Howarth & Riders Dressage

ures owners are rarely without any communication or support, as well as having varied methodology and approach to best suit every individual. Our combined talents and experience make this an exceptional training model. Available for national and local clinics, coaching, backing and production of competition horses. Please inbox for further info or e-mail us on [email protected]

Our team compromises of our full time coach, Simone, and several part-time riders who compliment Simone's training and are chosen specifically for the horses that they train. Simone Howarth CV:
* Advance National Diploma in Equine and Business Studies
* BTech Advance National Diploma in Business and Finace
* BHSAI coaching qualification and International Level 1 1997 UK
* International Level 2 Dressage Coach is almost complete
* Senior rider at the SA Lipizzaners 1999 - 2009
* Competed Prix St George level
* Production of horses from backing to Advanced
* International competition experience
* Produced children, juniors and adults to provincial teams
* Lecturer at Beaulieu Equestrian Academy
* Current first aid qualification
An unfortunate riding fall cut Simone's competition career short while she was working and competing in Europe. A lover of both South Africa and dressage, she returned here and began rebuilding her client base early 2014. Simone is an essential part of the team, her experience and knowledge making her constant eyes on the ground invaluable to a consistent and progressive training schedule. Simone is passionate about classical training, the happy athlete, and producing results on a firm foundation. With over 22 years of experience teaching a large range of pupils from children to adults throughout the grades from Preliminary to FEI Small Tour and Intermediare A and B level, she has had a number of pupils on Children Junior and Adult teams in Dressage and Eventing; the 2011 Junior Eventing SA Champion, 2014 Children's Reserve Novice Dressage Champion, 2014 Adult Reserve SA Champion Prix St Georges Dressage, 2014 Medium and Preliminary Gauteng Dressage Champions and in 2015 she had a rider on the Adult Gauteng Open Dressage team, a rider on the Adult Gauteng Novice Dressage team along with two Para-Dressage Gauteng team members, all competing at SA Championships. Currently Simone runs regular clinics in:
*Nelspruit
*Cape Town
*Free State

H&R Dressage's Rider Robyn Andrews. Robyn has always had horses in her blood but only really started riding competitively at 12yrs old on riding school ponies. She worked at the SA Lipizzaners for a couple years before taking up a position at Western Shoppe to be trained as a saddle fitter. Robyn is a Master Saddle Fitter qualified in the Uk and has worked with and been trained by some of the best in the world. Even though her life for the past 13 years has revolved around saddle fitting, her riding has by no means taken a back seat. She has trained and competed her own horse, Principal Leonardo Da Vinci under the coaching of Marianne Conlyn from Preliminary to Advanced level. Robyn has been friends with Simone for many years and Simone started helping Robyn with her horse Leo in Piaffe and Passage training in the beginning of 2015. Robyn started riding for H&R Dressage in November 2015. Simone and Robyn's shared classical training with the SA Lippizaners mean that they work well together and train horses under the same principles. H&R Dressage's rider Tammy Withers.
28 year old Tammy started riding at 7 years old. She competed in 90cm in Children's and 1,10m as a junior. She represented Gauteng as a Junior for the 90cm Equitation Team. Tammy started her professional riding career in 2010 and she rode for the SA Lipizzaners for three years from 2010 to 2013. Having previously focused on Show Jumping and Equitation, she started competing in Dressage in 2010. Tammy who receives training from Lilian Moller and Phillipa Terblanche competes a range of horses from Preliminary to Elementary-Medium level. She has been placed in the top 5 in 90% of Dressage shows that she has entered. She won the Elementary Victor Ludorum at the 2015 Fourways Series and won the Preliminary Championships at the 2015 Gauteng Mini Championships. Tammy is a free lance rider schooling and competing client's horses, backing and bringing on youngsters and she does a small amount of teaching. Simone started teaching Tammy on Susan Berry's stallion Super Natural in September 2015 and Tammy then started riding for H&R Dressage. She currently also schools Para-Rider Charmaine Watts' horses. H&R Dressage’s Associate Mickey van der Merwe. Mickey sat on a horse for the first time at the age of three. She and her Warmblood gelding, Brandbach Danseur, have been training with H&R Dressage since February 2014 when they were competing at Novice level. In 2015 they competed at the Gauteng Dressage Championships as well as the SA Dressage Championships at EM level. Mickey has fantastic organisational and admin skills and is playing an essential role in the running of the SA Young Dressage Horse Series for 2016. Our unique approach of having both a professional rider and an expert trainer on your horse and its education at all times is available for:
- Professional production of horses for the competition arena
- Expert schooling of horses for owners
- Professional backing of horses
- Dressage clinics across country
- Individual lessons, with the options of part-time schooling where necessary for both progress of horse and rider
- Schooling of horses to be presented for sale

Welcome to our team!
- Safety and happiness are paramount, for both horse and rider.
- Excellent management forms a cornerstone of our training approach; we believe a happy comfortable fit horse makes a supreme athlete, we believe a dedicated fit rider makes a good trainer, and we believe that a driven empathetic coach enables both of these to function at maximum capacity.
- We strive to assist clients in achieving their goals, be it personal or competitive based, and we structure our training approach based on this. Communication is key.
- We believe that horses and clients are individuals and endeavour to accommodate this and grow it.
- We are as enthusiastic about producing the green horse as we are about high level dressage! We are above all lovers of all things equestrian and the timeless artful sport of dressage. Please do not hesitate to contact us and we will do our utmost to assist you however possible. OUR TOP ATHLETES:

Show Special, aka Prada, an imported Westphalian mare. Prada has won in her young horse classes both overseas and locally. Owned by Simone and ridden by Inge Sanne. In 2015 she won all four shows she entered:
* 6-Year-Old DSA Young Horse class at the CDI** in May 2015
* 6-Year-Old DSA Young Horse class at Hollyberry Hall
* 6-Year-Old DSA Young Horse class at Gauteng Dressage Championships
* 6-Year-Old DSA Young Horse class at SA Dressage Championships
in 2016, Show Special will continue her training at home and we plan to present her in the Advance classes in 2017. Priciple Leonardo da Vinci, a South African Warmblood gelding, competing at Prix St George level, ridden by H&R rider, Robyn Andrews. London Lane Stud's Super Natural, an imported licensed Oldenburg stallion who is competing in Novice ridden by H&R Dressage rider Tammy Withers. Heliodoros von Niehaus Hof, is an imported Knabstrupper stallion, owned by London Lane Stud and ridden by Tammy Withers. Heliodoros was the 2015 Prelim Champion at Gauteng Mini-Novice Championships and will be competing in Novice in 2016. Phoenix Loth Lorien, now retired, owned by the Kleynhans' family, who had been brought on from Small Tour to Medium Tour in 2015, at the grand age of 18! It is a point of personal pride that we have successfully progressed the training of even an established horse onto an all time career high, maintaining the soundness of body and mind. Gallica Rose, owned by Philippa Rix. In 2015, as a four year old mare who had been under saddle for six months, she placed Reserve Champion in the Potential Dressage Horse class at Horse Of The Year Show on her first outing after four months work. She was also runner up in the four year old class at the CDI Young Horse Dressage Challenge under international judges. Super Pupils:
- Ian van Schalkwyk on London Lane's Callaho Ludanos, a respected show jumper having a late career expansion into the dressage arena! Winning at Novice level within his first two shows and winning the Novice Championships at Gauteng Mini-Novice Championships. We look forward to seeing this super combination in top hat and tails soon!
- Paralympic hopefuls Victoria Ford and Charmaine Watts, both competing successfully in their respective grades. In addition to her personal success, H&R also school and maintain Charmaine's horses to enable her show career.
- Our junior pupils have represented their province in both SA Championships and SANESA Finals, for eventing, and equitation, including the Phillip Smith Memorial Trophy.
- Along with these high achieving riders, we have a variety of pupils competing from Prelim to Inter 1 level, as well as in eventing, show jumping, and equitation. All are progressing according to their own personal goals and ambitions, and we get as much pleasure from helping these pupils at shows, and at home, enjoying their journey and education together.