First published in the May 2023 Equiery

The Maryland Horse Council held elections for its 2023-2025 Officers and Directors earlier this spring and we are thrilled to be able to announce the results. Their terms will begin in July. The new officers appear below, followed by short bios for everyone elected to the Board. Congratulations everyone, and a heartfelt thanks for your willingness to serve.

July 2023-July 2025 Officers
President: Kimberly K. Egan
Vice President at Large: Ahesahmahk Dahn
Vice President for Sponsorship: John Nunn
Vice President for Membership: Corinne M. Pouliquen
Secretary: Laura Lane-Unsworth
Treasurer: TBD

July 2023-July 2025 Directors
Neil Agate is a past President of the Maryland Horse Council and serves on the Board of Directors of the Retired Racehorse Project. Neil is an avid polo player and has announced many charity polo matches up and down the East Coast. In his professional life, he is the founder of Four Gates, LLC, a business and technology services firm that works with early-stage companies in Healthcare IT. Originally from England, Neil has lived with his wife, Kathy, and two daughters in Darnestown for the last 20 years.

Dr. Kathy Blanche is the owner of Yuletide Pines Farm in Port Tobacco and a long-time fox chaser with the De La Brooke Hounds in Charles County. She has an undergraduate degree in elementary education; a master’s degree in early childhood with a concentration in special education, and a doctorate in Educational Policy, Planning and Administration. During her 34-year career as an educator, Kathy taught at the Charles County Public Schools, the University of Maryland, Bowie State University, the College of Notre Dame, and the College of Southern Maryland. For 10 years, Kathy served as a junior advisor and, among other things, coached junior teams to compete in the Washington International Horse Show.

Dr. Elizabeth Callahan is an equine veterinarian, the owner of Cool Na Grena Sporthorses, and a native of the Eastern Shore. “Didi” received her DVM from the Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine in 1985 and joined the Veterinary Medical Center in Easton. She is board certified by the American Board of Veterinary Practitioners, Equine Specialty, and the American College of Theriogenologists. She is a past president of the Maryland State Board of Veterinary Examiners. Didi also breeds warmbloods and her home-breds compete at the FEI level in eventing. In 2022 alone, her horses won awards at every stage of competition, all the way from the Westphalian Foal Championship (for Lexington) and the Future Event Horse Yearling Championship-West Coast (Cape Fear), to the National 5* Eventing Championship in Kentucky (Quantum Leap).

Ahesahmahk Dahn is the founder of City Ranch, Inc., a non-profit in Baltimore dedicated to teaching children about horses. He has spent over 30 years working with children in the greater Baltimore area. That experience, combined with city living conditions, led him to want to do more to help refocus and inspire youth and reduce crime. City Ranch and its Board of Directors developed a comprehensive equestrian program in an urban setting to do just that. The City Ranch teaches students how to groom, tack, and ride horses, and offers a way to help young people appreciate Baltimore’s long traditions of horsemanship. In 2021, City Ranch received an Outdoor Recreation Ambassador award from Governor Larry Hogan.

Kim Egan has been one of the MHC Co-Presidents since 2021, and a member of the Government Relations Committee since 2015. She has a B.A. from Columbia University, a J.D. from Duke University School of Law, and a certificate in Executive Leadership from the Harvard Business School. In her professional life, Kim is a litigator and food and drug law specialist, formerly with Covington & Burling and DLA Piper LLC in Washington D.C. At DLA Piper she was the partner in charge of the U.S. Health Care practice group. Kim founded her own practice in 2012 and works from her home in Howard County. She owns Thoroughbred fillies on the Kentucky, New York, and Florida circuits, and competes two of her OTTB mares in lower-level horse trials and combined tests.

Page Etzler is the owner and operator of Good Intentions Farm in Keymar, Carroll County. The farm is a member of the Clydesdale Breeders of the USA and is a Wine and Equestrian Campsite Getaway and a signature Tentrr site. In addition to breeding, raising, and starting Clydesdales, Page also provides homes to Budweiser Clydesdale retirees. Page is a healthcare professional in her professional life.

Shoshanna Haag is the owner and operator of the Brandywine Carriage Tours company and the Windmill Equestrian lesson program in Prince George’s County. Shoshanna started the carriage tour business just as Maryland began shutting down for the pandemic. Since then, she has taken advantage of the increased interest in outdoor recreation by developing a mutually beneficial business relationship with the Janemark Winery and Vineyard next door. Shoshanna works as a doula at Birth As you Wish. When she is not riding, teaching riding, driving a carriage, or visiting the local winery, Shoshanna is performs as an opera singer.

Stephen Fulton is a farrier, eventer, and co-owner of Full Moon Farm, a lesson and training facility and horse show venue in Finksburg in Baltimore County. He has a B.A. in Equine Studies from Salem University in West Virginia and a Horse Master’s certificate from West Virginia’s Meredith Manor International Equestrian Centre. He is also a graduate of Oklahoma’s Farrier College and is certified by the International Association of Professional Farriers. An active competitor, Stephen graced the cover of the February 2022 Equiery to celebrate his being named the U.S. Eventing Association’s 2021 Beginner Novice Master Rider Champion and the Beginner Novice Master Amateur Rider Champion.

Claire Lacey is the President of the My Lady’s Manor Driving Club, an association that promotes “the owning, training, driving, and exhibiting of all breeds of equines.” She is a past President of the Potomac Valley Dressage Association. Claire has been teaching, judging and showing for over 20 years with experience fox chasing and in hunters/jumpers, dressage, side saddle, racing, driving, and producing young horses. Originally from England, Claire is a British Horse Society Trained Instructor. She has instructed for Pony Club at rallies and camps through “B” Level in show jumping, dressage, and general horsemanship. She also taught at the Riding for the Disabled Group in England.

Carolyn Mackintosh is the owner of Loch Moy Farm in Frederick County, a year-round venue that hosts almost 50 days of competition a year, including the Maryland International Horse Trials CCCI-1*/2*/3* and the upcoming Maryland International CCI-4*-S. She is also the President of the Maryland International Equestrian Foundation. Carolyn began turning the Loch Moy property from a dairy farm into an eventing venue in 2006, and the U.S. Eventing Association now describes it as a “year-round playground for eventers.”

Corinne Pouliquen owns and manages Park Overlook Farm in Montgomery County, which provides pony rides and on-farm parties, including a petting zoo and games. She has been the chair of MHC’s Membership Committee since 2021. Corinne is a registered patent attorney with 20 years of patent prosecution and transactional experience in the chemical, biotechnology and mechanical arts. She has also worked as in-house IP Counsel for a veterinary pharmaceutical company and as patent counsel for a biotechnology company. Before she became a lawyer, Corinne worked in scientific research both as a Veterinary Research Assistant and as an Analytical Chemist.

Jane Seigler is a past President of the Maryland Horse Council, the current Co-Chair of the Government Relations Committee, the President of the Maryland Horse Council PAC, and a member of the Board of the Maryland Horse Council Foundation. She is also U.S. Dressage Association silver medalist and frequent judge at schooling dressage shows and the dressage phase of local horse trials. Jane is a graduate of Brown University and Rutgers University Law School. After 13 years as an antitrust and utility litigator, Jane devoted herself full time to being the chief operating officer of the riding school Reddemeade Farm, Inc. She lives and trains out of her own Dressage at Sundown in Laytonsville.

Carolann Sharpe is the Chair of the Maryland Horse Council’s Trails Stewardship Committee and the President of Trail Riders of Today (TROT). She is an avid trail rider, and she and her husband own a farm on the Baltimore/Carroll County border. Carolann earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Business from Loyola University, a Master’s Degree in Education from Notre Dame of Maryland University, and has devoted her career to teaching in the public schools.

Alicia Schwartzbeck is the Treasurer of the Maryland State Quarter Horse Association and an accountant at J. Allen & Associates, which is a firm that specializes in equestrian business. She is also the bookkeeper for T & M Custom Home Builders as well as for Sass magazine, a women’s lifestyle magazine serving Frederick and Western Maryland.

Seth Johnson grew up riding Western and converted to English riding as an adult. He has an MBA in Finance & International Business/Supply Chain Management from the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business and lives in Hanover in Anne Arundel County. Seth oversees Amazon’s Canadian Furniture, Mattress, and Area Rug business. He currently serves on MHC’s Membership Committee.

Chad Walker was active in 4H and the Future Farmers of America (FFA) as a child, showing beef cattle, horses, and chickens. He earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Animal Science from West Virginia University and works as a small animal veterinary technician at Boonsboro Hospital. Chad is an aficionado of western pleasure and trails, gaming (poles, barrels, flag, and dash), and driving Belgian Drafts. He has been the Secretary and Treasurer of the National Pike Festival and James Shaull Wagon Train Foundation since 2019 and the Treasurer of the Morgan County Saddle Club in Berkeley Springs, West Virginia, since 2017. He is a member of Maryland Horse Industry Board’s new Western Riding Committee.