These are a few of my favorite... riders

I was very excited to find three good riders in my area, that I had to blog about it!

So, recently I discovered a dressage master named Wolfgang May. He had shown my future instructor a technique to get a better flying lead change, and the upper level riders/eventers were practicing it last week. He sounded like a very good teacher, trained at the Vienna Riding School (which automatically biases my decision that they must be a good rider, but usually they are, so it's a fair bias) and then at the American Spanish Riding School in (Wellington, Florida?) and now he currently resides in *drumroll please* TEXAS! And not some place in Lubbock nine hours away, but at a place near San Antonio, three hours away! Still far, but it's crazy for me to think that there is an actual classical master in the "area"!

He also does many clinics in Texas, including some at the beautiful Double Diamond Equestrian Center in Borne, TX (near San Antonio) where I did my first show and the first world-class facility I've ever set foot on. It's amazing. I was fortunate enough to really have a need for the restroom, which gave me an excuse to leave the show for a a few minutes and go see the large indoor arena and stables, where the bathrooms were located. Luxurious. That's all I have room for. To describe it all would be another post!

Wolfgang May is also a very good rider, as are his students. I would love to spend a summer learning under him in the future.

There is also a trainer named Reinhard A. Dorsch somewhere in the San Antonio area who is another Spanish Riding School graduate, and toured with the Lippizaners for several years. He also appears to be a very talented horseman as well. He does a lot of work with Akhal Tekes, which I think is pretty cool. He judges the Fall Formal schooling shows for the Central Texas Dressage Society, and I would have no problem with him judging me!

Another trainer in the central Texas area, Micheal Vermaas. He seems like a very good rider as well!

Another competitive rider I recently looked more into is Lisa Wilcox. She had an article on thoroughness in Dressage Today and I was blown away by her posture and the look of her horses under saddle! Suhweet!

And long-time favorites will always be: Alois Podjhasky (I would have loved to meet him), the van Baalens, Phillipe Karl, Jolanda Adelaar, Gina Miles (yes, she is an eventer, but she is a very good horsewoman), Courtney King-Dye, and Jessica Jo Tate (she better be in the Olympics in 2012!). All very good riders in my mind and idols that I look up to.