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About Karen Lipp

About Karen Lipp, Trainer & Coach

Karen Lipp is a USDF Bronze, Silver, and Gold medalist with Distinction, as well as a Centerline Scores 5* rated rider. Her primary focus is on training competitive horses and riders, from the beginning levels to Grand Prix. In addition to training horses, Karen is passionate about working with ambitious youth, adult amateurs, and professionals. Her students have earned numerous national and international championship titles, including USDF Bronze, Silver, and Gold medals with Distinction, the Brentina (U25) Cup, and the North American Youth Championships. Karen is an accomplished FEI-level dressage rider, having won national and international competitions. She has also trained myriad horses through the levels to Grand Prix.

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How It All Started

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Horses have always been at the heart of Karen's life. She began riding at the age of 7, after persistently asking her mother for weekly lessons. At 11, her grandfather bought her first horse for $900. In her early riding years, Karen explored various disciplines, including western pleasure, barrel racing, eventing, jumping, and saddle seat. At 20, she began studying the fundamentals of dressage under the guidance of Susan Day.

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It was with Susan that Karen discovered her talent for teaching. When Susan went on vacation, she asked Karen to take over her lessons, and the positive feedback from students led Susan to invite her to continue teaching. During this time, Karen realized that dressage was her true passion.

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While learning to ride and teach, Karen earned a bachelor’s degree in Marketing from Kennesaw State University and became a licensed EMT/Paramedic. She worked in the Atlanta area, eventually advancing to a trauma helicopter paramedic. After five years in the field, she decided to devote herself full-time to training dressage horses, establishing her training program while managing a facility at Applewood Farm in Alpharetta.

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Karen eventually branched out on her own and hasn’t looked back since. For over 30 years, she has been a full-time trainer and coach. She earned her USDF Gold Medal in the mid-'90s on a Thoroughbred she trained to Grand Prix. For more than 20 years, she has competed in the CDI ring, including representing the U.S. as a guest rider at the Danish Championships and being short-listed for the 2004 U.S. Olympic Team. In 2005, she received a USDF grant to train in Germany with Olympic Gold Medalist Klaus Balkenhol. During her time there, she competed in CDI competitions in Bremen and Verden, placing as high as 3rd.

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Karen’s passion for teaching is evident in the success of her students, who have won numerous championship titles. She has coached 18 students to earn their USDF Gold Medals, with countless others achieving Silver and Bronze. She travels to Wellington, Florida for the winter show circuit and currently trains under Olympic Bronze Medalist Charlotte Bredahl.

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Career Accomplishments

Karen Lipp is a USDF Bronze, Silver, and Gold medalist with Distinction, as well as a Centerline Scores rated 5* rider. She has competed in and won several national and international competitions. Year after year, she has helped numerous clients qualify for USDF regional and national championships, NAYC, and USEF Dressage National Championships. 

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Karen's personal accomplishments include winning the Heidelberg Cup and numerous Region 3 Open Championships. She was also short-listed for the 2004 United States Olympic Team. Over the years, she has placed and won multiple USDF and USEF regional and national Dressage championships.

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​Karen successfully competed with a client’s mare, Whitney, in the CDI Grand Prix classes. The pair placed 1st in 2018 at Tryon in the Grand Prix Freestyle. In 2022, Karen took another client’s horse, Inigo Montoya, to the Festival of Champions and placed fifth in the Developing Prix St. Georges at the USEF Dressage National Championships.

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On her own Dutch Warmblood, Infinity, by Dream Boy, Karen has already achieved much – and is excited for the future! Purchasing him as a four-year-old, Karen has trained Infinity all of the way to the Grand Prix. In 2019, Karen won the 4th level USDF National Open Championship on Infinity. In 2020, they finished third at the USEF Dressage National Championships in the Developing Prix St. Georges. In 2021, they again finished third in the USEF Dressage National Championships, but this year in the Intermediate 1. That year, the pair were invited to be on the USDF Development Team. At the 2022 Festival of Champions, the pair placed eighth in the Developing Grand Prix. They returned in 2023 to the same class, placing third. The 2023-24 season saw the pair rising, winning several prestigious competitions. In 2024, Karen and Infinity earned the Reserve Championship at the USEF Dressage National Championships. This incredible accomplishment was highlighted in the newspaper, with a feature article about Karen.

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A tribute to her excellence as a trainer - and a friend, Karen received the 2024 Zen Elite Award presented for her exemplary positivity, passion, enthusiasm and great horsemanship. Selected by the community of competing riders, the “Zen Elite Award” is bestowed annually upon an athlete who encourages other riders, supports teammates, and competitors.

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Training & Teaching

Karen believes in training horses with a positive approach, so they are eager to work for their rider. She emphasizes that with patience and finesse, you can develop a correctly trained horse with better long-term results, rather than relying on force to "make" the horse perform movements. Karen typically works her horses for 30 minutes a day, no more than five days a week, believing that horses remain healthier both mentally and physically when they are not overworked.
 

She is a firm believer in continuous learning and improvement. Karen is coached by Charlotte Bredahl and frequently organizes clinics with top-level trainers from around the world.
 

Karen has personally trained numerous horses from the training levels up to Grand Prix and has also advanced many upper-level horses to Grand Prix. Alongside training and competing, Karen is equally successful in teaching riders. Since 1997, she has taken Juniors and Young Riders to the U.S. Championships almost every year. She also enjoys working with ambitious adult amateurs, who she believes are the backbone of the sport.
 

Throughout her career, Karen has been fortunate to have mentors who gave her opportunities to pursue her passion for horses. She now pays it forward by helping others become the best equestrians they can be.

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Horse Purchases & Sales
For over 30 years, Karen has assisted clients in going to Europe and helping them find their next competition horse.  
 
Other Highlights
Karen is known as a fashionista in the Dressage world and is always on the cutting edge of horse show fashion. In 2012, she was the co-founder of 2KGrey, an equestrian clothing line, which still produces clothes today.

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