How coaches and athletes tend to the training and management needs of the para-dressage horse
This article is reprinted from the November/December 2025 issue of USDF Connection.
By Patti Schofler
No elite athlete succeeds without a lot of behind-the-scenes support. But in the sport of para-dressage, it takes a special kind of village to keep top horses happy, healthy, and appropriately “tuned up” for their riders.
And these unicorns are worth the effort! To excel at the top levels, a para-dressage horse has to combine a generous and forgiving character, a relatively unflappable nature, and gaits (especially the walk) that you could set a metronome to.
“If the horse can do this job, it’s a wonderful life,” says dressage pro and para-dressage coach Andrea Woodard, 42, of Loxahatchee, Florida, whose student Roxanne Trunnell rode Dolton to Grade I Freestyle and Grade I Individual gold medals at the 2021 Tokyo Paralympic Games, then won team gold and Grade I Individual silver at Paris 2024 aboard Fan Tastico H. “There is a bond between the athlete and the horse. The horse is taking care of a vulnerable person, and he gets whatever the athlete can afford for him.”
In this article, Woodard and two other well-known para-dressage coaches share what goes into the TLC and training of an elite horse.
The Coach Is the Bridge
In able-bodied dressage, competitors generally do most (if not all) of the day-to-day riding. Because of para-dressage athletes’ physical limitations, para-dressage is different.
“Without a coach who can help keep the horse fit and sound, it’s impossible to be at the top of the game” in para-dressage, says Woodard, who while growing up in Denmark received six years of Bereiter education with the Danish Equestrian Federation.
The primary objective of the high-performance team, Woodard explains, is to keep the para-dressage athlete safe by ensuring that the horse is balanced and comfortable in his body, and clear in his understanding of his rider’s aids. That’s why the coach may need to step in from time to time: to serve as a communication bridge between the athlete and the horse. Response to the rider’s leg aids is a common area that requires the occasional tune-up, with the coach getting on to ensure that the horse both understands the athlete’s aids and is sufficiently responsive to those given by the para-dressage athlete.
When coach Kjersten Elliott rides a student’s para-dressage mount, “I’m seeing that the horse understands and says ‘I can do that for you,’” she says. “With the lower level [lower competition grades of para-dressage athletes, assigned to riders with more severe physical impairments], I might need to warm up the horse and see that his body is working well and is ready to help the rider achieve whatever the rider is looking at.”
Elliott, 46, of Wellington, Florida, got her start in the sport by grooming and warming up Roxanne Trunnell’s mount Nice Touch at the 2014 FEI World Equestrian Games in France and again at the 2016 Rio Paralympics. She later began grooming for champion para-dressage athlete Rebecca Hart and now serves as Hart’s coach, including at Paris 2024, where Hart on Floratina was a three-time gold medalist.
“If I have to take the horse for a couple of days [for training], it is not because the athlete isn’t good enough; it’s just that the horse is not understanding, and I need time to work it out,” Woodard explains. “Some of the training time is with me, and most of the time it’s with them. If I see a decline in some exercise, it’s time for me to get on for us to get on track.”
Hart personally handles most of her horses’ care, according to Elliott (thanks to Hart’s mobility scooter, the Paralympian “does 100 percent of the care herself at home, except for jogging for the vet”), and she’s “as skilled and knowledgeable as any professional and does most of the riding. But it’s hard to start the ride with her legs strapped to the saddle”—a necessary adaptive measure because Hart’s familial spastic paraplegia has weakened her legs and caused loss of motor control. “It’s better if I get on and get the horse’s back involved, the shoulders up, and the hind end more involved. Then she gets on and can maintain it well,” says Elliott.
“Horses are clever and understand that the [para-dressage] rider has different aids,” says Shayna Simon, who coached Team USA member Beatrice de Lavalette to a Grade II fifth-place finish at the 2021 Tokyo Paralympics. Often, “the horse isn’t forward enough on his own. The para is unlikely to be able to fix that problem. I’m going to get on the horse and tune it in so that when someone presses with the leg, this is the response I need from you. Because they’re animals, it’s going to wear off. The next day, I’m going to get on before the rider and see how it’s doing.”
Simon, 35, of Loxahatchee, Florida, earned her USDF bronze, silver, and gold medals on her own Harley Davidson, whom she’d started as a three-year-old and brought up the levels. She was introduced to para-dressage while she was working with such top trainers as Olympians Steffen Peters and Klaus Balkenhol. In 2019, Simon earned her USEF silver para-equestrian coach certificate.
Training and Conditioning Challenges and Solutions
For the horses that mostly walk in competition, Simon does conditioning work at the canter, noting that the gaits are related: “Both use the hindquarter muscles at the same time.”
With horses that compete at the lower grades, Simon focuses more on longitudinal thoroughness and relaxation than on cadence and positive tension.
“They all need to be conditioned,” she says, “but you have to focus on different aspects of the horse’s fitness and training depending on the grade that the rider is.”
Horses that compete in a grade that restricts them to one or two gaits typically need full-spectrum fitness work under their coaches to help keep them fresh and happy in their work.
“If they walk and trot, I keep them cantering at home, training like able-bodied horses,” says Simon. “If I have a Grade I [walk-only] horse to train, I do other things so that the horse is still happy to walk, and give more variety and muscle development that the rider can’t do.”
A Grade I horse “needs to be able to go forward with someone with limited balance,” Elliott notes. A challenge may be horses’ natural tendency to mimic their riders’ imbalance, which can lead to unevenness or outright unsoundness. The coach needs to figure out how to train the horse so that it can manage the rider’s imbalance while itself remaining in balance.
“It’s not trying to mimic what the para-dressage rider is doing, but to build correct strength on both sides to be evenly strong,” says Woodard. “You make sure that the back can hold what weight it needs to. There are no blockages and inequalities in the body and the mind. The horse wants to do the job, and it feels good. If the rider doesn’t have a coach that can produce that, it’s impossible to be at the top of the game.”
A Positive Experience for Horse and Rider
Top coaches stay keenly attuned to horses’ state of mind, understanding that being ridden and trained by two very different riders can produce unique stresses.
As Woodard points out, “The para-dressage rider needs to spend time in the saddle. But it’s a fine line: It’s an animal, and we can only ask this much of the animal. You have to read between the lines, seeing where we are starting to untrain, and it’s better to stop.”
In all equestrian sport, Woodard says, “we are asking a different creature to participate in our ambition. If our ambition gets us making unfair [demands], putting unfair pressure, the animal becomes less happy.
“When the horse understands its job, is supple and strong, the para-dressage rider can ride it,” Woodard continues. “The horse has to be happy and feeling good in its body to be able to thrive and shine. It’s not that different from any horse, but you are looking at a rider who sometimes gets out of balance or can’t aid like an able-bodied person because of strength, or has one leg or hand. So you have to figure out ways to adapt.”
That process of adaptation means that the para-dressage coach sometimes acts as a translator of sorts between the horse and the para-dressage athlete.
“In para-dressage, everything is more sensitive, especially working with riders with pretty distinct disabilities,” says Simon. “I need to warm up the horse for my rider and get the horse through the back, but on the day [of the competition] the para-dressage rider rides. At competitions, you have to cater to their disability. I have a student who has cerebral palsy. She has spasms in her legs, and her strength is not average. Her balance is not as good as that of an able-bodied person, so [when I ride her horse] I will move my balance around so the horse responds to that imbalance.”
Like the riding, the management of a top para-dressage horse is a team effort.
“It’s important that there be a good feeling behind the scenes,” says Woodard. “Some riders can’t do the things to take care of the horse, like walk the horse or turn him out, because they’re in wheelchairs. So it’s important to have a team that acts as their legs, checks if the horse doesn’t lie down regularly, and that he’s comfortable.”
Perfect Matches
Although some top para-dressage horses are surprisingly young, many found their way into the sport later in life, while stepping down from higher-level dressage careers. There are numerous examples of horses that appear to be relishing their second (or third!) careers in the less physically demanding para-dressage arena.
Laura Whitfield, a student of Simon’s, has a seasoned Prix St. Georges horse that wasn’t able to move further up the levels, Simon says. At the trainer’s suggestion, Whitford lent her horse to a Grade I para-dressage athlete, and now the horse is enjoying his walk-only competitive career.
“It’s a good aspect for a horse that couldn’t be a Grand Prix horse and doesn’t like to be compressed as much but has a lot of gait,” says Simon. “Para gave it another avenue. It gives the horse a good life, new purpose, and is really well cared for.”
When a para-dressage horse-and-rider pair shines, it can be an emotional experience for a coach.
“When I see super harmony between para pairs, it brings tears to my eyes because I know exactly how much time and effort have gone into the whole team to make a top performance happen,” says Woodard.
“Para has inspired my passion,” says Simon. “I found the direct connection between the horse and rider. It isn’t about the perfect line of flying changes; it’s about the horse making the person feel amazing, valuable, and able to do things. The horse is helping people walk, and it is empowering. That’s special.”
Patti Schofler is an award-winning freelance equestrian journalist and editor living in Petaluma, California, where she adores riding and messing around with her Andalusian Toledano XXXVIII, who is working at Third Level.
