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Background History
Paula started her equestrian career in show
jumping, competing and producing horse to sell up to Grade A. In 1990 she was persuaded to go to
Greece to act as a trainer for an aspiring International show jumper and
family, which proved to be a very worthwhile and great fun. Although most of the horses were
seasoned performers, one of the horses wasn’t performing well as he was
being resistant to the rider’s leg so Paula took the ride to sort him
out, which didn’t take long and he turned out to have a hidden talent for
dressage. Within 18 months little
Tattoo was winning all the PSG tests and proceeded to win the Greek
National Championship 3 years running.
During this time Paula was fortunate to have training with top FEI
judges/trainers that were flown in to take training courses in Athens. As a finale to Paula’s stay in Greece
she was able to support a Greek rider to compete internationally and win the
Balkan International Games, Gold medal, with Tattoo.
With Paula’s quest to gain more experience
in dressage and with no higher level to compete at, Paula regrettably
left Greece. A season with Hasse
Hoffman in Denmark, gave Paula the opportunity to ride and train multiple
horses in a large Professional yard.
This was followed by time working for Franz Rockawansky (Rocky)
(Ex Chief rider at the Spanish Riding School in Vienna) and Vicki
Thompson-Winfield. Training all
levels under Rocky’s watchful eye who did not miss a thing! She went on to work freelance, working
horses for Vicki at Wayne Channon’s Exfold stud including riding his
young stallions, followed by teaching her own clients in the afternoons.
In 2001 with the help of
her family, Paula set up Gemsbrook Dressage so that she could train and compete her own and her client’s horses. She is fortunate enough to have been
able to create an excellent set up with both indoor and outdoor arenas,
American barn stabling and individual turnout paddocks close to hand.
Over the past few years
Paula has had success training horses up through the grades, including
two of her own which have been very successful at small tour level, with
one that she still owns (First dance) being trained to Grand Prix but
sadly retired before he could show his full talent.
Paula is passionate about
training and takes great satisfaction in helping clients improve and
fulfil their aims and ambitions from prelim to inter I. Her training methods work with a
holistic approach, covering all aspects of horse and rider. Her methods have developed from her
years of experience but are primarily based around classical principles.
She is able to solve
problems and can pin-point where a combination are going wrong.
Clients quote “Paula
never ceases to amaze me with her knowledge of exercises to solve
problems and her keen eye for detail from the ground. When it feels terrific onboard she is
still looking for perfection”.
Having trained a vast
number of horses Paula can assess and improve a horse’s way of going from
the young green horse to the ones ready to progress to advanced
work. Having the natural feel and
ability to teach the correct basics and the more advanced movements, such
as flying changes and lateral work etc.
Clients can bring their horses for short or long term training
with very successful results.
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