Meet Lisa Goldman, who saw a lifelong dream come true when she was named to the U.S. Equestrian Federation’s Development Tour this summer. Goldman, 26, works alongside her mother, Mary, at the family’s Red Coat Farm in Hawthorn Woods, Ill., and has worked her way up the grand prix ranks over the years.

Goldman will be taking her top grand prix horses, the U.S.-bred Centurion B and Hindsight. The horses will left Chicago on June 27 for JFK airport (N.Y.) where they will then fly to Amsterdam.  After landing in Amsterdam, the horses will ship to a layover farm in Brussels. 

The team—which includes Jamie Barge, Chloe Reid, Brittni Raflowitz, and Emily Short—shows July 6-10 in Knokke, Belgium then will spend the next two weeks preparing for the FEI Nations Cup in Sanmorin, Slovakia.  After the Nations Cup, the group will show one week in San Giovanni, Italy on July 28-31, before making the trek back home. Goldman will be blogging along the journey for Chronicle readers.

It’s been kind of a whirlwind the last week! We’ve been at Showplace Spring Spectacular the last week with 20 horses in the barn, so it’s been hard to really process what I’m doing! I can’t quite believe the horses are gone and I’m leaving tomorrow to meet up with them.

I’m excited to get over there and be in that environment. I’m SO excited to wear the red coat! I got it yesterday and it fits and it’s awesome! I can’t even. It’s unreal. The fact that I get to wear that coat and go into the show ring and represent the team is something I only dreamed of. That coat showed up and it’s the most beautiful coat I’ve ever seen in my entire life.

It’s always been something that I’ve hoped for, to be part of team events. Recently, I attended some of the meetings that DiAnn Langer holds at the shows, and it kind of put it on my radar that [a Developing Rider tour] is something I might actually be able to qualify for and be able to participate in.

I applied to be on the [Nations Cup team in Coapexpan, Mexico in May], and I was an alternate for that, which I think was good because I wanted to start out a little bit lower profile than that! The Developing Riders tour seems to be the perfect intro into competing with the team. I think it’s good to have some experience about how everything works and how things go before an actual big-time Nations Cup. It takes some of the pressure off

Most of my horses are U.S.-bred and both horses that are going with me, Centurion B (Leo) and Hindsight (Beckett), are bred in the United States.

Centurion I’ve had for 12 years. I got him as a coming 3-year-old from Bannockburn Farm in Indiana. He’s bred by Allyn McCracken.

Centurion B starting the first leg of his journey.

I got him and did the Young Jumpers with him, I won my first grand prix on him, I jumped my first 1.60-meter class on him, I did my first [HITS million-dollar grand prix] on him. He’s been there for all the big milestones for me.

It gives me such confidence to have him there, to have him be a part of this. He gets to come to Europe with me on my first time over there. I couldn’t imagine doing it with a different horse. I know I’m going to make it around the courses. I have no doubt he’ll jump the jumps. 

Lisa Goldman grew up riding ponies and off-the-track Thoroughbreds in the Chicago area as a junior rider and attended Baylor University, where she rode on the equestrian team, helping them ride to the 2012 NCEA national championship. Since graduating in 2012, Goldman has been a serious competitor in the grand prix ring. She and her mother, Mary, run Red Coat Farm in Hawthorn Woods, Ill., and Lisa specializes in developing young horses, especially U.S.-bred prospects.