Grand Prix rider Jill Hardt has been a dressage enthusiast from the start. Her facility, Tristan Oaks, and her group of clients in Plant City, Florida is the result of this journey. Since her early apprenticeship with USDF Hall of Fame inductee Vi Hopkins and throughout her work in recent years with several world class professionals such as:
- Anne Gribbons
- Kathy Connelly
- Nancy Smith
- Tom Noone
- Marco Bernal
Jill is grateful for the opportunities she has had to work with these professionals and many others in order to develop her skills so that she may pursue her personal goals of becoming an effective and elegant trainer and also be as effective as possible in rider education and development.
“I think training horses and riders is a fascinating process,” says Jill, “I love teaching, maybe because I love being a student so much myself.” Emphasizing the fact that dressage makes demands of both the horse and the rider Jill comments that “ as riders we have the responsibility to develop our technique and physique so that we become clear and concise equine communicators. Horses are great teachers, they challenge us to become better balanced people. Riders have to juggle ambition with patience and discipline, a tough trio of qualities. Horses, like people, have different talents, tolerances for pressure and developmental cycles. Our goal is to realize solid progress with every horse and rider by working within their individual capabilities to bring out the best performance a pair is capable of and to create a learning style that will perpetuate this development.”
As a USDF Bronze, Silver and Gold medalist, Jill has experience at all levels. She has had a variety of equine partners providing her with a huge diversity of experience. Her first FEI horse, Siglavy Adria, a Lipizzan, helped her through the school of hard knocks as a beginning FEI rider. Among the horses Jill has recently trained several stand out. She was privileged to bring along Trevelyan Farm’s Forrest Flame, a New Forrest Pony stallion, who made his mark as a serious dressage competitor competing (and winning!) with Jill in the open division against the “big guys.” As a result, one of Jill’s specialties has become developing ponies to do serious dressage. She is frequently involved in training several ponies for a variety of breeders (see our links). Recently she has campaigned several horses at the FEI levels. She has had tremendous success riding Merlin, a Russian Warmblood with a spicy temperment. Jill says of Merlin, “He is a character, a thrill, and incredibly rewarding!” In 2010 Merlin and Jill won the Intermediare II Open Championship for Region 3 and was 4th in the Grand Prix . In 2011 they were the reserve champion at the Grand Prix for region 3. “Merlin proved he can handle the pressure and perform. Now he has gone on to a student of mine and it is a thrill to see a new partnership develop.”
The Rheinlander mare, Feinhardt has been another influential mount for Jill. Together they have won several championships and high scores at levels from training through PSG. Currently Jill is developing several horses for clients at her facility and is concentrating on Tristan Oaks outstanding lesson and sale programs. Several trips to Europe are pending on our 2012-2013 schedule for customers interested in purchasing horses overseas.
Jill has a BA in education and a minor in Biblical studies from Southeastern University. She is married to Darrell who is still trying to figure out how he wound up “living in a barn!” They have a collection of 4 legged kids and consider their clients part of the family.
