Biography

Tanja Schnuderl’s extensive knowledge and experience in both the legal and equine professions created the perfect foundation for her career as an equine expert witness.

Tanja grew up riding and showing horses in Germany. She had her first riding lesson at the age of seven. An Oldenburger gelding named “Noblesse Oblige” became her four-legged partner for many years and started her lifelong passion for horses. When she moved to the US seven years ago, she brought her international equestrian experience and continued to ride and show horses here in the US.

Tanja’s professional experience started in the legal industry. After being certified as a legal secretary and specialized in bankruptcy law, she was part of a high-profile law firm in Germany for over nine years. In 2013, Tanja was offered a position in the International Department of the renowned law firm Smith, Gambrell & Russell, LLP in Atlanta, GA and moved to the US. In addition to gaining working knowledge and valuable insights into the American Legal System, Tanja earned her Bachelor of Law Degree (LL.B.) from Euro-FH in Hamburg, Germany.

Tanja’s professional demeanor, expertise with horses and European knowledge of sporthorses provided a career path to working with horses full time. Soon after she started leasing a dressage horse at a private horse boarding facility with 28 horses, just outside of Washington, DC, clients and boarders noticed Tanja’s expertise and began asking her advice for equine care questions. Soon they trusted her competence to handle, take care of and school their valuable horses. Tanja quickly took over different horse care responsibilities on a weekly basis. Her professional demeanor and extensive knowledge provided a career path to working with horses fulltime. Tanja turned her lifelong passion into a full-time profession and accepted the barn manager position.

Tanja has a proven track record of feeding customized equine diets, taking care of injuries, monitoring horses for signs and symptoms of sickness or discomfort, administrating supplements and medicines, managing feed orders, and working together with farriers and vets. Implementing barn rules and protocols and keeping a watchful eye on horses and customers are additional responsibilities of the barn manager position, in order to ensure the safety of riders, horses and boarders.

Her extensive experience providing barn management services and taking excellent care of the resident performance horses at busy boarding barns, includes a modern 20-stall boutique barn, located at the long-established Loch Moy Farm, which is home to the Maryland Horse Trials as well as managing the exclusive 8 horse training facility of a USDF Gold, Silver and Bronze medalist and FEI Dressage Rider.

Tanja is now the Director and Park Manager at The South Carolina Equine Park, located in Camden, SC. The South Carolina Equine Park is a 60-acre multiple-disclipine horse competition facility, featuring several show rings and a total of 288 stalls, spread out over 9 barn buildings. With an average of 30 competition weekends each year, consistently producing an economic impact of more than $4 million dollars annually, the park is a major ecomocial driver in the area.

Tanja is a certified appraiser with the American Society of Equine Appraisers and has established her own equine appraisal business, Sigma Equine, LLC. Since 2020 she holds a USDF University diploma as recognition for her continuing education, awarded after successfully completing close to 100 courses and exams on various equine care, horse behavior and dressage topics. Additionally, Tanja is continuously extending her equine expertise with seminars and online course.

As an active member of the United Stated Equestrian Federation (USEF), the United Stated Dressage Federation (USDF) and the Potomac Valley Dressage Association (PVDA), Tanja competes at dressage shows on a regular basis.

Tanja is the Director of International Services at The Equine Expert LLC and serves as consultant and expert witness with specialties in barn management, horse behavior and appraising. Because Tanja is fluent in both German and English, her bilingual skills have been a great asset to some of our International cases.