About Us
Fuse Equestrian was founded with one goal: to facilitate a connection between horse and rider that they bring out the very best in each other. Our team was carefully chosen not just for their individual talents, but for how their unique strengths complement one another. Each team member brings their own passion, expertise, and perspective to the arena.
Together, we form a unified, collaborative team that supports each rider’s journey and ensures every horse receives thoughtful care and progress. When knowledge, experience, and dedication combine, the result is an environment where success is not only possible, it's inevitable.
Owner and Head Trainer
Katie Dodson
For nearly two decades, Katie Dodson has dedicated herself to developing both horses and riders and sharing her passion for never-ending learning. Her equestrian journey began in the hunter/jumper world at the age of 5, before finding her home at
Misty Brae Farm with Victoria Hutcheson, a USPC A graduate
and widely successful in jumpers and eventing. Through Tori,
she was exposed to a range of disciplines and learned the intricacies of horsemanship, developing horses from the ground up, and eventually started teaching lessons.
She was an active participant in the United States Pony Club, where she quickly and wholeheartedly fell in love with dressage. Since then Katie’s career has been shaped by hands-on experience with a wide variety of horses from green prospects and schoolmasters to FEI-level competitors. She has had a handful of apprenticeships and assistant trainer positions around and outside the country, and took a particular interest in biomechanics of both horse and rider.
While Katie has experience training a wide variety of different breeds, she loves restarting Thoroughbreds off the track and cherishes watching the transition from race horse to sport horse. Prior to launching Fuse Equestrian, she managed a youth program which would source and match juniors with unstarted Thoroughbreds from exemplary breeders in the United States, helping them learn how to develop their own horse.
Katie’s students range from adult amateurs building confidence in the saddle to ambitious youth riders aiming for regional and national competition. Through her guidance her students have earned USDF medals, trained and developed their own horses, and solved training issues they have struggled with prior. What they share is a foundation built on correct basics, compassionate training, and a deep respect for the horse. One of her joys is providing her students their first experiences in the competitive world for horses, giving guidance of the "ins and outs" of showing.
Dedicated to her own continuing education, Katie has trained extensively with top international coaches, earned her USDF Bronze and is aspiring for her Silver medal, she is continually working to grow both her personal program and her team.
Head Trainer
Veronica Laughman
Veronica Laughman is a lifelong equestrian with a diverse background across multiple disciplines, including hunter/jumper, polo, dressage, and natural horsemanship. Her well-rounded experience allows her to bring a thoughtful, adaptable approach to every lesson and training session.
For 15 years, Veronica served as a therapeutic riding instructor certified through PATH International, where she developed a strong foundation in adaptive instruction, rider confidence-building, and horse–rider communication. She continued to teach at a handful of stables around the Northern Virginia area, until crossing paths with Katie in 2020 and subsequently starting Fuse Equestrian. Veronica teaches both English and Western disciplines, with a core emphasis on developing a correct, balanced seat. She believes that a secure, independent seat is the key to rider confidence and long-term success, empowering each student to grow and advance in any discipline they choose.
Veronica owns two off the track Thoroughbreds, both of which she has singlehandedly trained in various disciplines. She has a knack for taking horses who can be described as quirky, goofy, or misunderstood and helping them reach their potential. Her versatile background allows her to approach each horse and rider with empathy, adaptability, and a big-picture understanding of the sport. She is paramount to the first steps of training on our young horses and is also gifted at working with horses that need a focus on behavioral improvement both on the ground and under saddle.
At Fuse Equestrian, Veronica brings a holistic approach to training that prioritizes communication, softness, and clarity between horse and rider. Her goal is not just to develop skilled riders, but thoughtful horse people who can bridge the gaps between disciplines and create lasting partnerships with their horses.
