Southern Blues Equestrian Center strives to blend the best techniques and knowledge gathered from Europe, the U.S., and around the globe. We welcome students and instructors from abroad and from just around the corner. Encouraging the exchange of information among horsemen with varied experiences is crucial to developing the best in horsemanship at home and away.
We also provide international travel for competition, training and continuing education. Likewise, world-class clinicians come to Southern Blues throughout the year to provide clinics for our students.
Visiting Student Success Stories
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Joanne Hagen (AUS), age 20, a successful show jumping young rider in her country, came to SBEC from January- March 2009. A very hard worker, Joanne left with a more thorough understanding of the functioning of the horse in sport. She also became a very capable and independent stable manager, both at home at the farm and on the road for 6 weeks at the Winter Equestrian Festival. She really excelled in the training of young horses, both on the ground and riding on the flat and over fences.
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Justin Vaz (JAM), age 15, trained for 2 weeks in Wellington, FL on an SBEC lease horse at the Winter Equestrian Festival. He won or had excellent placings in all of his classes. Along with learning stable management, horse care and grooming skills, he took away with him an understanding and appreciation for the hunter and equitation ranks, disciplines he had never been exposed to before.
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JayLynn Hines (BER), age 14, completed three weeks of intensive training on SBEC horses and topped off her stay with a second place finish in the NAL Children’s/Adult Jumper Classic in Germantown, TN. Not only did JayLynn have success in the show ring, she also gained skills and experience for training and riding many types of horses in her quest to become a professional rider and trainer one day.
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Alexandra Osterstrom (SWE), age 21, successfully underwent three months of intensive training as a visiting student. On arrival, she was a novice rider, however, she progressed to riding and training everything from young horses to experienced jumpers with a confident attitude and wonderful position.
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Mikaela Hambert (SWE) age 22, came to SBEC with an excellent education as a groom and a wonderful hand with horses. Show jumping was a brand new discipline for her as her background is with Icelandic horses, but she quickly adapted and excelled in her position and made lots of progress in this new sport for her.
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Cornelia Lilja (SWE) age 20, had a very successful stay at SBEC, both to do with her riding and her responsibilities in the stable. Cornelia was lucky enough to be here for the birth of Johannes Baier and did a remarkable job managing the stable in McKrell's absence. In her spare time she also developed as a beautiful and tactful rider, and enjoyed all the cultural wonders of the mid-south during her visit!
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Elena Smith (USA) age 20, trained at SBEC from January 2009 until her return to university in August. Elena blossomed as a rider and did a wonderful job training horses for the lesson program. She can be seen in the Mid South Horse Review September 2010 issue as one of the riders photographed at the SBEC combined test event!
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Hillary Pigford (USA) age 35, is a professional rider and riding instructor from Jacksonville, FL. She trained at SBEC for a very intensive week long session, wherein she improved not only her riding, but also her teaching skills, understanding of equine nutrition and training, as well as her ability to build courses and exercises for her horses and riders.
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Jasmine Tensen (SWE) age 19, came to SBEC as an accomplished dressage rider, and upon completion of her stay had improved her technique not only in dressage, but also in jumping. She even competed successfully in a local dressage competition at first level!
Christian Maastricht, NED 2008
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Melanie Smith Taylor (USA) - Team Gold Medalist 1984 Summer Olympics Los Angeles.
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Albert Voorn (NED) - Individual Silver Medalist 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney.
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Joe Fargis (USA) - Individual and Team Gold Medalist 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles; Team Silver Medalist 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul.
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