A Masters Mindset

Alison Zeitlin has brought her determination and skills to cross-country horse racing, the Masters, and more

Super Lawyers online-exclusive

By Jessica Ogilvie on April 10, 2024

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Alison Zeitlin is a self-described adrenaline junkie. Almost as soon as she first climbed onto a horse as a young child, the Kentucky-based attorney fell in love with eventing, an equine sport that challenges riders to compete in cross-country, dressage, and show jumping over the course of one or two days.

“It’s about bravery,” she says of the sport, particularly the cross-country portion. “Being able to think on your feet, scrappiness, grit and courage.”

It’s a mindset that has applied to many areas of her life. When she had the opportunity to intern at the high-stress, high stakes Masters Tournament in college, she jumped on it, even though it was her first real desk job. And in her law practice, where she specializes in business, finance, and equine law, some of her cases require a dogged commitment to making things work no matter what.

“Equine law isn’t a set of laws that is specific to the equine world,” she says. “It’s more applying law to the equine world. … You have to be scrappy. And you have to just make it happen, just get it done.”

Born and raised in Lexington, Kentucky, Zeitlin was immersed in horse culture from birth. Her mother rode as a child and her father worked in the industry. Zeitlin began her riding career in showjumping, but soon after, she was introduced to cross-country, in which horses and their riders set out on natural terrain and speed past existing obstacles—everything from grass and sand to ditches, logs, and bodies of water.

It was there that Zeitlin found her passion.

“The second I did cross-country, I was absolutely hooked,” she says. “There’s just something magical about it to me. My sister went into showjumping, and I was like, ‘I want nothing but to be in danger the whole time,’” she adds with a laugh.

From there, it wasn’t long before she stumbled on eventing. The combination of three different events, she said, seemed like the ultimate challenge.  

“It is, in my mind, the true test of an equine athlete,” Zeitlin says. “It’s a holistic sport. There’s not just one thing that a horse can be good at to be successful in eventing, and same thing for the rider.”

Zeitlin continued to compete throughout high school. She slowed down a bit in college due to time and money constraints, but soon another opportunity came her way.

At the University of South Carolina, where Zeitlin completed her undergraduate degree, students were often tapped to work the Masters Tournament an hour away in Augusta, Georgia. One year, a former sorority sister called and told her there was a rare opportunity to work as an accounting clerk. Zeitlin, an accounting major, jumped at the chance.

Once there, Zeitlin was responsible for tasks such as ensuring that all food was delivered on time to restaurants, and budgeting for whatever chefs needed. In one of the more stressful moments, she was charged with overseeing a semi-truck as it unloaded “the freshest fish possible, the freshest everything possible,” she says. 

The delivery was for the Masters Champions Dinner, attendees of which were walking by as the food was being moved.

“It really exposed me to how much work goes into both events and companies who are running their businesses every single day,” she says. “I try to draw on that with clients.”

She also draws on her eventing mindset: the grit and perseverance, as well as her unique knowledge of the equine industry. “I feel as though I am able to bring a little bit more to the table,” Zeitlin says.

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