There are people in this world who keep it between the lines, and there are those who don’t.

Linda Vegher has never felt inclined to stay in one lane. Her commitment to living an un-boring life isn’t just a philosophy—it’s a way of being. As the California-born daughter of a race car driver, she has veered from galloping race horses to racing across faraway lands, from corporate boardrooms to hands-on work with some of the world’s top equine athletes.

Over 46 years the landscapes and roles have changed, but one thing has remained constant: Vegher always finds her way back to horses.

Evening And The Early Years

When Vegher was around 10, her family uprooted from Los Angeles to a farm in Petaluma, California, on the edge of Sonoma County. She felt at home in the countryside.

“We had cows,” she said, “but there were horses across the street, and they had always fascinated me.” Every day, she walked to the neighboring boarding facility, soaking in everything she could about the horses, their care, their movement, their personalities.

Speed and precision were already in Vegher’s DNA, thanks to her father. But instead of race cars, she was drawn to a different kind of horsepower. Fear never factored into the equation.

“I rode other people’s horses, then got my own—a crazy chestnut mare off the track who would buck me off, like, four times a week,” she said. Then, with a laugh: “And not in an ethical manner. I wouldn’t even have my second foot in the stirrup, and she’d bronc.”

Vegher discovered eventing, hauling up and down the West Coast to compete at venues like Ram Tap. She groomed at the FEI North American Young Rider Championships, earned a grant and sponsorships, sourced an exciting young prospect, and got the lease on an advanced horse. By the time she graduated high school, she had developed a taste for high-level competition and accumulated some stars in her eyes.

“My dad was like, ‘Well, we can’t afford this, so you’ve got to figure it out,’ ” she said. And so, in a move that was both brave and entirely logical, Vegher packed up and headed to Northern Virginia, the heart of U.S. eventing.

Middleburg in the 1990s was, as Vegher describes it, “an eventing mecca.” The rolling green hills, the world-class riders, the non-stop action—it was everything she had hoped for. She galloped race horses and steeplechasers, exercised fox hunters, and worked for top veterinarians and trainers.

While galloping for Doug Fout, Vegher caught the eye of his sister, eventer Nina Fout, and soon found herself grooming for Nina’s legendary 3 Magic Beans. “That horse was one of a kind,” Vegher said. “He was an orangutan.”

That job put her at the center of the sport’s biggest moments. Over the next four years, she traveled the world with “Beanie,” grooming at the Kentucky, Badminton (England) and Burghley (England) five-stars and at the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games. The experience shaped her understanding of elite horse care—the travel, the pressure, the meticulous attention to detail required at the sport’s highest levels.

But the deeper she got into the world of elite competition, the more she felt the weight of what it took to stay there. If you weren’t independently wealthy, you needed owners. And that, for Vegher, was a deal-breaker.

“I didn’t want to have owners because you’re really under their thumb,” she said. She made the difficult decision to walk away. “If I couldn’t go at my own pace and do what was right, then I didn’t want to do it at all,” she said.

A Criss-Crossing Of Worlds

Vegher’s “gap year” had stretched into five. In 2002, she returned to California and enrolled at San Francisco State University, studying industrial design. Her eye for aesthetics and storytelling propelled her into the world of creative direction, and a chance horse-world connection landed her a job at Ann Taylor and another cross-country move, this time to New York City.

Even in the heart of America’s densest concrete jungle, Vegher couldn’t stay away from horses. She moonlighted as a trainer at Claremont Stables, taking clients for rides through Central Park—an experience she describes as “hair-raising.” Any chance she got, she took the train to New Jersey to ride out with friends.

Vegher didn’t love corporate life, but corporate life loved her. She was recruited to work for brands like Restoration Hardware, Athleta, Pottery Barn, Google and Sundance, overseeing photography, branding and design. The jobs bounced her across the country. Occasionally, she even managed to sneak a horse into a photo shoot. It was fast-paced and high-powered—but when she talks about it now, Vegher just sounds bored. “I knew deep down that corporate wasn’t for me,” she said.

But no matter where work took her, horses were always in the background.

When a job brought her back to California, she joined a polo club, which got her back in the saddle. “I loved it,” Vegher said. “It was fun, fast, social, and I was learning a lot. Polo is really hard. I liked the culture. It was a new group of people who weren’t horse show people.”

In 2016 she completed the Wilson Meagher Sports Therapy massage program, taught by Jo-Ann Wilson, a pioneer in the field. The two had originally met in the runup to the 2000 Olympic Games while Vegher was grooming for Nina, and Wilson was the event team physio for both riders and horses. Even back then, massage had sparked Vegher’s curiosity. After reconnecting, Wilson became Vegher’s mentor as she began practicing on horses as a side hustle to her corporate career—one she was already quietly dialing back.

When a switch flips for Vegher—when something truly calls her—that’s it. There’s no turning back. And by 2019, her head was back in the horse game. Never one to do things by halves, she was still working for Wayfair in Boston when she was baited by a friend to sign up for the Mongol Derby, a 1,000-kilometer adventure race across Mongolia on semi-feral horses. “I thought, ‘World’s hardest horse race? That’s BS,’ ” she recalls with a laugh.

Not only did Vegher make it through the Derby unscathed, she volunteered as a guinea pig for the inaugural Gaucho Derby in Patagonia in early 2020. “That was a whole other type of adventure,” she said. “It’s real mountaineering. There were real elements and real rivers—not friendly rivers. Having pack horses was a disaster. We survived, but it was treacherous going.”

Then came COVID. Vegher barely made it back to the States before the world shut down. But the pandemic brought an unexpected clarity: This time, she was going back to horses for good.

‘It’s All Connected’

Endurance racing awakened something in Vegher—a new way of thinking about the body, movement, and what it takes to function at a high level. Training for the Mongol Derby forced her to confront her own biomechanics in ways she’d never considered before.

“You’re paying attention to how these horses are walking. Why aren’t you paying attention to how you’re walking?” Vegher said. “Why does it surprise you that after trotting 75 miles, you can’t walk when you get off? What’s causing that? Oh, right—the compensation from that old knee injury. Of course it applies to you, too, idiot.”

It was a light-bulb moment. The same sharp eye she used to spot an uneven step in a horse—the slightest shift in muscle tone, an imbalance in movement—suddenly turned inward. The human body operates in the same way: When one system is off, everything else has to compensate.

Vegher had already been honing her craft as an equine massage therapist under the mentorship of Wilson. But now, the work took on a whole new depth. She finished the corporate quiet-quit she’d started and shifted to massage full time, with just a bit of freelance creative work on the side.

“Massage has been around for over 5,000 years, and it’s not just for competition horses. It’s for any horse, whether they’re an athlete, a pleasure horse or retired. It’s about being in tune with your body,” she said. “And when you start thinking about that, it applies to everything—body, movement, all those systems working together.”

Wilson, the veteran physio, observed that Vegher had an unusual gift.

“Linda comes from this multi-faceted background, from riding to the arts to massage, and she’s smart,” Wilson said. “She has an extensive knowledge of horsemanship, which tends to be lacking in the industry these days, or at least isn’t as strong as it used to be. She’s an artist, too, and massage is a combination of science and art. There’s a quote from Henry David Thoreau, ‘It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see.’ And Linda can see.”

“There’s a quote from Henry David Thoreau, ‘It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see.’ And Linda can see.”

Jo-Ann Wilson

In 2021, Vegher became an affiliate and assistant instructor for Wilson’s program. And before she knew it, her high-performance journey had come full circle. Once again, she found herself behind the scenes with Team USA’s equine athletes on the world’s biggest stages—this time, not as a groom, but as an equine physio. She traveled to the 2022 FEI Eventing World Championships in Pratoni, Italy; the 2023 Pan American Games in Santiago, Chile; and the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, keeping some of the world’s most elite horses performing at their peak.

Wilson also strongly encouraged Vegher to earn her human massage therapy license, which she did last year. Learning on humans, Wilson says, fine-tunes one’s knowledge and better educates one’s hands. Unlike horses, humans can give feedback.

This detective work—tracking down the root cause of pain and imbalance—is an obsession for Vegher. She compares it to the mechanics her race-car-driver father mastered.

“My dad was tactile and visual, and that resonates with me. I see it, and if I don’t see it, I feel it. Now, I can’t help but notice every little thing,” she said. “A rider walks past me, and I see it: Their hips are rotated; their right shoulder is dropped; they can’t turn their head all the way. And that’s affecting how their horse moves. It’s all connected.”

What’s Next?

As all-over-the-map—literally and metaphorically—as Vegher’s life path might appear, there’s a thread of connection running through it, too. Vegher trusts her gut and follows her nose.

“Linda is a risk-taker,” Wilson said. “She’s not afraid to go after something. She’s willing to put aside any fear of the unknown and go forward.”

While Vegher insists she’s now reached a state of equilibrium, happily focused on deepening her massage skills, there is historical precedent for her inability to rest on laurels. She admits she’s been itching for a new challenge—another adventure, another puzzle to solve.

“I need a new physical goal,” she said. “I’ve been thinking about Race the Wild Coast, but I don’t know. Maybe the Golden Button Challenge?” She grins, referencing the infamous British cross-country race known for its grueling course and legendary falls. “I do love foxhunting. It’s fun, fast, and you get to see the countryside.”

Whatever she decides, one thing is certain: There will be horses involved in some shape, form or fashion.

“Life is a total journey, right?” Vegher said. “You’ve got to always do some digging to find out if you’re satisfied or not. I know to some people it seems crazy. But I consider myself fortunate.”

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This article originally appeared in the February 2025 issue of The Chronicle of the Horse. You can subscribe and get online access to a digital version and then enjoy a year of The Chronicle of the Horse. If you’re just following COTH online, you’re missing so much great unique content. Each print issue of the Chronicle is full of in-depth competition news, fascinating features, probing looks at issues within the sports of hunter/jumper, eventing and dressage, and stunning photography.