Working Equitation
Working Equitation is fairly new to the USA but has been around in Europe for years. This incredibly fun discipline, which is open to all breeds, is a combination of dressage type tests, obstacle courses, and speed courses. Its popularity is really starting to grow and under WEIAUSA, there is now a championship show at the end of the year, hosted by Haras Dos Cavaleros, in Magnolia Texas.
Our journey with this sport started a little late compared to some, in 2013, but have had the most amazing time learning and competing with Working Equitation. We have attended a number of clinics and schooling shows, the Judges Seminar with Claudia Elsnor Matos, and have competed at the IALHA and Haras Cup Championships. We both attended the week long Trainer's Seminar in California where we had the privilege of learning from Nuno Matos, clinician for the Pedro Torres Academy of Portugal. We were lucky to host him two more times here in Illinois.
If you are around the Illinois or Midwest area, and are interested in learning more about Working Equitation, please visit www.workingequitationillinois.com or www.weiausa.com. We are the Illinois WEIAUSA state affiliate, and together we hope to introduce this fun sport to more people and really get Working Equitation growing!!
Our journey with this sport started a little late compared to some, in 2013, but have had the most amazing time learning and competing with Working Equitation. We have attended a number of clinics and schooling shows, the Judges Seminar with Claudia Elsnor Matos, and have competed at the IALHA and Haras Cup Championships. We both attended the week long Trainer's Seminar in California where we had the privilege of learning from Nuno Matos, clinician for the Pedro Torres Academy of Portugal. We were lucky to host him two more times here in Illinois.
If you are around the Illinois or Midwest area, and are interested in learning more about Working Equitation, please visit www.workingequitationillinois.com or www.weiausa.com. We are the Illinois WEIAUSA state affiliate, and together we hope to introduce this fun sport to more people and really get Working Equitation growing!!
What We've Done with Working Equitation!
2015 Haras Cup - CDC Memoria & Erica Peet
2015 Haras Cup - CDC Luna & Howard Peet
2015 CDC Luna & Katie Berger
Working Equitation Trainer's Seminar with Nuno Matos!!
The week long Trainer's Seminar with Nuno Matos was an amazing time. Nuno Matos, Reserve World Champion Working Equitation rider of Portugal, ran 6 of us (trainers from around the US), through an intensive work course with our horses, to improve our negotiation of the obstacles for the ease of handling phase, increase our scores in the dressage phase, and gave us fantastic pointers for the speed phase. At the end of the week, a clinic and schooling show, open to the public, was held and we all put our new knowledge to the test.
Haras Cup Working Equitation International Championship
Oct. 24-26 2014, Magnolia, Texas
The first ever Haras Cup was held at the beautiful property of Haras Dos Cavaleiros. They offered Kids 13 & under, Juniors 14-17, Novice, Intermediate, and Advanced levels for Working Equitation. It was judged by 2 international Working Eq. judges; Claudia Elsner Matos of Portugal & Sandra Migl of Austria. We took 3 horses. Erica rode Barquillero LXIV Novice level, and placed 2nd out of 22!! Howard rode Kudu GF Intermediate level and placed 5th out of 7, Howard also rode Memoria CDC Novice level, and Meagan Hansen also rode Kudu in the Juniors level, and took 4th place! This was one of the most fun shows we have ever participated at. The atmosphere was happy, all the fellow competitors cheered for each other and helped each other out. We are so happy to have gotten involved in this discipline and look forward to getting to more events in the future!
Andalusian World Cup - Las Vegas, Sept. 25-27 2014
The inaugural Andalusian World Cup National Show went off without a hitch! What a way to show off all of our horses abilities, a combination of American performance classes, Working Equitation, and ANCCE halter classes made this quite the show! Everyone had a great time! In addition to the championships earned by the horses, Howard was awarded the Andalusian World Fellowship Award- for a person who has gone to great lengths to create a sense of unification, friendship, and fellowship within the rest of the horse community. Congrats to our clients Bill & Adrienne of Xavier Farms, they earned the Andalusian World Conquistador Award- for the individual who had traveled the greatest geographic distance in order to compete at the Inaugural World Cup Show. Thanks to the World Cup show committe for putting on such a great event, and here's to the next one!!
Working Equitation Judging Seminar- Eugene, OR Sept. 3-7
In an effort to better educate ourselves about the growing sport of Working Equitation, Erica attended the Judging Seminar. She sat in as an auditor to learn as much as she could from the clinician, Claudia Elsnor Matos of Portugal. Claudia spent 3 days lecturing, showing video clips, and testing the judge prospects that attended to get licensed as Working Eq. judges. It was a very informative seminar, and Erica came home with a much deeper understanding of the discipline and how it should be done. In addition to the seminar, there was also a riding clinic being presented by Jorge de Sousa. He worked with a number of riders on how to improve their dressage phase tests, and how best to work on improving certain obstacles. Erica watched the clinic as much as she could and picked up some really good pointers. In all, this was time VERY well spent and we highly recommend it to anyone who wants to truly understand Working Equitation!
Nuno Matos Working Equitation Clinic, Eugene, OR July 2
Howard took a few days to take advantage of being able to learn from an international Working Equitation professional, Nuno Matos of Portugal. Howard was able to be schooled on Armani owned by Julie Alonzo. Howard loved Nuno's no nonsense approach to teaching horses about obstacles and his easy going demeanor. It was a great time and Howard cannot wait for the next time!
Howard Peet & Nuno Matos