Avoca Park Equestrian
Our Equine & Human Team
We are blessed to have an amazing team of ponies, horses and coaches at Avoca Park. We are big believers of FUN, SAFETY, and EDUCATION! All our coaches have their coaching qualifications or are currently working through the Equestrian Australia courses under our mentorship.
Scroll down to find out more about our wonderful team!
Meet Our Ponies
Height: 10.2h
Colour: Chestnut
Sex: Mare
D.O.B: Unknown
Breed: Miniature Shetland
Max rider weight: TBC
Max rider height: TBC
Rider suitability: No experience to Beginner
The smallest member of our herd, will follow her handler anywhere. Cuteness overload.
Height: 11.1h
Colour: Black
Sex: Gelding
D.O.B: 2000
Breed: Shetland
Max rider weight: 35kg
Max rider height: 125cm
Rider suitability: No experience to Beginner
Perfect for our younger or petite riders, Vegemite is a cracker of a little pony. Helping riders develop skills to ride independently both in a group and by themselves.
Height: 12.2h
Colour: Chestnut - blaze & socks.
Sex: Gelding
D.O.B: 1994
Breed: Welsh
Max rider weight: 45kg
Max rider height: 140cm
Rider suitability: Beginner to Basic Skills
Young at heart, he is a good fit for riders that need a well-educated pony to expand their knowledge. He is a forward moving kind little lad that accepts light hands and instruction from his rider.
HISTORY: Trained to Grade 3 Pony Club and competed up to State Championships for Jumping and Dressage
Height: 13.1h
Colour: Grey
Sex: Mare
D.O.B: 2006
Breed: Welsh
Max rider weight: 55kg
Max rider height: 155cm
Rider suitability: Beginner to Confident.
Perfect for more experienced independent riders but also fantastic for lunge lessons.
HISTORY: Trained through the Pony Club levels up to Grade 3 dressage and Grade 4 eventing.
Height: 14h
Colour: Bay
Sex: Mare
D.O.B: unknown
Breed: TBC
Max rider weight: 65kg
Max rider height: 165cm
Rider suitability: Beginner to Confident.
New to the riding school, Hazel received 6 months of intensive training through our kind and gentle training methods. We are confident she is safe for our riders, so we are excited to introduce her into our team.
Meet Our Horses
Height:
Colour: Chestnut Leopard Spot
Sex: Gelding
D.O.B:
Breed: Appaloosa
Height: 15.2h
Colour: Chestnut Blanket - blaze & sock
Sex: Gelding
D.O.B: 2018
Breed: Appaloosa
Max rider weight: 75kg
Max rider height: 173cm
Rider suitability: Basic Skills
Height: 15.1h
Colour: Bay - blaze & socks
Sex: Gelding
D.O.B: 2006
Breed: Clydesdale x Stockhorse
Max rider weight: 70kg
Max rider height: 170cm
Rider suitability: No Experience to Advanced
Perfect for our older children and smaller adults, his wonderful temperament enables him to work with both beginners and advanced riders.
HISTORY: Previously competed up to and including Grade 2 dressage and Grade 3 eventing. Trained in lateral movements such as shoulder-in, travers, renvers, and half-pass. He will counter canter but only for the most competent & confident riders.
Height: 16h
Colour: Brown
Sex: Gelding
D.O.B: 2007
Breed: Warmblood
Max rider weight: 75kg
Max rider height: 183cm
Rider suitability: No Experience to Advanced
A lovely gentleman suited to intermediate riders. He is patient, kind, wants to please, and easy to get along with in every manner.
HISTORY: Extensive dressage training.
Height: 16.2h
Colour: Bay
Sex: Gelding
D.O.B: 2012
Breed: Thoroughbred
Max rider weight: 80kg
Max rider height: 188cm
Rider suitability: Basic Skills to Advanced
HISTORY: Raced until late 2021 and started re-training in 2022.
Height: 16.3h
Colour: Bay - Star/Stripe/Snip Joined & Socks
Sex: Mare
D.O.B: 2005
Breed: Clydesdale x Quarter Horse
Max rider weight: 90kg
Max rider height: 191cm
Rider suitability: No Experience to Basic Skills
Height: 17.3h
Colour: Grey
Sex: Mare
D.O.B: 2004
Breed: Dutch Warmblood
Max rider weight: 85kg
Max rider height: 173cm
Rider suitability: Advanced to Experienced
Aka Jazmine. She is excellent for riders looking to develop a feel for the higher-level exercises including shoulder-in, travers, renvers, half-pass, walk-canter, canter-walk, counter canter, flying changes, some piaffe, and some passage.
HISTORY: Small tour champion winning and placing in all competitions during her travels through NSW and QLD with wonderful percentages.
Meet Our Coaches
Leanne
Qualified EA level 3 Dressage Coach.
Qualified level 2 Jumping Equitation Judge.
Licensed level 1 teacher in Philippe Karl’s School of Légèreté.
During her riding career, Leanne trained and competed Avoca Black Saint to Grand Prix and in that time represented both Australia and Victoria.
Leanne is currently continuing the development of her riding with the School of Légèreté and studies many aspects in maintaining and improving the horse and rider’s wellbeing.
Vicky
Qualified EA Introductory Coach.
Vicky has been a part of the Avoca Park family for several years as a client riding with Leanne as her coach.
She is currently studying and working towards her Level 1 Equestrian Australia Coaching qualifications. Vicky challenges our riders to push themselves and she has a huge following.
Vicky is often competing and continues lessons with Leanne to always work on herself and her skills to become bigger and better all the time.
Amy
Qualified EA Introductory Coach.
Amy has over 9 years’ experience coaching young riders and groups. She loves coaching and guiding riders with a passion for horses.
Amy is our regular Saturday coach. She has a fun and happy approach to her coaching but never shy to provide a challenge. Amy has a knack for helping her riders find their courage while enjoying a giggle.
Mandy
Qualified EA Introductory Coach.
Mandy previously worked for a riding school in England for over 5 years before moving to Australia.
In Australia, she completed an Advanced Diploma in Horse Management and went on to ride trackwork and work senior roles in racing at Caulfield Racecourse for 10 years.
Mandy works as our office manager but it's not uncommon to see her teaching both children and adults throughout the week, and occasionally over a weekend. She prides herself in creating a fun but safe environment for her riders.
Danya
Qualified EA Introductory Coach
Danya has been working at Avoca Park since early 2019. She started as a client, became a junior stable-hand, then worked through her EA courses and embraced the opportunity to be mentored by Leanne Williams and the team.
She has become a sensational coach. She has a calm and kind manner with her clients in their lessons.
Danya has continued with regular riding lessons under Leanne with the aim to always learn and improve. Danya is our regular Sunday coach, and works occasionally throughout the work around her Uni commitments.
Naara
Equine Assisted Learning Facilitator
Naara has completed the Parelli Programme which is dedicated to the concept of natural horsemanship. By "natural", we mean an approach that comes from understanding horses from their perspective. This means that the human engages with the horse and undertakes to see things from the perspective of a prey animal in order to better understand natural equine behaviours.
In addition to her horsemanship knowledge, her qualifications as an Equine Assisted Learning Facilitator gives Naara the gift of communication and empathy to any given situation. Naara’s approach to horses aligns with our values, morals and ethics.
We are excited to collaborate with Naara to create some fantastic programs to help people live their love of horses!
Narelle
Qualified EA Introductory Coach
Narelle has been working with horses for over a decade. Narelle has a wonderful bubbly personality and is always happy to help.
Although she works two other jobs, Narelle loves teaching and often joins us when our coaches take annual leave.
Narelle is keen to continue her learning with Avoca Park and is hoping to work towards her level 1 EA qualifications in the coming year.
Paityn
Trainee Coach.
Paityn has been around and riding horses since she was 5 years old and is always excited to learn new skills.
She has been at Pony Club since 2019 and is currently making changes from riding eventing to show jumping, but she does love dressage as well.
She currently has two horses (Luca and Sprite) and loves to work with horses as it’s so rewarding seeing the hard work pay off.
Paityn loves teaching kids; they share jokes together and she says it’s amazing watching them improve every ride.
Paityn is looking forward to continuing her education at Avoca Park.
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