It’s All In The Family

Born into the Koffler family to parents, Bruce and Margee, Reese was a natural to embrace equestrian sport, a tradition that has been in her mother’s family for many generations. Older brother Ian met his wife, Alona, also a dressage rider, when she was a boarder at Maplecrest while attending the University of Kentucky. Although Ian showed signs of being an exceptional rider at an early age, he chose soccer, tennis, golf, and swimming over horses in his middle school years.

Reese doesn’t remember a time when she wasn’t interested in horses. Her mom says that even as a baby, her fascination for horses was quite clear. Reese started her riding career in earnest on hunters but when it was time to start jumping she decided that it was not her forte. “Jumping scared me, and I wasn’t particularly good riding to and over fences. My younger sister, Lindsay, was much more talented but it turned out that she didn’t like jumping either. Dressage became our main interest rather early in our riding careers.” Reese was introduced to Dressage at the tender age of 8 when she saw her future coach riding a young horse at a neighboring farm. Four years later, Reese was competing, and winning, at fourth level with Teddy, a Trakhener gelding and her first schoolmaster, against people more than three times her age. Because there was no local young rider division at the time, Reese grew up quickly through tough competition.

Fellow international competitor, Lindsay, is four years Reese’s junior and was one of the youngest ever to ride at Gladstone earning eleventh place overall at the National I-1 Championships in 2005. When they were younger, the sisters rode on the same Young Rider team representing Region 2 twice, never with any sibling rivalry. Reese says that she is grateful for her sister and that, “We work well together and depend on each other for eyes and help. We also respect each other’s opinions, experience, and competence.”

Mom, Margee, life-long horseman, breeder, and farm manager, is very active in the equestrian community locally, and on a national and international level. She has recently been selected to serve on the Governor’s Advisory Commission for the FEI World Games in 2010. “My Mom is our head cheerleader and along with Dad, our biggest fan. She has been a great role model and has always taught us that if we are in a position to help someone or to volunteer, we should give back to our sport”. Reeses’s Uncle Chip is also a life-long professional horseman who trains hunters and jumpers in Alpharetta, Georgia. He is very proud of his neices’ Dressage accomplishments and doesn’t mind saying “Yes, my neices are very talented but they have worked very hard for their success and have taken their setbacks in stride. They never take the sport for granted and are horsemen in the true sense of the word. Their mom, my sister, and I grew up helping each other with the horses just like the girls. It’s great to see them carry on the tradition.”