Ericka Rusnak loves the small things about horses just as much now as when she was a little girl. It's helped to shape her in many ways, not the least of which being her career path to one of Canada's premier horse breeders.

As Ericka joins Tracey on this episode of Hitting Your Stride, she talks about all of the elements that have mixed perfectly together to bring her to this point: breeder of a Queen's Plate champion and one of the new generation of horse breeders in Canada. She talks about how she made the switch from competitive rowing and how closely linked the two sports are, to what it's like running her two-farm operation that's nearly non-stop.

An important revelation comes when Ericka mentions the equality she applies to lessons learned from both success and failure and how it takes practice to make progress. There have been hard lessons, but everything she's learned guided her to the highest highs she's experienced.

Forging her own name and success has been an intentional journey filled with challenges and choices, and she chooses to see the good that always follows the bad.

Ericka Rusnak is the manager at Hill'N'Dale Canada and can be found on both Facebook and Instagram.