TRAINING SHAWNA HARDING

Roel Theunissen has worked with Shawna Harding and her Grand Prix partner, Come On III. Theunissen has trained dressage riders and horses for more than 30 years. Before moving to the United States from the Netherlands in 1996, he studied with Georg Theodorescu and Henk van Bergen.

How did you begin working with Shawna?

Let’s be clear that Shawna was a very good rider before I started working with her. She had just started the Grand Prix with Come On III, and at that time faced this huge step that all people experience when they make the move from the small to the large tour. The horse was schooled in all the Grand Prix exercises but was relatively green, especially in the piaffe and passage. As a trainer I focus on developing a horse in his overall