Leadership Team
Heather Gillette, Co-Founder
Heather is a lifelong eventer, trainer & teacher who owns and operates Heron’s Landing Eventing in NJ. She is a USEF ‘S’ Eventing Dressage judge, ‘R’ Eventing TD, and FEI Level 1 Eventing Judge and enjoys being an official very much. A Graduate ‘A’ from Spring Valley Hounds Pony Club. Heather has competed many horses through the levels of eventing, and particularly enjoys training OTTBs for the job. Vincent Chase is her current partner who is competing at the 4* level.
Anastasia Curwood, Co-Founder
Anastasia (“Stacy”) Curwood grew up in Cambridge, MA, and started riding at age 9. As a junior, she competed in Pony Club rallies and Eventing. She took some chunks of time off from riding while in college at Bryn Mawr (PA), but she’s been in the saddle since, riding through Training Level eventing and Prix St. Georges dressage as an Adult Amateur. In 2024, she earned her USDF Silver Medal with the 21-year-old Irish Sporthorse Loughan Glen. Stacy received a Ph.D. in U.S. History from Princeton in 2003. She writes about Black women’s intellectual and political work in the 20th century. She has published two books: Stormy Weather: Middle Class African American Marriages Between the Two World Wars in 2010 and Shirley Chisholm: Champion of Black Feminist Power Politics in 2023. She lives near Lexington, Kentucky on a small horse farm.
Julia Sykora Bursten
Julia is a philosophy professor and at the University of Kentucky, where she teaches and researches the philosophy of science and has held research grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the National Science Foundation. She spends all her spare time (and, thanks to zoom, some of her class time!) as the assistant farm manager at Bourbon Hill Farm. Julia is an adult amateur eventer who spent the first 20 years of her riding life competing all-around with American Quarter Horses. She and her off-track thoroughbred Temba (“Security Check Required”) currently show at beginner novice.
As a queer person and a Jewish person, Julia often felt alienated around her horse friends growing up—there are a lot of decorative crosses on Western gear. Moving to eventing and finding other riders from more diverse backgrounds there has helped her to feel more comfortable in her own skin on horseback, and she is passionate about creating opportunities for other riders to experience that comfort and joy.
Madison Buening
Madison Buening is an equestrian and event planner based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a degree in Community & Nonprofit Leadership. Currently, Madison applies her marketing expertise to support SEE. She aims to foster diversity and equality within the equestrian community and believes SEE is instrumental in achieving these goals. After a break from the sport, Madison has since taken to the sandbox with her lease horse, an OTTB.
Photo Credit: Studio 360 Photography
Helen Casteel
Helen grew up as a horse crazy kid outside of Houston, Texas. She was able to purchase her first horse after graduating college and discovered eventing soon after. An avid follower of the sport, Helen lives in Maryland where she manages access to a cancer research database for a government contractor. Helen was the first recipient of the Strides for Equality Equestrians Ever So Sweet scholarship and remains active with the group as a member of the steering committee.
ESHA TARIQ
Esha Tariq is an equestrian and non-profit professional based in Maryland. Esha joins the board as an alumni of the Ever so Sweet camp and applies her experience in policy and program management to advise SEE's programs and organize meetings. As a Muslim of Pakistani descent, Esha understands how important it is to support diversity and inclusion in equestrian sport and deeply values the work SEE does.
Christa Aufiero
Christa was born in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania and resides in New Cumberland PA. Christa has been involved professionally in the horse industry for over 40 years. She has been a competitor, owner, and show organizer in the Hunter and Jumper disciplines. Before devoting all of her time to the “horses & kids” in the Harrisburg/York PA areas she worked for a Shopping Center Development Company out of King of Prussia, PA and a Real Estate Development Management and Solutions Company out of Harrisburg PA. During those years the horses were just a hobby. She left Mall Management and Real Estate Development to apply her love of the horses and her management skills in the equine industry.
Christa owned and operated a boarding and training facility for 35 years. She owned, organized and ran 15 USEF (AHSA-Back in the day) sanctioned Hunter & Equitation Horse Shows. Christa traded her coaching hat to work with her granddaughter who showed a significant and real desire to not only compete but learn as much as she possibly could about becoming a “horseman” putting the welfare of the horse above anything else. Teaching and working with her granddaughter became her full-time job and has been her most rewarding job to date. Today her granddaughter has developed into a respected rider and horsewoman. It was her granddaughter that brought her to the world of Eventing and Strides for Equality Equestrians.
Christa is currently a member of the USEA, USEF, and USHJA.
LEAD THE WAY
SEE has established a steering committee of predominantly Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) equestrians and active allies from across the eventing community.