Services - Training

Training

For 15 years, Hilltop Farm has offered training services for riders and horses of all sporthorse disciplines. We have started and advanced horses of all levels in dressage and jumping, successfully prepared stallions and mares for their performance testings, developed riders from novice through the FEI-levels, and skillfully prepared and presented horses of all ages at breed competitions. Our training team consists of committed, well-trained professionals with diverse talents to handle almost any training or instruction need.

Services in the following areas are offered by our Training Team:

HORSE TRAINING:

Our skilled training team has produced championship results with many client and Hilltop-owned horses. We believe in developing horses with respect for the horse's physical and emotional needs. Our training program is varied in all disciplines, combining work in the arena with work outdoors or at liberty.

For Young Horse training needs, we readily offer services at a competitive and fair market price. We require that the young horse first receives basic training under saddle and arrives at Hilltop confident and able to work in an active training environment. All training agreements begin with a video assessment of the horse's current stage of development.

For our breeders or owners of offspring by our Hilltop Farm stallions, we also offer extensive support services to assist in the development and training of the young horse. See Breeder Support Services.

INSTRUCTION:

Our instruction program is geared to provide a structure for learning and a foundation of the solid principles of training that enable a horse and rider to develop and perform at their best. Our team is committed to advancing the horse and rider in a methodical and thorough manner, producing a confident pair as the result. We believe in training a horse and rider team to be independent and capable to perform to their greatest potential without the constant attention of an instructor.

OUR TRAINING TEAM

Chris and Cabana Boy

Chris and Regent

Chris and Werbellin

Christopher Hickey joined the Hilltop team in January 2007. His road to Hilltop has been an impressive one. A native of Westhampton Massachusetts, Chris rode in the 1988 and 1989 North American Young Rider Championships on the Region 8 Dressage Team. He qualified for the 1994 Olympic Festival and the selection trials for the 1995 Pan American Games. Chris has shown several horses successfully at the FEI levels, both in the United States and in Germany, often earning scores in excess of 70%. He has ridden three different horses to places on the USEF Dressage Horse training list. Chris and Brenna Kuczinski’s Regent placed seventh nationally in the 2006 USEF Intermediaire I Championships, for which he and Greengate Stud’s Werbellin were also in the top six of the average qualifying scores. Most recently Chris and Regent won all three qualifying classes for the Pan American Games Selection Trials at the Cosequin Wellington Dressage in Wellington, FL with scores in excess of 70% in each class.

Many of the horses Chris has competed at the upper levels started with him as three or four year olds. Some of the horses Chris has picked out as youngsters are now competing with other notable trainers. “Piet,” a horse Chris selected for a client as a three year old, is now competing at Grand Prix with German Olympic Gold Medalist Ulla Salzgeber.

Chris has studied with some of the best in the field, including American Olympians Lendon Gray, Robert Dover and Sue Blinks, and FEI S judge Lilo Fore. He has also ridden in Germany with both Conrad Schumacher and Ulla Salzgeber. Chris passes what he’s learned along to his students, who have been highly successful as well. He has three students who have earned their USDF Bronze, Silver and Gold Medals. Two of his students were in the top 20 in the country in qualifying for the 2006 Intermediaire I Championships. His students have won many USDF Regional Championship titles from training level through the FEI levels. In addition to teaching at home, Chris is on the Faculty for the USDF Certified Instructor program and regularly gives clinics to long term students in Kansas City, MO, Lexington, KY, Edgemoor, SC, and Westhampton and Amherst, MA. He spends the winter competition season in Wellington, Florida, and is in residence at Hilltop for the rest of the year.

Phone: 410-658-9898 x100
Email: chris@hilltopfarminc.com

Michael Bragdell, Gothenburg, Sweden. While in Sweden, Michael worked several years at a riding school, serving as an instructor and member of the show jumping team. He continued his riding education in England where he trained and showed young horses for Gustavii Stud, one of the top worldwide breeders in show jumping. In 1995, Michael joined the Hilltop Team, where he now holds the position of trainer and professional handler. Michael graduated from the University of Delaware in 2000 with a degree in business. Over the years he has presented numerous stallions and over 500 mares and foals at different breed registry inspections. Michael has handled many horses at breed shows around the country with several horses presented in the championship classes. In 2003 he received the SSHA Master Handler Award at the Region 3 finals. In 2005, the major task of young horse backing at Hilltop Farm was placed in Michael’s competent hands. Throughout the USA, via clinic format, Michael has instructed handling skills to more than 100 individuals.

Phone: 410-658-9898 x113
Email: michael@hilltopfarminc.com

INSTRUCTION FEES

Instructor	Level of Instruction	Fees Additional fees for stabling, housing, or any service options
Christopher Hickey		45 min. lesson - $100 Clinics - $1000/day plus expenses
Michael Bragdell	Beginning to 2nd level In-Hand Training	45 min. lesson - $60.00 30 min. lesson - $45.00 30 min. in-hand session - $50.00
Jocelyn Wiese	Training to 4th Level	45 min. lesson - $60.00 30 min. lesson - $45.00

Please see the Hilltop Farm Calendar for clinic dates.
Off-site clinics available upon request.

Designed by Joshua Stike

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