Larry Whitesell - Awardee 2002

Larry Whitesell taught and coached high school, out of college. His high school team played in eight straight state championships. He started training horses in the off-season until he gave up teaching and coaching to pursue horses full time in 1982.

Over the years he has studied and spent time with some of the best horsemen in the world. He has always admired trainers who can get a very responsive horse and maintain lightness and willingness. In our own breed, he learned from Alvaro Iriate. He learned classical dressage from Dominique Barbier from the Spanish riding school, under Nuno Olivera. He still continues to learn classical horsemanship from people such as Ron McLoughlin who spent many years with Monty Foreman.

Larry loves training horses and although he enjoys the show ring it is more about the finished horse and the methods to get there. By going through the correct process to get a horse that is enthusiastic about the job, the training is like a work of art. He wants a horse that can be counted on no matter who rides it or what it is asked to do. Larry spends much of his time now doing clinics in the United States and Canada. For more information his web site is www.whitesellgaitedhorsemanship.com.