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"I grew up in Florida and went to medical school
in Miami," says the radiologist and director of
PuddingStone Manor, an equine boarding and train-
ing facility. "And I've had a lifelong love of horses."
When she met her husband, neurosurgeon
Lawrence Rapp, he was a little baffled by her fasci-
nation with the four-legged creatures. "He liked the
sexy riding boots, though," says Rapp, who strikes
quite a pedigreed, Ralph Lauren-esque pose in her
equestrian gear and casual barn jacket.
The couple bought a house in Wabeek in
Bloomfield Hills, close to the rest of the Rapp fami-
ly; had - two- children, Forrest and Rachel, then ven-
tured out to Clarkston, at Beverly's behest, where
they now reside on 30 bucolic acres.
"I was determined to breed Dutch Warmbloods, a
line of Olympic-quality horses," says Rapp. So about
3 1/2 years ago, she built her farm in Davisburg — a
large, modern barn, an indoor arena, a viewing
gallery and lots of
pasture surround-
ing a 19th-century
farmhouse, where
her manager
resides. She named
it PuddingStone
Manor, after dis-
covering a pudding
stone (a conglomer-
ate of small stones
that forms a larger
boulder) in the
farmhouse garden.
"The training
center is for serious
competitors," says
Rapp. "We fly in
Olympic trainers
and judges for clinics." Peggy Nagler, a dressage
trainer and former consultant for EDS, spends time
every day at PuddingStone. She boards her horses,
Polo and Wettino, there. Polo works at an interna-
tional level, and Wettino, a younger horse, is a
Hanoverian, from Hanover, Germany.
"In dressage (a French word for training), we
work in complex movements and patterns," says
Nagler. "There's an invisible communication
between the rider and horse."
"It's like dancing," adds Rapp.
Typically, Rapp gets to the barn by 8 a.m. and
works the six horses that are presently in training,
including Uriah, a Dutch yearling she helped birth,
and Lyric, her Grand Prix Dressage Schoolmaster
from Europe. "I'm training Lyric for the Pan Am tri-
als," she says. "I'll probably take him to Florida for
the winter." In the afternoon, Rapp goes to the office
to read X-rays. "It's important to me to fit everything
in.
And so Beverly Rapp manages to meld all of her
passions into one very full life. The wife and moth-
er, horsewoman and radiologist, nurtures and trains,
grooms and diagnoses all in the course of a day.
In dressage,
there's an
invisible
communication
between the
rider and
horse. Its like
dancing.
24 • JULY
2002 • STYLE Al' THE JN