At the graduation party her family hosted for her when Dr. Erica Tolar received her Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree (DVM), from the University of Illinois’ College of Veterinary Medicine, a party attendee said to her, “When did you know that you wanted to become a veterinarian?” Unhesitatingly Dr. Tolar responded, “I really can’t remember ever wanting to be anything else but a veterinarian!”

Her very first love of animals were of course for her family’s menagerie of cats, dogs, ferrets, birds, and fish. However, a new animal passion was ignited when she was only seven years old. That was when Dr. Tolar took her first riding lesson and that was when her true and lasting passion for horses and all things equestrian began. Eventually, she and her family moved to a large horse boarding and training farm in the Chicago suburbs.

Dr. Tolar has continued riding American Saddlebreds almost daily since that very first childhood riding lesson, and she has shown Saddlebred horses competitively across the Midwest and Kentucky. Some of her awards and titles include: Reserve World Champion Country Pleasure Driving-Driver Thirty years and Younger, World Champion American Hackney Horse Society Youth Medallion Hackney-Harness Pony Pleasure Driving, and World Grand Champion American Saddlebred Three Gaited Country Pleasure Jr. Exhibitor Championship.

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