Portraits by Melissa Fuller
Brooke Taylor believes family is so much more than genetics. “Family is who stands by you, with you, loves you, who you feel safe with and who can make you laugh at the same time you’re crying,” Brooke said. “To me, that’s the definition of family.”
Adopted at birth by parents John and Abby, and “adopted” by her current barn family at age 7, Brooke has always been surrounded by love. From the day John and Abby brought Brooke home, they gave their unwavering support for any and every pursuit she expressed an interest in.
A horse lover himself, John found out Brooke’s kindergarten art teacher had an art and riding camp and immediately signed Brooke up. Little did he know that one activity would turn into a lifelong passion for Brooke and become a huge part of the family dynamics.
“Unfortunately for my parents, a year later they got ‘the call.’ There was a message on the answering machine, ‘We found the perfect pony for Brooke!’ My dad’s response was, ‘What on Earth do we want with a pony?’” Brooke said. “I got the pony, Pepsi, and the rest is history!”
Not long after getting Pepsi, Brooke made the move to Stepping Stone Farm where she met Shaine Brooks, Sandy Kelly, Monty Kelly and Amy Momrow. For the past 26 years, these four have been an integral part of Brooke’s life, both in and out of the saddle.
“Having this long-term relationship with my trainers, who are more like an extended family, has been irreplaceable. They’ve been there through everything with me—my dyslexia, losing my dad, my mental health diagnosis—and have worked really hard over the years to understand me and help make my life easier,” Brooke said. “I feel fortunate because a lot of people haven’t had the opportunity to have that relationship with their barns. It’s helped shape me as a person.”
Once at Stepping Stone Farm with the pony Brooke swears her parents regretted buying, Brooke totally immersed herself in the horse-girl life. “I loved to spend as much time at the barn as I could. I was a total barn rat. My parents would always watch my lessons and attend my horse shows, but on a regular day, they’d drop me off and come back hours later,” she said.
In an effort to give Brooke the world, John left the house before sunup and returned at sundown to work as a contractor. “My parents worked 24/7 to be able to afford one horse, and even that was a stretch,” she said. “But they would do anything to make me happy and support my dreams.”
As she grew and needed a mount bigger than Pepsi, Brooke rode a variety of horses at the barn. “I would ride whatever I could get my hands on. I have a photo album of all the horses I was able to ride and show growing up. It’s really neat to look back on all the horses who made me the rider I am today and gave me the opportunity to keep learning in the sport,” she said.
When Brooke’s parents bought her first horse, Vinny, an OTTB, it was a huge deal. “One of my first thoughts was that he needed a show name. Vinny was a plain bay with no markings on him, so a friend suggested the name Make Me A Star. The name stuck and I learned a lot from him,” Brooke said.
Having horses to care for growing up helped Brooke get a different perspective on life, as she was dealing with animals that didn’t speak her language. “They taught me how to not overreact to situations, because when I got very anxious or wasn’t calm, they tuned in to those emotions and also got tense and worried. The horses helped me learn to be less reactive when something went wrong,” she said. “Over the years, I’ve been able to carry that over to my personal life. Now I’m more methodical when it comes to dealing with the unexpected in life.”
While Brooke was learning life lessons from horses, she was making lifelong memories on the road to horse shows with her dad. “Before I got my license, my dad always drove our truck and trailer to the shows. Our horse show tradition was always stopping somewhere to get soft pretzels coming home from the show,” she said. “I have such fond memories of those days.”
Those road trips weren’t special just for Brooke; John cherished the time they spent together so much, he was beside himself when Brooke got her license, because it meant she could do the horses solo. “He told one of his friends that he hoped I failed my driving test because he didn’t want our horse show road trips to end. His friend tried to reassure him that me getting my license was the best thing that could happen, but Dad just reiterated that I’d go to shows without him and that upset him,” Brooke said. “He taught me how to drive the truck and trailer, but he’d always follow right behind me.”
During her last Junior year, Brooke expressed an interest in trying the Big Eq. “At the time, Vinny had been sold and I’d been leasing what we could afford for horse shows. My parents ended up surprising me with a really nice equitation horse, Camelot. He was very quirky, a little tricky, but amazing when everything went right. He helped me achieve my equitation goals, including going to Maclay Regionals,” she said. “After that year, I was addicted to the equitation.”
The only problem with this newfound love of equitation was that Brooke was now an Amateur, and the equitation classes are less plentiful for Amateurs than they are Juniors. “My trainers kept asking if I just wanted to focus on jumpers, but I just couldn’t imagine not competing in equitation after I started doing it. I really love it,” Brooke said.
In 2013, Brooke’s world was forever changed when her father was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer. “I was at the New England Equitation Finals with my mom; she got a sudden phone call and had to leave abruptly. I didn’t think anything of it and got home from the show without a sense of anything being wrong. That was the first show my dad had ever missed, and I came home to his diagnosis,” she said.
It was a shock to everyone: John had never smoked, was incredibly athletic and had traveled all over to surf in search of the biggest breaks in the world. Nine months later, he passed away after the cancer spread to his brain. “I held his hand and said goodbye on July 6, 2014,” Brooke said.
Losing her father, travel companion and best friend forced Brooke to reevaluate her career trajectory. After earning a degree in fashion merchandising from Fisher College in 2015, Brooke had planned to work for a fashion company, but that wasn’t the path she ended up taking.
“With my dad passing the summer prior, I just couldn’t sit still in an office job. It made me very anxious to think about if I’d be able to emotionally handle office life,” she said. “Instead, I decided to choose something I was comfortable with and turned professional for a few years.”
While it was fun at first, Brooke quickly realized professional life wasn’t for her. “I met a lot of amazing people and trainers during my time as a professional and learned something different from each and every one. I’m so grateful to those that took me under their wing during that time of my life, but being a professional was really hard and took all the fun out of horses for me,” she said. “I decided that I was going to find another career, get my Amateur status back and never go professional again.”
It was during her stint as a professional that Brooke was diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD). “I was completely terrified when I got diagnosed; now, I’m grateful that I did, because it has made me so strong and I’ve been able to understand myself better. Having BPD in the horse world is hard. My emotions are two to three times as strong as the average person and they can be very hard to regulate,” she said.
Since the diagnosis in 2016, Brooke has been through dialectal behavioral therapy and continues to see her psychiatrist weekly. “My entire perspective on life has changed in the best way possible. With BPD came a lot of other struggles, such as feeling like I didn’t matter and body image issues. I look back and I’m just so grateful that I had the trainers and family to help me overcome these challenges,” Brooke said. “I wish we talked about mental health more in our industry. It’s nothing to be ashamed of.”
Brooke’s horses and her service dog, Holly, helped her get through the lows of BPD. “They don’t judge me and they love me unconditionally. Holly was trained to alert people when I was distressed. I started having intense non-epileptic seizures, and she saved my life more than once,” Brooke said. “This past summer, she unexpectedly passed away, but because of all the services she gave me, I’ve been strong enough to learn to live life without her.”
Brooke finally got the year she’d been working for in 2025 with her horses Corso and Livey. “In 2025, I placed in every equitation final I competed at and even won one. It was so special to be with my mom, my trainers and my other dog, Tazzy, in these special moments. After all I’ve been through, it was truly one of the best years of my life,” she said.
Corso is Brooke’s equitation horse, while Livey is a jack-of-all-trades horse that Brooke does the 3’3” Amateur Owners, equitation and derbies on. If you had asked Brooke which horse would lead her to victory at the beginning of the 2025 season, she likely would have told you Livey.
“When I was thinking about which horse we were going to take to the inaugural HITS Adult Equitation Championship, I thought it would obviously be Livey because he’s my go-to horse, I’ve had him longer and he never lets me down. However, Corso and I had a great 2025 WEF, we’d won a lot of classes together and really started clicking. My goal for the year was to try to win a final and when it came time to a pick a mount, Corso was my choice because every time we walked into the ring last year he wanted to win,” Brooke explained.
Corso didn’t disappoint and brought home the blue. “After everything I’ve been through with my trainers over the years, that win was bigger than me. It represented years of hard work from everyone at Stepping Stone Farm. I was so happy that my trainers, grooms and everyone who’s been part of the team could see the hard work they put into me and my horses paid off,” she said.
To get to her big win, Brooke’s trainers worked with her over the years to help her figure out the best way to overcome her dyslexia when learning courses. Hunter courses are a bit easier for Brooke to learn, as the flowers/boxes on the front side make it easier to tell which way to jump compared to jumper jumps.
“I need to learn my courses a bit differently, as the courses flip on the page if I just look at them on the course board. I need to take a photo of the course and then walk around the outside of the ring to make sure I know where all the jumps are. When there are course walks, that’s even better,” Brooke said. “My trainers have been wonderful working through that with me. They never rush me and always make sure I’m comfortable in where I’m going before I step into the ring.”
Brooke credits her mom’s love and support in keeping her dreams alive. “To go from a girl who could barely afford one horse growing up to now having three is something I never could have imagined,” she said. “She truly loves the horses, but she gets so nervous when I show I always wonder if she closes her eyes when I’m in the ring. I keep trying to get her to ride to take away some of that nervousness with me riding, but I haven’t been able to convince her yet!”
In a nod to John’s work building custom homes, when it was time for Brooke to find her post-professional equestrian career, she decided to go into real estate, working for Aland Realty in Maine and New Hampshire. “Initially I got licensed to sell in Maine and New Hampshire, but then two years ago I realized if I wanted to go show in Florida during the winters I should also get licensed there,” she said. “Now I also work for Illustrated Properties in Florida.”
For the past five years, Brooke has been successfully juggling her career and equestrian ambitions. “It’s been really rewarding to watch my friends buy their first homes with me,” Brooke said.
While Brooke is helping people get the home of their dreams, she’s also hoping she can help fellow equestrians with their own mental health struggles. “Nowadays, everyone posts about how ‘perfect’ their lives are on social media, but not everything is as perfect as it’s portrayed online. Everyone has their own struggles, and I’d like to remind people that you’re not alone,” Brooke said. “I’m here for you; others are here for you. Even if you think you can’t make it in this world, you can!”
Follow Brooke on Instagram @brooksie_taylor
Photos by Melissa Fuller, melissafullerphotography33.mypixieset.com
Sign up for our mailing list to stay up to date with all things Sidelines!
