Steve Halfpenny

Steve is the founder of Light Hands Equitation and senior judge at Light Hands Dressage. Steve travels extensively helping people and horses around the world delivering clinics in Australia, NZ, the UK, Ireland and through his online training programs. After moving from the UK to Australia in the late 1970s, Steve’s passion for riding grew into a thirst for knowledge. He dedicated himself to learning all he could about training and riding, attending clinics, judging seminars and competing successfully in equine competitions.His style of training is not discipline-specific and can easily be applied to any form of riding. As one of Equitana Australia’s successful trainers in the “Way of the Horse, Australian Horsemanship Challenge 2010” and in 2013, as one of the six trainers who took on a wild Waler from Central Australia as part of Equitana’s “Waler Legacy Program”, Steve has proven that with the right training, any horse can be a relaxed and willing riding partner.In the creation of “Light Hands Equitation”, Steve has combined the knowledge gained from the many great horsemen who have provided him with inspiration, with his own experience and intuitive feel for the horse. His key focus has been to find an easier way for the horse and rider to communicate, creating simpler ways of explaining horsemanship to people, so that they can better understand the horse’s intrinsic nature rather than simply delivering a rote training program.In recent years, Steve has identified that his training methods are extremely successful in helping dressage and competition riders achieve their goals. His training emphasis on a much lighter contact and responsiveness between horse and rider has initiated a new component to his training system, “Light Hands Equitation”.

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Steve is very approachable and happy to help students with their horsemanship through the Light Hands Equitation Academy online education system or at one of our courses. Steve also holds clinics at his home in Blanchetown, South Australia.