Valerie Sabado Sport Horses
360-332-1020 360-303-2824
valandtoby@aol.com
Available to help riders with both competitive and non-competitive goals improve skills, knowledge and communication, and increase enjoyment for both horse and rider through classical dressage training. In addition to competitive dressage and dressage as an art in itself, dressage training can be used as a foundation to improve horses of every breed and discipline.
Valerie has over twenty years experience teaching and training dressage, her diverse background helps to understand the unique requirements in each equestrian discipline. She began teaching, training, and boarding horses while still a teenager in the 4-H program – at that time she was competing in western, hunt seat, trail class, stock horse… even some sidesaddle and saddle seat. At 16, Val became a working student and training apprentice for local Hunter/Jumper trainer Suzy Huizenga. In the next few years she transitioned from primarily western riding to the hunter and jumper world. Val taught lessons and trained horses for Suzy’s clients under her supervision. When Val was 19, Suzy and her started the first Pony Club in Whatcom County and Val was formally introduced to dressage and eventing, and to following the hounds on drag hunts. Although Val continued showing hunters and jumpers for the next decade, her focus shifted to combined training (eventing), and her passion for dressage grew. When she graduated from Pony Club membership at age 21, Val had completed the ‘B’ Rating and was teaching Pony Club clinics and camps around the state. She continued to teach and judge for Pony Club for several more years. During that time, Val rode in clinics with Grand Prix jumper trainer John Jensen and top eventing trainers Jim Graham, Todd Trewin, Melissa Beardsley, Jean Moyer, and others.
Always deeply committed to furthering her own equestrian knowledge, Val trained extensively in dressage with FEI rider Ellen Mahaney (1994-1998), Canadian Equestrian Team member and World Equestrian Games competitor Liz Hopps (1997-2000), and Saumur graduate and international FEI competitor Christophe Theallet (2000-2004 and 2007 to present). Val also rode in clinics with Olympic competitor Evi Strasser, international FEI competitor and PanAm Games silver medalist Dr. Cesar Parra and has audited with many other well-known international dressage trainers, including Charles de Kunffy, Rudolph Zeilenger, and Conrad Schumacher.
In 1999, Val participated in a week-long United States Dressage Federation Instructor Certification Mega Workshop in Jackson, WY with national examiner Loma Fowler. This workshop featured mock testing in each of the different areas of riding and teaching required for USDF instructor certification and participants came from all over the United States. Val mock-tested for Training through 4th level certification. Fewer than 20% of candidates pass this demanding and prestigious test and become certified by the USDF, even in the less strenuous Training through 2nd level category. In the entire mock testing, only two trainers received scores in every area high enough to pass the certification and Val was one of them.
Val owned and operated a boarding and training facility from 1983 to 2004. In the course of her horse career, Val has trained well over 100 horses of all breeds, from starting young horses under saddle to FEI level dressage. During peak years, Val had 30 to 35 active students and four to six horses in full training at any one time. As an avid competitor, Val rode numerous horses and coached several riders to many blue ribbons at ‘A’ rated dressage and combined training competitions, as well as winning multiple local, regional, and national championships and year-end awards. Val also brokered sport horses for several years, finding quality dressage, hunter/jumper, and eventing horses all over the United States, Canada, and Europe for riders from beginning levels to international competitors.
Val is committed to the safety and well-being of you and your horse from the ground up: Training sessions are $40 for 45 minutes and can take the form of dressage, basic horsemanship and basic jumping in lessons and training rides or hands-on coaching and consulting on all aspects of horse care, horse management and handling techniques, and facility design. Let’s work out a custom program to meet your individual horse-related needs!
Also available for clinics; horse show coaching; horse sales and purchase assistance; consulting and assisting on the management, bookkeeping, and tax side of horse businesses; and judging local shows.
References gladly provided on request.
Arena fee for haul-ins to New Song Stables or use of lesson horse $10 additional.
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