Mariska Sherlin
A rider behind the camera.
Mariska Sherlin is a junior dressage rider and photographer in Arizona. She has spent about a decade in the saddle, and she photographs the world she knows best: horses and riders in the show ring and the barn aisle, along with studio portraits, animals, and the places she travels.
Her riding education has taken her well beyond the arena at home. She spent time training at the Valença Equestrian Academy in Portugal, riding schoolmaster horses and watching the Escola Portuguesa de Arte Equestre, an experience she says showed her what correct communication and lightness should feel like. At home she trains under Patrick King of Patrick King Horsemanship, and she is a working student training under Cyndi Jackson of To The Max Dressage.
She has earned the USDF Youth Dressage Rider Recognition Pin three years running, along with the USDF Shining Star Award and the USDF Dressage Spirit Award.
Her time around horses shows in her photographs. She knows where to stand, and she knows when a horse is about to give its best.