Meet Bethany Lee
My name is Bethany and I am behind My Equestrian Style! I started riding hunter/jumper when I was five years old in Wisconsin where I grew up. I rode under several Wisconsin trainers and went to a fair amount of horse shows as a junior in both the hunter and jumper rings. My college did not have a riding program, so I took a little break from riding to focus on school. (My parents thought I was done riding for sure, sorry Mom and Dad!) After I got my degree in Strategic Communication in Ohio, I got married three weeks after graduation to my handsome “Instagram husband,” Ethan 🙂 (Head photographer for MES) and we moved out to Los Angeles to pursue my love for the fashion industry.
While we were in LA for two years, I worked for a celebrity jewelry line as a stylist, but the office environment wasn’t for me. I decided I needed to go back to my roots in riding and reached out to several private barns in Malibu to see if anyone needed assistance as an exercise rider. Eventually, I heard from Nick Karazissi’s of Far West Farms in Calabasas, CA and he offered me a job as a full time rider and trainer of their Riding School. I was not familiar with the California horse world at the time, but I later found out Nick was arguably the best trainer and clinician on the west coast.
I rode nearly ten horses a day and with each horse, Nick took the time to give me the knowledge and confidence to be an effective rider and trainer. I owe a lot to FWF and was so sad to leave! Ethan had been purchasing several rental properties on the East Coast at the time and had the opportunity to move to northern Florida to pursue his dream of flipping houses. It was a bittersweet move, but now that we are in Florida we love it! We decided to settle in St. Augustine where I can still ride and train and Ethan has a booming housing market to work with.
While I would ride 24/7, I also know I need a creative outlet! Ethan and I had been wedding photographers since college and even more so in LA, and I had a lot of experience photographing fashion bloggers (because every girl in LA is a fashion blogger… I love it!) So with my knowledge in blogging, riding, and fashion, I decided to combine all three into My Equestrian Style. This equestrian lifestyle blog will take fashion, horse riding, training, equestrian fitness and lifestyle to a whole new level.
I’ve always thought the equestrian world was always a little behind the times in terms of fashion and aesthetic, but with the help of social media, photography and styling, I hope to use My Equestrian Style to showcase amazing clothing and lifestyle brands that prove how cutting edge, elegant and applicable riding can be to everyday life. So that is a little bit about me! Thanks for listening and showing your support; if you would like to be apart of the MES journey, give me your email and I will keep you up to date on the new goodies I get my hands on!