Riding School Coordinator/Traveling Instructor, Dreamers leader

• “Horses and art go together. Sometimes one has to be very creative when training horses. My training as an artist provides the 'eye' to see the detail in every rider and every horse that I am fortunate enough to train.”  ~Sheila Wilson
  

Sheila began teaching at DHF in 2009.  She brings a lifetime of varied and interesting equine experiences to her lessons. Furthermore, she went through the focused, regimented DHF program that enables trainers to reach their full potential. We are proud to have Sheila as a “graduate” of the DHF Riding School and welcome her to our community in her role as Riding School Coordinator and DHF's Traveling Instructor.  

Career Highlights:

• Bachelors Degree in Fine Art, University of Oklahoma
  
• Masters of Fine Arts, New York City (only time she was ever separated from horses!)
  
• Lifetime of Arabian horse training and breeding (family owned and operated)
  
• 6 years training, 20 years practicing Natural Horsemanship skills
  
• 10 years Joint District Commissioner of the Blue Ribbon Riders’ Pony Club
  
• Successful Competitor – saddleseat, eventing, dressage
  
• Lifetime member of 4H
  

Goals:

• Enhancing her teaching skills through continuous education, her artist’s eye for detail and her innate creativity
  
• Ever improving her own riding skills through a strong foundation of dressage and biomechanics
  
• Never losing the ability to find excitement in learning new skills
  
• Developing her own horse, Danish Warmblood mare Lone Star (pictured above) and all equine partners in training into happy, healthy athletes
  

Sheila Wilson started riding at an early age. At 15 years old she had the good fortune to learn from Vicki Humphrey, a dressage graduate of Meredith Manor. Sheila continued to ride with Vicki and work for her for several years until she graduated from high school. Vicki used her dressage skills to train Arabian and Half Arabian horses for English Pleasure and Park. Sheila learned how dressage could lighten a horse’s front end and make their trot more animated and engaged.

When an offer to work in  Arizona presented itself, (with the approaching Ohio winter, Arizona sounded like a good deal), Sheila had the opportunity to meet a true horseman. Not only did he have a strong foundation in dressage, but he also knew how horses think. Although he may have looked like a cowboy and rode in a western saddle, he rode dressage. He learned traditional military horse training methods from a retired Calvary colonel and studied horses and their behavior his entire life.  Sheila’s education of natural horsemanship skills began with him. She learned that you could change how a horse moves to or from you by just your body position. That you could teach a horse to want to be with you. Sheila learned that once you were able to get a horse to “give" to you, you could teach them anything. For six years, Sheila worked at repurposing horses and sharpening her training techniques.

After several years out west and later completing her MFA in NYC, she returned to Ohio. Sheila joined her mother in an Arabian horse training and breeding business. It was a family operation, Dad made the hay, Sheila's sister helped with the showing, Mom took care of the mares and foals, and Sheila trained the horses. Together they made and sold National winners in Halter, English pleasure and Park.


Eventually, her sister moved away and her mom and dad wanted to retire, which left Sheila. She knew that  to stay competitive in the show ring, you have to keep honing your skills. Knowing how important dressage training is to any discipline; she sought a dressage coach to improve her English horses. What she found when she started learning dressage was that dressage was much more interesting than English Pleasure. The more dressage she learned the less she wanted to show in the English/Saddleseat classes. Although she had a large Saddleseat clientele built up, she made the brave decision to switch to dressage. To her surprise many of her clients followed her!

Always seeking information to support continuous learning and education, Sheila regularly attends seminars and training clinics. At DHF, she has found a community who shares her thirst for knowledge and her unique perspective of the symbiotic relationship of art and horses, dressage and dancing.

Sheila can be reached at: Sheila@myDHF.com or 937.474.9518.

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