestrian with her eyes on the North American Young Rider Championships, Lambert has spent much of her life on horseback. Along the way, she\u2019s suffered broken bones, concussions and, after serious injuries to two of her horses, her share of heartache. Still, riding has colored her life, paving the way to new experiences, volunteer opportunities, even a prospective career as an orthodontist. Now a biology major on the pre-dental track, she\u2019s taking it one test at a time \u2026 and in the barn is where she thinks best.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo matter how bad my day was, when I go there I\u2019m like a new person,\u201d she said. \u201cIdeas come flooding into my head.\u201d<\/p>\n
Infatuated with horses from the start, Lambert was 5 when she began taking lessons at Apple Tree Farm near her home in Nashua, New Hampshire. By 11, she\u2019d coaxed her parents into buying a horse. She\u2019d spend the next decade claiming titles across the East Coast on Dodger, Salty, Sammy, Iggy, McFly and now Mikey. Her sport, eventing, blends show jumping, cross-country and dressage, which Lambert likens to \u201cfigure skating on a horse.\u201d<\/p>\n
To feed her passion and its price tag \u2013 lessons, boarding, coaches, vets, equipment \u2013 her parents encouraged her to try new things. \u201cI was becoming a well-rounded person,\u201d she said. \u201cThe more I did, the more they let me do with horses.\u201d<\/p>\n
So she loaded up on sports in high school and immediately excelled at one, catching the eye of UMW Women\u2019s Lacrosse Coach Caitlin Moore, who recruited her to play attack. Lambert\u2019s love of the sport, with Mary Washington\u2019s size and proximity to Virginia\u2019s \u201chorse country,\u201d reined her in, as did its pre-dental program. As a teen with a mouthful of metal, a routine appointment had set her straight. A career as an orthodontist, she\u2019d realized, would let her help others and, with its salary and flexibility, stay focused on horses.<\/p>\n
First, though, she\u2019d have to get into dental school, a hefty commitment that calls for clinical hours, community service and leadership experience.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo add to that lacrosse and horses, she has a schedule I wouldn\u2019t wish on anyone,\u201d said Professor of Biology Stephen Gallik, UMW\u2019s pre-medical and pre-dental advisor. \u201cMedical schools look for well-rounded individuals, and that\u2019s certainly what I see in Katherine.\u201d<\/p>\n
One of New England\u2019s top young riders, she fights childhood poverty as a junior ambassador for Just World International, writes for Heels Down Magazine<\/em> and often makes the hours-long trip to work with a Middleburg riding coach. To decompress, she heads to Hazelwild Horse Farm \u2026 and Mikey.<\/p>\n \u201cI hate admitting I don\u2019t have time for something,\u201d said Lambert. \u201cI just make it work. I honestly don\u2019t know how I do it, but I somehow do.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Passion sets rider\u2019s career goals straight<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":90,"featured_media":19194,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"umw_cb_additional_links":[[]],"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_advisory_expires_time":"","_advisory_meta_include":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-19193","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-show","8":"entry"},"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n