I learned all my ground work from Sarita as a child. Everything she has taught me over the last 46 years has been invaluable and made me the trainer/rider I am now. Thank you Sarita and Barrie for being amazing at your jobs.
Sarita’s ground work is meticulous, precise and invaluable.
"Riding to music, making up my own dressage tests, negotiating fun and interesting obstacles, with like minded people just wanting to enjoy their horses, has taken over my life. Who would have thought.....Thank you for introducing me to all this."
" I am so thrilled you have ventured into Intelligent Trick Horse Training as my young horse, too young to be ridden yet, is just loving it & gaining so much confidence."
" It is so fantastic to be learning things like flying changes, piaffe and passage, all the two track work, Spanish walk and trot, levade and even little things like girthing up thoughtfully. I didn't know this was possible to learn in Australia."
" Thank you for helping me train my horse to be so responsive, light, supple and most importantly I know in my heart he is so much happier with me now."
" My dream was to learn on a beautifully schooled horse. Thank you for making that dream an ongoing reality."
" You both explain and demonstrate things so well that I learnt more in my first few lessons than the past 6 years of lessons. I will definitely be using you guys to help me train my next horse but in the meantime I am loving learning so much from your horses."
The help I have received on-line and over the phone while looking for my next horse has been nothing short of amazing. You saved me making the wrong decision a number of times. I highly recommend everyone to tap into your huge amount of knowledge and experience to avoid a BIG mistake.
Driving to work thinking how lucky I am to have an awesome instructor. Thankyou (smily face).
I have learnt so much from you and Barrie and I am so grateful my son has been able to learn from you too now. Because of memory problems, retaining information is hard for him, so to have an understanding instructor was paramount and I knew this to be true of you both, that is why we decided to drive down during the school holidays and have a lesson every day for 2 weeks during the holidays. Boy was it worth it. We hope to be back next holidays.
My weekly visits to you, all those years ago, were the happiest and most rewarding times with my horses, and I miss those times very much. Thankyou for the memories. They are cherished.
I was very nervous about spending the money to fly over to ride with you both. I can't believe how much you crammed into the time and my head. I will be back next year with my next 'wish list'.
I have ridden all my life on the other side of the planet. I can't believe I found you guys, and your beautifully quiet but oh-so-light and well trained horses, in a place called Adelaide. What a find. Have you ever thought of moving to the UK???
Wow, such attention to detail. I have finally had explained and understood so many words and phrases that I have used all my life but never understood, until now. Thankyou so much. And your horses, so well schooled, light to ride, felt so privileged to ride such beautiful babies.
No junior or trainee Instructors with limited knowledge because Barrie & Sarita give all the lessons. They have so much knowledge and experience which they so willingly share, not to mention their gorgeous horses. Such attention to detail is only possible when a coach really knows their stuff. I can find it difficult to hear and the accoustics and loud speaker system made hearing every single word 100%.
My horse and I came to stay for a week. Barrie was very thorough in understanding what I hoped to achieve in my time at Monserrat and was always happy to explain different concepts and means of achieving my goals until my brain went 'click', and Barrie did the same with my horse until she went 'click' too. So good to understand all the what, when, how, why, where.....I am a need to know person and Barrie's teaching style worked so well for me and my specific learning style. The facilities are fantastic, very safe, and my horse settled in right from the 'get go'.
I have tried the rest, and finally found the best. I am sorry it took me so long to find Barrie, but I am going to make up for lost time....sad Barrie doesn't live in my State but even that hasn't been too difficult as Barrie and Sarita are always happy to look at videos, take my phone calls with all the questions that pop up...fantastic ongoing help, even long distance.
Awesome service and support, attention to detail, genuine and honest. I have had a bad time at the hands of some horse people and the Strattons came to my rescue. I nearly gave up but with Barrie & Sarita's ongoing caring help I am out the other side and now understanding and doing things I have only seen on YouTube. Very grateful and having fun for the first time in a long time. So glad I didn't give up.
In a nutshell - safe, systematic and sensible. I am getting great help with my own horse BUT I was encouraged to have a few lessons on one of the Stratton's very well schooled horses so I could learn about and experience flying changes before attempting to help my horse learn about such things - wasn't so sure about spending the money on any school horse lessons, BUT it was so worth it.
I ride in NSW at a Riding School. Mum thought it could be fun to have a ride while we were in SA on holidays. I had the best time, such responsive well schooled horses. I think this wonderful experience might have ruined my expectations of my normal Riding Centre. We took video and lots of photos and I will post some on the Academy Fb Page. Thanks guys, you are awesome.