I was born in Gummersbach, near Cologne, Germany. My family came to the United States when I was very young. I currently live in Northern California on a 5-acre ‘ranchette’ with my horses, goats, and chickens.

I have loved horses all my life. From the time I was very young, I enjoyed collecting all types of horses. They came from department stores, flea markets, antique stores, toy stores, and galleries. My home is filled with equines of various forms: bookends, porcelain antiques, resin busts, wood carvings, brass sculptures, and even an original gallery metal sculpture of a mare and foal. At Christmastime, the Christmas tree is filled with tiny horse ornaments from all over the world!

I enjoyed drawing and painting when I was young. When others painted huge canvasses in art class, I chose a miniaturized way of expression, drawing and painting 8x10’s or 4x6’s.

When my daughter, Julia, was born, I couldn’t wait for her to grow old enough to begin enjoying horses as much as I. At 4, Julie received her first set of Breyers and, in turn, Julie turned me on to the world of model horse showing just a few years ago by searching the internet and discovering the hobby.

Julie found a horse show to be held in April, 2001, in Reno, Nevada. So, she lovingly packed her handful of Breyers into soft T-Shirts and we drove over the Sierras in snow, without chains, to partake of this wonderful event. Unfortunately, we didn’t know we were supposed to pre-enter, so we were turned away.

The next opportunity to show was much better. At least we got in! It was our first live horse show, fondly remembered as The Sardine Spectacular (aka Fall Fiesta), in October, 2001. We did lots of things wrong, the worst being knocking over our neighbor’s horses on the way to the ring, but all was forgiven and we even got a couple of NAN cards.

It was by attending shows that I discovered customization. I became fascinated with the work by various artists, and soon I decided to try repainting a model of my own. As in my earlier years, I gravitated toward miniatures known as Breyer Stablemates; foals, especially. My first creation was a Zebra foal which, amazingly, began to do quite well at shows. To date, she has earned 17 NAN’s, multiple Championships, and Top Fives at the Region 2 Championship Show. She's now also earned a Top Ten in Custom Foals at the 2005 NAN!

After going on to create various miniature plastic and resin customs, I discovered “micro” minis and, now, “smaller-than-micro” minis barely as big as a dime or even a green pea! I have become known for my exotic artistry, such as Zebras, Zorses, Zedonks, and Brindles. I am proud to say that my work has won numerous NAN’s and Championships for their owners and now multiple NAN Top Tens and back-to-back Reserve National Championships!

I have also been honored with invitations to be a guest artist for the spectacular NAN auctions at the 2005 and 2007 Nationals. The 2005 donation was a Zebra mare with Albino foal set; the 2007 donation was a micro-mini Sugarbush draft mare.