Amateur Rider Dr. Maxine Tabas Earns Her USDF Gold Medal

With extremely long days as a surgeon, who is also a wife and mother of twins, Dr. Maxine Tabas has managed to reach what most amateur dressage athletes can only dream of earning her USDF Gold Medal. Currently training with 2001 North American Young Rider Gold Medalist Leslie Eden in Geneva, Florida Tabas has focused on reaching her goals step by step on each horse. "Right now I have a Hanoverian gelding and mare, and I am very excited to have earned my Gold Medal. I like to show, but I am also interested in understanding and learning the finesse behind the riding. I really am enjoying this process." Her three current horses are Dante (Donnerhall X Pramissse) and Deseridata  (Hanoverian - Donnerschlag x Way of Life) and a horse she started with up the levels, Oberon Swedish Warmblood (Cortez x Givenchy). Named as one of the top doctors in Orlando in dermatologic and laser surgery for many years, Maxine shares "My joy is helping patients with serious facial cancers and then reconstructing them to look normal." So how does she do it all? Maxine Tabas (Dr. Tabas) grew up in Philadelphia, PA. She received her undergraduate and Medical degrees from Washington University in St. Louis, MO. After fellowship, she joined the faculty at Washington University before accepting a position at Stanford in Palo Alto, CA. In 1991, she moved to Central Florida and opened her Dermatology private practice and began her path in dressage. In 2014, she received her USDF Gold Medal with her Grand Prix horse Dante (Donnerhall X Pramissse).

Graduating from Washington University in 1976 with a double major in biology and anthropology, Maxine attended Washington University Medical School, both of which were 4 years. After that she spent a 1 year internship in internal medicine, a 3 year dermatology residency, and a 2 year fellowship in dermatologic and laser surgery. She went on to become faculty at Washington University for 2 years, and then moved to Orlando in private practice. After a year and a half she was recruited to become head of Dermatologic Surgery at Stanford University in California. After 2 years and pregnant with twins, she gave up an academic career and she and her husband moved back to Orlando.

On bed rest and hospitalization with pre-term labor for 5 months, when her twins were a little over a year she opened her own private practice again. One twin required multiple hospitalizations she became scared she would never be able to operate again as a surgeon. But it all has been very successful. She shared, "I have been

How her life connected to dressage, she said, “I have always loved horses but my parents thought it was a waste of time so I did not have a lot of opportunity to ride as a child. I knew that in order to ride and support horses, I would need to make a good living.” She bought her first horse off the track as a third year med student and was able to moonlight in the ER for $75 an hour for on a 12 hour shift. She said, “I would wake up at 4 am and ride before classes. This continued into my residency with a hiatus during internship because the average work week was 100 hours a week. I was finally able to support a decent dressage horse about 3 years into my private practice and could not get enough of it.”