On the 5th and 6th of November 2022, over 30 of the UK's best horsemen and women arrived at Bury Farm Equestrian Village in Buckinghamshire for a weekend of brilliant educational demonstrations, talks and performances for the annual horsemanship showcase event. The event was set up by Organised Equestrian in 2018 and has grown to what it is today. It was designed to bring the community together to enjoy an action-packed weekend of outstanding Horsemanship, Horse and Human Health, loads of shopping and more!
Throughout the weekend, the range of demonstrations over 3 arenas was phenomenal, showcasing masterclasses in areas of training including; Liberty, Working Equitation, Loading, Jumping, first handling of foals, Confidence, Bridleless, refinement of aids for higher level performance as well as teaching your horse a great foundation to learn from.
Some of the trainers sharing their knowledge were:
BEN ATKINSON - Steps To A Clear And Beautiful Liberty Foundation.
HOLLY BARBER - Advanced Working Equitation Movements.
MIA RODLEY - How To Fix My Horse Leaving At Liberty.
SEAN COLEMAN - How To Refine Communication In The Saddle.
JOE MIDGLEY - How To Set Foals Up For Success.
OLIVER PHILLIPS - The Aspects Of Rearing.
JASON WEBB - Starting A Horse To The Start Of Their Performance Training.
KAT PICKERING - The Link Between Classical Dressage And Riding Without A Bridle.
STEVE YOUNG - What Is A Truly Halter-Broken Horse
The trainers on display are all great horse people in their own right but diverge across many different styles within the equestrian world from Dressage, Western, Behavioural Specialist, Film Work, Vaquero, Showjumping and Working Equitation to Liberty, Natural Horsemanship and Trick Riding. But all of these have excellent knowledge for you to take away and apply to your horse whether you're a leisure rider or competitive rider, so there is something for everyone, and it's great to bring all these styles together into one place!
After watching some of the demonstrations, one of the most interesting factors was the similarities between what many of the horsemen and women were saying despite what background of horsemanship they were from. For example, Holly Barber and I were talking about pirouettes in our demonstration and the weight aids of the seat being added to other aids to perform the complete movement; we referred back to Sean Coleman's demonstration earlier that day, talking about refining seat aids. For those who don't know, Sean is a natural horsemanship trainer who follows a Vaquero style of riding. Holly and I follow a Classical Equitation style, yet when talking about the refinement of seat aids necessary to perform a movement like a pirouette, the teachings are the same. This is one thing I love about the event, there is nowhere else you can go to see so many different styles of horsemanship and realise they are all just an interpretation of the same thing!
