By Laura Scaletti
Portraits by Kelly Mudd
When it comes to pursuing her dreams, Dr. Stephanie Davis believes anything is possible. The word impossible isn’t in her personal dictionary. In fact, if you tell her she can’t do something, it’s only going to make her want to do it more.
“I vividly remember an interview for an undergraduate college that offered an equine program. I proudly told the interviewer that I wanted to ride and be an equine vet. She essentially said that was impossible and I would have to choose one,” Stephanie said. “I left in tears—which then transitioned into fierce determination. I actually purchased a little OTTB named Ticket during my fourth year in vet school, which is the most intensive clinical year of our education.”
Stephanie admits buying a horse during her fourth year might not have been the best idea, but she proved to herself it can be done. With proper planning and expectations, she could “have it all.” Today, Stephanie is an equine veterinarian, rider, entrepreneur—and, most importantly, mom to her daughter, Henley.
Early Foundation
Stephanie was the typical horse-crazy girl whose family knew nothing about horses. Buddying up with her best friend, the two first-graders convinced their moms to find a place for them to ride. “We initially learned to ride Western and did barrels and poles. After a year of taking Western lessons, we came across a summer camp at an eventing barn, Dan Hobyn Stables,” she said. “After my first jump, I was hooked and stayed riding at that barn all the way through high school.”
In addition to allowing Stephanie to explore eventing, Dan Hobyn Stables was home to the White River Valley Pony Club. “I was so very lucky to have a great group of friends who all went through the ranks of Pony Club together. We were active in ratings and eventing rallies every year,” she said.
Before heading off to college, Stephanie completed her Pony Club “B” rating. “Pony Club was an excellent foundation for safety and horse management, and the beginnings of my interest in veterinary medicine,” she said.
Stephanie has loved all things science and medicine for as long as she can remember. She briefly considered getting into human medicine, but her horse obsession led her down the equine vet path.
Prior to heading off to vet school, Stephanie added another item to her equestrian resume: farrier’s apprentice. Stephanie has always had a special interest in studying and solving issues around lameness. With the foot often being a primary cause of lameness, it seemed natural for her to learn how a farrier does their job.
“I wanted to understand the issues farriers face on a daily basis. My apprenticeship gave me great empathy for the farrier’s job, and I hope the farriers I’ve worked with over the years have appreciated that,” Stephanie said.
Working for Dale Huber in Indiana, Stephanie assisted in shoeing show horses, some racehorses and some drafts. “He would ‘let me’ trim the draft horses. He would be talking to the owners with a grin on his face, while I put my body to its complete fatigue point to trim these huge drafts,” she said. “Of course, I didn’t want to ask for help and wanted to prove that this ‘little girl’ could hang with the big guys.”
While Dale protected Stephanie from working with the more dangerous horses, that didn’t mean she didn’t do her fair share of struggling and sweating. “You don’t develop grit without putting in the hours. I’m grateful that Dale helped me develop that part of myself,” she said.
Dr. Davis
In 2005, Stephanie moved to St. Kitts to attend Ross University. It was during her time at Ross that she met her now husband, Dr. Chad Davis. “He actually ‘asked me on a date’ by asking me to tutor him in pathology. Neither of us was really interested in a relationship, but that’s usually when you find your person. And obviously our interests aligned, as we were both in vet school,” Stephanie said.
As part of the DVM program at Ross, students spend their fourth year at a state school in the United States. Stephanie ended up attending Virginia Tech to finish up her degree. Once in Virginia, she discovered she really liked the state, especially given the fact Virginia was a mecca for eventing at the time.
With her DVM in hand, Stephanie needed a job and she really wanted to do an internship in sports medicine. Stephanie applied to positions at both Rood & Riddle in Kentucky and Virginia Equine Imaging (VEI). Although she had her heart set on working in Virginia on sport horses, she was offered a position at Rood & Riddle first.
“As a young vet, you don’t say no to Rood & Riddle, so I didn’t. I actually accepted the job because I hadn’t heard from VEI yet and didn’t want to lose out on the other job if VEI chose another candidate. So, I signed a contract with Rood & Riddle and told my family I was moving to Kentucky,” she said.
Shortly after making all the arrangements to move, Dr. Kent Allen offered Stephanie a job at VEI. “I was so conflicted and told Dr. Allen I had signed a contract with Rood & Riddle. He told me he’d take care of it. Later, I got a call from Dr. Rood himself saying he heard I wanted to practice in Virginia. I terrifyingly responded, ‘Yes,’” she said. “He told me they could let me out of my contract and that was that. I’ve been in Virginia ever since.”
In September 2013, Stephanie and Chad decided the time was right to open up their own ambulatory sports medicine practice, Davis Equine. “We had a ton of student debt and figured this was the best path for our careers. What has worked really well for us is that we knew what it would take and were both willing to put in the hours to run our business, while also trying to hone our craft and constantly keep learning,” Stephanie said. “We both strongly believe that when we stop learning, we should stop practicing, because medicine is always evolving.”
As someone who believes anything is possible, Stephanie is willing to put in all the hours to be a success. “I honestly don’t believe in work-life balance. I think it’s more of a period of time that you hustle and then, somewhere in there, you get a break,” she said. “Early on, if we took a break our entire practice was not in operation. In 2024, we hired an associate so we can still provide services for our customers if we go away for continuous learning or a family trip.”
Equestrian Entrepreneur
Stephanie never intended to be an entrepreneur; however her penchant for solving problems has led her to fully embrace the role. After starting Davis Equine with Chad, she started her own solo endeavor, Be Safe Bracelets—originally Ride Safe—in 2012. “Chad and I were watching the Tour de France and I saw an ad for RoadID. I thought, Why don’t we have those for event riders? At the time, we had a very antiquated piece of paper in a plastic sleeve with our medical information handwritten on it for our emergency medical information,” Stephanie said.
As a rider, Stephanie knew that people only wore their armbands when required, so only while competing. She also knew competing wasn’t the only time riders could be injured while working with horses and wanted to provide a more wearable ID solution.
Ready to get the idea off the ground, Stephanie emailed RoadID to let them know they were missing an entire population of potential customers. They never responded, so once again Stephanie’s determination and stubbornness emerged. “I figured, Fine, I’ll do it myself. I learned how to acquire a manufacturer, outsourced an engraver and got the cheapest website I could off the ground,” she said.
Stephanie realized that if you don’t like the bracelet, you won’t wear it. If you don’t wear it, it won’t help you. “Most medical ID bracelets on the market weren’t very attractive. I’ve had a penicillin allergy since I was a kid, but I’d never wear a medical ID until I developed my own because I didn’t like the styles,” she said. “I put a lot of energy into offering every color possible—and bling, of course!”
In addition to being stylish, the bracelets have a two-pronged approach to providing medical information. Critical information is displayed on the faceplate, with more information available via an online medical profile.
After getting her product launched, Stephanie approached the U.S. Eventing Association (USEA) with the idea of allowing riders to wear a bracelet rather than a traditional arm band. “USEA happened to think it was a good idea. In 2021, they changed the rules to allow riders to choose between an armband or bracelet for their medical ID,” she said.
Stephanie had a much wider vision for whom her bracelet could potentially help after her own personal experience with breast cancer. In 2024, she decided to rebrand Ride Safe to Be Safe. “This led to the development of Be Safe, Survive Safe, Ski Safe, Fly Safe or whatever ‘safe’ people relate to,” she said.
Her Babies
In 2018, Stephanie and Chad’s lives were completely enhanced with the birth of Henley. “She has given us both an enormous amount of perspective. I think that is how life goes—people older than you say, ‘When you get older, you’ll understand,’ and we all just roll our eyes and say, ‘Yeah, yeah,’ but it’s true,” Stephanie said.
Although horses and thinking about horses comprise nearly every hour of Stephanie’s day, she has zero desire for Henley to become a horse girl. “I don’t think I have the fortitude that’s required for a mom to watch her small human get on a horse. I can’t believe my mom let me do the things we did with horses when we were kids,” Stephanie said. “If she shows an interest later in life, I’ll support it. Right now, daddy is the center of her universe, so she loves golfing with him.”
Stephanie launched her “other baby” in March 2022, when she opened the Virginia Equine Rehabilitation and Performance Center (VRC). “I’ve always felt that there’s a huge gap between what we do as sport horse veterinarians—diagnosing and treating—and the return to athletic performance. It’s always been a bit of a ‘grey area’ and the veterinary industry basically left it to the owner to figure out how to get the horse back in work,” she said.
While that approach works sometimes, other times owners end up with a re-injured horse. Ever the problem-solver, Stephanie wanted to bridge that gap for owners. By having rehab horses living at her facility, she’s able to have a better sense of how they are tracking. “It’s like my favorite podcaster, Alex Hormozi, says: When people watch a marathon, they watch the start of the race—the horse’s acute injury—and the finish line—horse back to work and winning its next show; no one watches the ‘mundane middle.’ But that’s where the magic happens,” she said.
Through her work at VRC, Stephanie developed a partnership with Equine Tendon. Relatively new technology to the U.S. market, Equine Tendon uses Ultrasound Tissue Characterization (UTC) to evaluate the state and function of a fiber of a tendon or ligament in conjunction with their TendonPro boot. Together, these two technologies allow horses to do controlled exercise while rehabbing from an injury while also simultaneously tracking how the fibers are healing.
“Equine Tendon owner, Henk Offereins, and his Equine Tendon team have spent an enormous amount of time helping me understand and use both the UTC and boot to better rehab my soft-tissue cases. I now own one of four UTC machines in North America,” she said. “It’s really amazing and progressive work and I’m so very proud to be a small part of it.”
With the opening of VRC, Stephanie’s horse, Calvin, has had to take a serious back seat. “I’ve managed to ride consistently all my veterinary career, but between being a mom and opening another business, something had to give. Luckily, I have a super horse who couldn’t care less how often I ride and great friends who keep him from getting fat,” Stephanie said.
Stephanie got Calvin in 2021 with plans of making him her next event horse; however, she discovered his real talent lies in dressage. “I think he has the ability to learn the upper-level movements and I’m hoping to go that direction with him this year. I’m very goal-oriented, so I hope to have my trainer, Skyeler Voss, motivate me—with a poker stick, if necessary—to get back in the tack and go out and earn my USDF Bronze medal this year,” she said. “It will be a nice goal that we can achieve and get me back out riding and competing.”
Always thinking about the next step, Stephanie has a lot of ideas for all “her babies.” “For now, I’m incredibly grateful for where we are and trying to enjoy everything with Henley, because the first six years have gone by so fast,” she said.
For more information, follow Stephanie at: Davis Equine, davisequine.com; Virginia Equine Rehabilitation & Performance Center, www.virginiaequinerehab.com; and Be Safe, besafebracelets.com
Photos by Kelly Mudd, www.kmuddphotography.com
