Education

Liz began riding at Rothesay Pony Club in New Brunswick at the age of 5.

They trained all aspects of riding and stable management, and Liz achieved her B level. 

Liz focused on the discipline of eventing until the age of 18.  Her last event was at a rally in Syracuse, New York where horses were provided for the Pony Club B team coming from Vancouver, Canada.  Liz's horse was a great Cross Country horse, but he achieved a not so great score of 45 in dressage.  This was the turning point for Liz, and she began to study dressage seriously.

After graduating from school Liz managed to work full time at an office job for about six months before she took a sabatical and went to train in England to study for her Assistant Instructors certificate, the British Horse Society's AI.

Again the training covered all aspects of riding, and horse management.  Armed with her Preliminary Teaching  Certificate, Liz returned to Vancouver to begin training and competing.

Training in Vancouver Liz had the opportunity to work with Linda Howard (who studied with Eric Huberman in Germany) and with other great trainers and clinicians whenever possible, including Henk Glijn, Peter Perlee and Dutch Olympic rider Marjolin Greeve. 

After several years Liz began travelling to and importing horses from Europe.  Here is a shipment of horses arriving in LAX from Holland.  From the left it is Estevan, purchased by Meilin Yeoell, Evert (taken to GP by Elenor Elstone), and Erasmus.  To ensure the safety of the horses, Liz travelled from Holland with the horses.  In fact the owners wanted the horses trained, so Liz spend almost two months in Holland with the horses training them before they left for Canada.  She trained with Peter Perlee, while travelling to shows, looking at other horses for sale, and spending time with Peter and his Dutch trainer.

It was not long after this shipment that Liz purchased Elymas with the help and support of her parents, John and Marion Hopps.   Above is a photograph of Elymas (aka Mouse) when he arrived at the farm Liz was managing in Vancouver called Willows Stables.  Elymas was just 3 years old, and unbroken when he arrived.  One of the trainers that had a very positive influence on my training during this period was Dietrich von Hopfgarten.  He loved Elymas, and helped direct his training as a youngster.

Liz trained many of the horses that were imported for clients, and then sold.   Evert won many championships as a four year old, and then was sold to Eleanor Elstone, who took him to Grand Prix before selling him.

Something about Elymas told Liz that this was going to be a top horse for her.   With this in mind, and with the ever constant support from her parents, John and Marion Hopps, Liz and Elymas moved from Vancouver to the south of England where they would be able to access top trainers in England and Europe.

Liz trained with top dressage trainers Sarah Whitmore, Gisella Holstein,  Maria Gunther.  In particular with Gisella Holstein and Maria Gunther who were top Judges, Liz had the opportunity to see dressage through the eyes of Judges.

As a five year old Elymas was winning Championships with scores in the 70's.

This qualified Elymas and Liz to ride at Goodwood at the National Championships at Elementary Level.  They were second this year, the last year that the Championships were held at Goodwood House.  What a wonderful opportunity!!

It was not long after this that Liz had the opportunity to watch and then to ride in a series of clinics with Maria Gunther, Richard White and Kyra Kyrklund.  Through this wonderful contact, when Elymas was Prix. St Georges level, Liz got the opportunity to train with Kyra Kyrklund at Flyinge, Sweden.  Flyinge is the National Stud, and was just stunning.

During the time that I had the opportunity to go to Flyinge, I was riding the breeding stallion Allegro (Westfalian).  His very protective owners showed tremendous trust and support and sent Allegro with Elymas and me to Sweden to train with Kyra.

What can I say, Kyra was the most amazing trainer.  Not only did I have my own two lessons each day, but I had to opportunity to watch her teach and ride over sixty horses each day.  There was so much opportunity to learn, and I absorbed as much as I could, for as long as I could.  There is so much that I learned from Kyra, and I feel that even her approach to problems stays with me to this day, years later.  She has such a methodical approach to teaching, and to her training, and this is what I remember when I am teaching a new technique to either a horse or a rider.

During this period I also began working with Sports Psychologist, Steven Bull.  I worked with him for nearly a year, developing exercises to enhance all areas sports psycology specifically for dressage riders. 

Upon my return to England, Elymas began competing at PSG, and soon earned the scores to compete for Canada at CDI's (International Dressage Competitions).

I continued to take part in the clinics with Richard White, Kyra's husband.  I also worked with Kyra whenever possible.  This photograph is taken at a clinic with Kyra.  She got on to demonstrate teaching a horse the Grand Prix zig zag.  She is so incredible.  Elymas could of course do half pass and changes, but within about fifteen minutes she had taught him the zig zag.  Kyra gave me a dressage whip as a gift for allowing her to ride Elymas and demonstrate this exercise.  It is such a special gift, and I have it to this day.

I returned to Canada shortly afterwards.  We represented Canada at the Can Ams in Rancho Sante Fe, California.  Leslie Reid was our team Coach.  Elymas was highest placed horse coming second in both the PSG and the Intermediare I.

Liz had the opportunity to train with some great Masters in the journey to GP and to the World Equestrian Games with Elymas.  This photograph was taken with Colonel Carde.  Colonel Carde represented Saumur, the French training school.  They have a different approach, I remember it really challenged me, requiring more lightness and self carriage.  It is something that I try to remember in my training today.

As a member of the Canadian dressage team, I had wonderful opportunities to train with really some of the top trainers in the World.  Rudolf Zeilinger came for clinics.  He identified Elymas and myself as one of the best combinations in Canada at the time.  Good friend Evi Strasser told me that years later, Rudolf was still talking about Elymas and his piaffe!   What a wonderful endorsement!! 

We worked with Christilot Boylen and with Udo Lange.  This was again a different approach.  The focus was so much on finishing the job, putting everything together to create a polished performance.

At the Can Am Challenge Steffen Peters noticed Elymas.  Mutual trainer Dietrich von Hopfgarten pointed this out to me.  Shortly after this I contacted Steffen to see if  I could join him as I continued training Elymas towards GP with the World Equestrian Games as my goal.

I trained with Steffen for nearly a year.  His support and training was amazing.  It seemed that going out on our own after leaving Steffens we hit our stride.  We won at the Golden State  Dressage Show in April 1998.  This was with major injuries received while riding a horse that was sent to me for training.

This was such a meaningful win for me.  I was really terribly injured, I had broken ribs, punctured lung and other bruising of internal organs.  After this competition, I was in the hospital for several days while they drained my lung.  Through the years of training and competing, Elymas had truly become my partner, and when I really needed him to help me, he was there to support me.  What a great horse.  It reminded me of a quote that someone said of Elymas when they saw us training.  Podhowski said that we should train our horses and allow them to maintain their friendly charm.  Elymas had maintained his friendly charm, and to this day as a 21 year old, he has still maintained his friendly charm.

Elymas continued his winning ways, and we were chosen to ride for Canada at the World Equestrian Games in Rome, 1998.

I had the wonderful opportunity of training with Uwe Sauer, Individual Bronze medalist and Team Gold medalist at the Los Angeles Olympics.  Canada could not have chosen a better team Coach.  Uwe Sauer brought an infinate amount of knowledge, great compassion for the horses, and a wealth of Competition experience.  It was such an honour to work with him, and to know how much respect he commanded from the equestrian community.  I had the opportunity to train with him from the time I left Hickstead Derby to when we actually rode our Grand Prix in Rome.

Riding at the World Equestrian Games was like nothing I have ever experience, before or since.  I hope again to have a horse of Elymas calibre to take and compete amongst the World's greatest riders.

While my focus in training has for so long been with Elymas, I have continued to train other horses.  Above are DaCapo who I trained and rode to International Grand Prix, coming 4th at the last CDI hosted by Fox Ridge Farms in Washington State.  The next horse is Jazz who I rode to PSG and Inter I achieving scores in the 70 percentile.  Orion is a horse that I bought for a client, she now sponsors Leslie Reid who rides him at Grand Prix.

Like a lot of people I am very interested in the Young Horse classes, and have always enjoyed buying and bringing young horses along.  Rubin Star (ridden here by my working studen, Karis) is a four year old Hanoverian by Rubin Royal x Landadel.  He is such a good young horse, and if he is not sold I look forward to taking him through the FEI Young Horse tests.

Jen Grenz rode Jazz to the British Columbia 4th Level Championship, and the Canadian 4th Level Championship. 

I continue to take all the opportunities available to me to grow as a rider and a trainer.  There are so many aspects to this sport that we can never become complacent about our knowledge.  I hope I never stop learning, from other people, and from the horses.