Equestrian Blogger: Danielle Demers of Cavalcade

What do you look for in a blog? Finding a good blog is a lot like discovering a great new coffee shop. If you love it, you just have to keep coming back for more!   Cavalcade has been a frequent favorite of mine since I happened upon it through Pinterest about 6 months ago. Its owner, Danielle Demers, is a fellow equestrian and artist so I immediately felt a connection. I was drawn in in by the blog’s clean design, appealing photos and have been impressed with the variety of equestrian topics and great giveaways!

A life-long horse lover, Danielle says “I have loved drawing horses for as long as I can remember and I always enjoyed art class in school.  It wasn’t until the end of my junior year in high school though, that I actually began considering pursuing an art degree in college.  In college, I earned a B.F.A. with a concentration in painting as well as a degree in Art Education and a minor in Art History.”

When asked about her artistic influences, Danielle explained that “The artists I most often chose as influences for college painting and drawing assignments were Jim Dyne’s drawings, Piet Mondrian’s early work, Alphonse Mucha and Degas’ race horses.  Today, I am most inspired by Katie Rodgers of Paperfashion, Tony O’Connor  and Benedicte Gele just to name a few.  Graphic design wise, I have turned to the beautiful blog design inspiration blog, Pugly Pixel, countless times over the past year since starting to teach myself how to use the Adobe Creative Suite, HTML and CSS.”

When you look at the variety of work Danielle has accomplished, it’s plain to see that this girl can do it all! Not only is she a fabulous artist, she is an avid rider who began riding Western and then switched to hunt seat and later Dressage in high school. She continued to ride Dressage on her college’s riding team and has most recently adopted a Thoroughbred named Kidd. “I adopted Kidd from New Vocations after only seeing a few photos and two videos of him”, says Danielle.  “I got really lucky considering that I took such a great risk in adopting him pretty much sight unseen and had him trailered from Kentucky to Maine a few days later.  He has a great personality, loves attention and my trainer thinks that he should be able to be trained to 3rd level at least.”

When asked about future plans, Danielle says she does “plan on taking Kidd to at least one show by the end of the season.  I took his training slow during the first year that I owned him and now he is really starting to progress quickly, and it is already evident that he has the patience and athleticism to begin moving through the levels in Dressage.  If he keeps progressing as quickly as he has been for the last few months, next show season is going to be a blast!”