Mary Rose FBHS (Fellow of British Horse Society, the highest ranking a British Rider/trainer can receive)

Mary Rose has devoted her life to teaching and training true classical riding without forceful techniques.  Her main focus is the wellbeing and happiness of the horse.  A number one priority has been teaching teachers.  She started her showing career in England as a Junior and then an Open Jumper, winning many championships.  This led her to Three Day Eventing and she competed successfully in many of the major English events before coming to the U.S. in 1967 to teach at Foxcroft School in Middleburg, Virginia.

Mary is a founding member of the USDF (United States Dressage Federation) and was an AHSA (American Horse Shows Association) dressage and combined training judge for ten years.  She is a life member of the BHS (British Horse Society) and the USCTA (United States Combined Training Association).  She is a past Director of the AAHA (American Andalusian Horse Association) and has more than 30 years specialized experience with Iberian horses (Andalusians, Lusitanos, and Iberian Warmbloods).

She has studied with many of the most influential trainers in Europe and in 1975 went to Portugal to study classical dressage in the French tradition with Mestre Nuno Oliveira.  She subsequently attended all his training clinics in Maryland.

Mary started writing articles for various magazines, most of them horse related, in her 20s.  She has published countless articles in Horse World, Horse & Hound, The Chronicle of the Horse, Dressage and C.T. The Horse Gazette and many others.  Her first book, The Horsemaster’s Notebook, was  published in 1972.  It remained in print with four updated editions for 40 years and is still an essential addition to every horse owner’s or career student’s bookshelf.  In 1976 Mary published Training Your Own Horse and in 1978 The Event Rider’s Notebook and a children’s book Molly Came First.