Clinics

Every year the CIEF looks to engage the services of visiting clinicians who can enhance and supplement the coaching that is available on island.  In 2015, the CIEF brought in Victoire Mandl (FEI 4* Judge) from Austria to privide Dressage Clinics, as well as regular clinicians, Cindy Thaxton of the USA to hold dressage clinics and Corrine Bracken of the UK to provide jumping clinics.

REGULAR VISITING CLINICIANS:

CINDY THAXTON:  Cindy began formal lessons at age 6, riding Hunters, Equitation and Junior Jumpers. She and husband, Greg, opened their barn, High Point Farm in 1985.

Early in her career, while coaching her competitive students in Equitation and Hunters with many GHJA and USEF Zone Year end awards, Cindy began studying dressage.  This passion led her to becoming a USDF Certified Dressage Instructor and USDF L Graduate judge.  Cindy has successfully instructed students from Training Level through Intermediare 2 in the show arena and enjoys the process from start to finish.  As a competitor riding through Intermediate 2, Cindy has achieved her USDF Bronze Medal, Silver Medal, and Bronze Musical Freestyle Bar.  Her depth of show mileage positions her needing only two points at Prix St Georges to complete her Centerline Scores’ 4-star status.

Cindy likes to develop harmony of horse and rider.  Three of her students are awaiting Grand Prix scores for their Gold Medals.  Additionally, her students have earned these awards: 11 USDF Participating Rider patches, sixteen USDF Bronze Medals, eleven USDF Silver Medals, four USDF Regional Champions, six USDF Regional Reserve Champions, two ATA HOY PSG Champions, two ATA HOY I-1 Champion, eleven GDCTA HOY Champions, sixteen GDCTA HOY Reserve Champions, one NCDCTA HOY PSG Championship, three NCDCTA HOY Reserve Champions, and one Swedish Warmblood HOY 3rd Level Championship.

Helping Juniors and Young Riders pursue North America Junior and Young Rider Championship goals has been a part of her career since 1993.  Cindy has served as USDF Youth Liason nationally as well as for Region 3.  This position has given her the opportunity to educate people about NAJYRC as well as help with fundraising.  She has enjoyed using her organization skills as Region 3 Chef d’Equipe for the team multiple years.  She also has been priveledged to coach Region 3 team riders.  Cindy also like supporting Lendon Gray’s Dressage for Kids and the Emerging Dressage Athletes Program.

On an international level, Cindy Thaxton coached Cayman Island rider, Jessica McTaggart, at the XXI Central American and Caribbean Games in Puerto Rico.  This was McTaggart’s first International FEI representation and she was 14th out of 34 competitors. Ms. McTaggart went on to compete in the PanAm Games the following fall with a finish in the middle.  Cindy is also proud to coach regularly for the Cayman Islands Equestrian Federation’s National Dressage Team at the FEI World Dressage Challenge.  This team has been a repetitive leader of the competition.  She is also thrilled to help coach a student located in the United Kingdom, on her lovely stallion.

Cindy’s passion is teaching.  This love shows when she teaches at home or at dressage clinics. She invests heavily in working students at the farm and also enjoys working with students who have no competitive desires. This allows her program to remain multi-dimentional, with the goal of fulfilling the aspirations of each student individually.

FELICITAS VON NEUMANN COSUL: Felicitas has lived in the US for 30 years working out of First Choice Farm in Maryland as an international dressage trainer and competitor. German born, Felicitas received her first training in Germany, finishing her apprenticeship at the top of her class. After 5 years in the US, her mentor and employer, Gene Freeze encouraged her to return to Germany to finish her Master Degree.  In that exam she did not only get perfect scores for riding dressage but also finished the exam with the highest score ever given.

An American citizen since 1991, she has trained numerous horses to Grand Prix and has competed for years, winning Championships on many different horses she trained, at all different levels. One of her top Grand Prix horses was Roulette, an Oldenberg bred and owned by Gene Freeze, who ranked in the top ten at the HOY Grand Prix level, before his career was cut short by an injury.

Her now retired Grand Prix horse, Tonico do Top, a Lusitano stallion not only made it to Grand Prix, but also won the BLM Grand Prix Championships 4 years in a row, the BLM Grand Prix Freestyle Championship 3 years in a row and the GAIG Grand Prix Freestyle Championship the last two years.  He also won the Grand Prix and Grand Prix Freestyle Championship at the Andalusian Nationals.

In 2016 Felicitas won the BLM Prix St. George and Intermediare 1 Championships with Luke Skywalker.

As a frequent contributor for Dressage Today, Felicitas has been featured on the cover several times, most recently in the September 2015 issue with Tonico do Top. The correctness and harmony of the pair, also landed them on four book covers, Horse and Rider, Back to Back and Das Pferd in positive Spannung, Das Geheimnis der unsichtbaren Hilfen and a book by Sally O’Connor.

Felicitas is known for her clear and creative approach with horse and rider, taking into consideration both the horse’s and rider’s individual bio-mechanics and personalities, the science of animal training, as well as the theory of dressage.  She has been extremely successful showing that classical training works with all breeds and has shared her experience with many young trainers she mentors.

An effective and articulate clinician, Felicitas’ style is sympathetic to the horse.  Her strength lies in making the horse more beautiful, and allowing it to express itself.  She patiently encourages the horse to stretch into a soft hand, lift his back and carry his own neck, as if peering over the edge of a cliff. She bases her work on classical methods as exemplified by the best of the European tradition. Typically participants and auditors alike benefit immensely from the creative and subtle strategies Felicitas shares with them. All leave with a better understanding of how to enhance the flow of their horse’s energy from back to front, and front to back again.

Felicitas was also invited to sit on the panel of the first Global Dressage Forum in North America. In the early years of the USDF instructors program she was one of the examiners until her schedule did not allow it any longer.

Please check our show calendar for upcoming clinic dates.