At 21 years old, Lisa Battan decided to step away from riding. After her childhood horse suffered a serious injury and needed to be put down, the philosophy major at Colorado State University and aspiring lawyer couldn’t afford another horse. “So I kind of let it go at that point,” said Battan of Longmont, Colo.

For 25 years, Lisa Battan stayed out of the saddle—busily starting her own law firm, Lisa E. Battan, P.C., gaining respect as an immigration lawyer and creating a family. But when her daughter took an interesting in riding at a young age, the quarter of a century drought ended. Now at 54, Battan has delved head over heels back into riding—collecting four dressage horses and one ranch roping Quarter Horse.

And with a 70.80 percent score, Battan took the adult amateur first level championship at the Great American/USDF Region 5 Dressage Championships, held on Sept. 14-17 in Parker, Colo., on her Baltic 6. But the 6-year-old Hanoverian gelding (Belissimo M—Laura) wasn’t the only Battan taking tricolors. With trainer Jenny Baldwin taking the reins, Battan’s 8-year-old Dutch Warmblood gelding Evolution (Florencio—Usenka Kluyt) took the open third level championship.

Laura Battan on Baltic 6 as they claimed the adult amateur first level championship at the Great American/USDF Region 5 Dressage Championships. Photo by Your Horses Photography

COTH: Tell us about your journey back to horses.

Battan: I rode as a kid from when I was about 13-years-old until I was 21. Then I stopped riding altogether until my daughter wanted to ride when she was about 7 or 8 years old. So about 2007, I bought her a pony. She rode hunter/jumper and I would occasionally get on the horse just to ride the horse down a little bit for her to get on it. And then when in 2009 she got old enough to take care of her pony by herself, I bought my first horse. I bought actually the school horse that I had been taking lessons on. Then I bought my first real serious dressage horse in 2012.

When you’re starting a career and starting a business and having children, it’s very hard to find that time. But once my professional career was very established and my daughter was more independent, then it became more possible for me to devote the time and the energy to training myself. I wish I had started earlier but it is what it is. I’m really glad that I’m able to compete at this level.

COTH: Why did you decide to go into immigration law? What you do like about it?

Battan: I like working directly with really diverse populations. But I honestly I came into the world by accident because a law school friend of mine went into immigration practice and she knew that’s what she wanted to do. She spoke Russian and she married a Russian man. She just knew she wanted to practice immigration law.

So a couple years after we both graduated from law school, I was looking for a new position. I had coffee with her and I told her I would like to change jobs. And she said, ‘Come work for me.’ And I said, ‘OK.’ This turned out to be a great fit. I really love all the contact that I have with clients. I love helping take care of the immigration portion of their lives so that they can do everything else that they need to do. I love working with people who are really extraordinary at what they do.

I work with a lot of world class athletes. Olympic medalists. World champions. Artists who are reviewed in the New York Times. People of that caliber. That really impresses me when people have that much discipline to put in all the hard work it takes to succeed at those kinds of activities.

COTH: How did you start getting into specializing with such gifted people?

Battan: I used to dance. And my dance teachers were really world class dancers who traveled around the world to teach. So I had the great fortune to help them with their immigration visas and through that, just through word of mouth, the word spread that that’s the kind of work that I was doing. And it was helpful to my clients that I understood who they were when they called me and what their area of specialty was and what they did.

I represent some professional riders but I’d certainly like to work with more of them. But it just always keeps my busy, always on my toes. Every day is a little bit different than the day before.

COTH: So I’m guessing your clientele and your work isn’t restricted to Colorado?

Battan: So I have a lot of clients in New York and Los Angeles, Miami, various places around the country.

COTH: When did you get into dance?

Battan: I always danced socially, but I never competed. I have performed some but it’s really something that I started in my 20s. So when I gave up riding, I was looking for a physical activity and I connected with dance—because I think dance and riding are very similar. And I continued to do it really seriously until about 2012 when I started to compete in dressage. Then the dancing had to take a backseat.

COTH: Can you walk us through your day-to-day? With riding that seems like a lot.

Battan: I try to ride four to five days a week. So two days a week I take off early. So I work 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. And then I go to the barn at 2 and ride a couple horses. So two days a week I work kind of funky hours so I can go out to the barn. Then I definitely ride on Saturday and Sunday. I try to squeeze a ride in Monday or Wednesday after work. But because I own my own business, I’m able to shift my work hours around to make riding a priority.

COTH: Can you tell us about “Baltic”?

Battan: Baltic is a very quiet horse. He has these big gaits and it’s a kind of a lot of flash in the show ring. People really notice him. But if you saw him out in the field, he’s not the horse you’d pick out as the dressage horse. He’s a little butt high and he just is very average looking on the ground.

It’s not until he starts to move that you really realize how special he is. He’s just a very quiet personality. One of my other horses is super big personality—always wants to be with you, always attentive and alert—and Baltic is always in the background. He is a little bit of an opinionated horse. So sometimes I have to be a little tactful. He’s a little bit like a mare that way. I have to ask him to do thing rather than to tell him to do things.

COTH: You have a ranch roping Quarter Horse in your collection of dressage horses. What is he like?

Battan: That’s my fun horse. I work cattle with him and go trail riding with him. He’s super fun. He’s like a little sports car. I like doing anything that I can do to improve my basic horsemanship.

COTH: If someone was to watch you ride, what wouldn’t they know about you?

Battan: So I think for me, the thing is how new I am to the sport. And so I feel like I’m kind of starting out so late in life again that I really needed to catch up and I really needed to give myself as many experiences on a horse as I could.

COTH: What similarities do you find between dressage and ranch roping classes? Has ranch roping helped your dressage?

Battan: So you do a pattern—it’s trotting and loping and extended lope and you halt in a certain place. It’s a pattern that’s very similar to a dressage test. It doesn’t have a sliding stop in it or a spin like a serious reining class would have. They are like a second level dressage test.

I would say my ranch roping horse, the Quarter Horse, is very sensitive to the aids. So very small aids make a really big difference in the horse. And he’s super confident so he doesn’t freak out about anything. But it’s really helped me make my aids lighter and to expect my horses to be more responsive.

Like this story? We’re featuring lots of GAIG/USEF Regional winners on www.coth.com—including a neurosurgeon amateur’s bittersweet win, how North Forks Cardi helped his amateur rider overcome nerves, and more. Read about them all!