I have an imported gelding from Europe. Super talented with beautiful movement but he is a sensitive horse and can be hot and spooky. Any recommendations for a dressage sales barn or trainer with a good reputation in training and selling upper level dressage horses (must be Grand Prix, i.e. have their gold medal). Thank you!
If you mean Southern California then I would highly recommend Sarah Lockman you can check out her website www.sarahlockmandressage.com. She imports, trains and sells quite a few European horses on a regular basis. Has her gold medal and is effective riding any type of horse (hot, spooky, young, trained, etc).
Jeremy Steinberg is based in San Diego. Hard to find a better trainer! Not sure how much selling he does though.
I’d second Sarah Lockman - she has a lot of nice horses in training and seems to get them sold. I haven’t personally used her, but I see her and the horses at the big shows and symposiums, and have had a few friends go try horses there. They are well presented, well turned out, well trained.
If you were just looking for training (not a sales barn), I might suggest others too, but I think for a sales barn, she is one of the higher profile choices! If you are interested in central CA, DG Bar is another option.
I would recommend Sarah too. I actually met her first in Europe on coincidence and she was great to be around. I wouldn’t send a horse to W farms based on 4 of my friends experiences (seems like a good place to go if your buying, however.)
I’d recommend Amy Miller http://amymillerdressage.com.
She’s finishing up her gold medal, on one of my horses, and has done all the training herself. Not a sales barn, just excellent solid training for the long haul.
She’s off at the Arabian sporthorse nationals this week and will be at the CDS/Region 7 championships next week so may not respond immediately.
[QUOTE=Cannot Decide;8855184]
I highly recommend Stephen Birchall http://birchallequestrian.com/[/QUOTE]
Isn’t Stephen in Florida ?
OOps sorry
I thought Stephen had moved to Florida. When did he come back ?
Niki Clarke is another who is very good but not associated with sales in the same way that Sarah Lockman is.
Sarah is known for having horses available and she does a great job with her site and videos, and is a lovely rider. So if a sale is the goal, I concur on that recommendation.
If you wanted to have the horse shown and maybe show it yourself, or work with him and invest more time in him, then Niki would be an excellent trainer for a sensitive and spooky type with great movement. She does wonders with horses like that.
Rebecca Rigdon
Agree with all the recommendations. Rebecca and David at Ad Astra are also great riders and do sales!
[QUOTE=Mardi;8856295]
I thought Stephen had moved to Florida. When did he come back ?[/QUOTE]
Just a few weeks ago. He’s back and setting up shop here in the LA area. :yes: SO THRILLED we get him back!
[QUOTE=Silverbridge;8856348]
Niki Clarke is another who is very good but not associated with sales in the same way that Sarah Lockman is.
Sarah is known for having horses available and she does a great job with her site and videos, and is a lovely rider. So if a sale is the goal, I concur on that recommendation.
If you wanted to have the horse shown and maybe show it yourself, or work with him and invest more time in him, then Niki would be an excellent trainer for a sensitive and spooky type with great movement. She does wonders with horses like that.[/QUOTE]
Niki is another great choice.
Nothing against the others recommended, I just haven’t had any personal experience with them.
Thank you all for the recommendations, I will look into all the trainers you mentioned! It does not have to be a large sales barn by any means, sometimes the smaller barns have more time to dedicate to your horse 
One question to all of you who recommended Sarah, do you have person experience from buying or selling from/with her? I was considering Sarah as she looks to be a lovely rider with quality horses. However someone who relatively recently tried some horses with her (and did purchase one) said that some of the less expensive horses were very thin and when their horse arrived you could see ribs and hip bones quite significantly. I take pride on my horses always being in great condition and I prefer them well fed and chunky any day. This is not my own personal experience and I would love to hear your comments on this?
I love my trainer, Swea Zamel, in Moorpark. She just sold one for a barn friend and helped me buy one in the same week, and both me and the person selling a horse felt as though we were the most important people in the world to her
She’s wonderful with my spooky Oldenburg, and just as good with the laid-back guy I just purchased. All our horses are in good weight, and the facility is wonderful (Whitethorne Ranch).
I love that the program varies regularly, too. We have two jumping rings and a galloping track, so all our horses work in the dressage arena, long-lining, galloping track, work in the jump arena and cavaletti every week. Plus they get turned out AND go on the euro-walker every day.
Feel free to PM me if you have questions.
Bumping to see who you chose and if it worked for you?
W Farms in Chino Hills is a awesome sales barn. Amanda Olson handles the sales. The faculty has a covered full court dressage arena which is nice when So Cal does get rain which this year we are. http://www.wfarms.net.
