About Us
NICHOLAS LAWSON
“Confidence is controllable” At whatever level you are currently riding, confidence can be an issue for both horse and rider. Nick’s ability to empathise with both horse and rider is what makes him unique in his field. His ability to relate to all riders and all horses means he can create a sympathetic environment in which one can develop one’s skill set and confidence. His sense of humour also helps! Sarah Smith.
I grew up in Accrington, Lancashire, and began riding at the age of 10. My parents were not at all horsey and probably thought I’d grow out of it! Ohh how wrong they were.
My real enthusiasm started whilst helping at a local yard now called Accrington Riding Centre, a small family run yard by Denise Holding and Barry Maloney. This was to be a home from home for the next few years. “I rarely left the place, DnB provided food for us kids who helped out and regularly tested us on our equestrian knowledge.” It was here that I decided I wanted to pursue a career within the industry.
My first horse was a thoroughbred bought for me by my dad, straight off the track. It nearly killed me a few times, but that didn’t seem to put me off only encourage me even more. At 16 I made my way to Hartpury College to pursue a National Diploma in Horse Management.
It was at Hartpury I really started my love of dressage. I used to regularly skip lessons to go and watch Carl Hester teach at the college where he regularly coached. I went on to compete one of the Hartpury College horses and have a couple of lessons with Carl, which is where I had his first real taste for the sport. Whilst at Hartpury, I had a part time job working with a successful show pony producer, where I really developed my groundwork skills and how to turn out horses for top class competition.
On leaving College, I was offered a full time position at Abbey Dressage under the tutelage of Glenys Hemming. Here I furthered my knowledge having training again with Carl, Charlotte Dujardin, Spencer Wilton David Trott and was given the opportunity to eventually compete up to Inter 1 level, winning both Regional and National titles including:
2006 Novice Restricted Regional Champion aboard Abbey Tiron
2006 Novice Restricted National Champion aboard Abbey Tiron
2009 Elementary Restricted Regional Champion aboard Abbey Tiron
2009 Elementary Restricted National Champion aboard Abbey Tiron
2010 Advanced Medium Restricted National Champion twice aboard Abbey Tiron
2010 Reserve Advanced Medium National Champion twice and aboard Abbey Tiron
2015 Shearwater 4-year-old Champion aboard Gladstone.
2019 Medium Freestyle Gold Regional Champion aboard Fandango V
2020 Medium Freestyle Gold Regional Champion aboard Fandango V
2021 Medium Freestyle Gold Regional Champion aboard Woodlander District Attorney
2021 Intermediate 1 Silver National Champion aboard IceBlue Valentino
2022 MCI European Championships - Belgium - Silver team medal winners
2023 Selected for MCI Europeans - Paris
Nick is a British Dressage Accredited Coach after completing his UKCC Level 3 Coaching Certificate. He has also completed his Youth Assessors training and is a British Dressage Youth Coach. Nick was selected to be involved in the British Equestrian Federations National Development Program for Coaching Excellence in 2022.
In 2019 Nick Completed the APEC (Advanced Psychology for Equestrian Coaches) Advanced program becoming a Centre10 Advanced Coach.
In March 2020 Nick attended ‘The Coaches Role; creating rider symmetry to improve performance. A course created by the renowned Physio Andy Thomas who provides a unique insight in to the management of the human equestrian athlete by using his own TESTT system for assessing imbalances and weaknesses in equestrian riders.
The past few years have been spent learning all about Spanish horses and competing, we have had some great successes with the Webb family’s horses and have some exciting times ahead producing their exciting young horses. Mark and I have a small breeding program and are really excited to watch the young horses come of age and when they are ready we are looking forwards to showing you all our hard work.
MARK WALTERS
“Hard work beats talent, when talent doesn’t work hard.” Tim Notke
I have always believed that anyone can learn to ride and train horses no matter how unconventional the combination. If you come to the party with the right attitude, you will be successful. I started my equestrian journey riding friend’s horses and riding school lessons. From here I was inspired and wanted to make it my career. At 16 I had my first horse, an un-started Haflinger, Earendil Elentari (Tara.) She taught me so much and being so versatile allowed me to try many disciplines and training approaches. I was then able to decide which areas I wanted to focus on, mainly being dressage. I was fortunate to work at The Talland School of Equitation alongside the late Molly Sivewright and Pammy Hutton, and it was here I was able to get an insight into top dressage and elite training. Upon returning home I set up my first training and livery yard and things built from there.
I have continued to learn and had brilliant and diverse training from influential trainers such as Isobel Wessels, Carl Hester, Peter Storr, Henk van Bergen, Frederick Pignion, Honza Blaha to name but a few. I learnt many lessons some more difficult than others and mainly on myself. I was fortunate to ride and train many beautiful horses with success at National level but by far the greatest opportunity was IceBlue Valentino with Gloria Price and Jennifer Long. He helped me achieve my goal of training a horse from the start to Grand Prix. After a difficult start in life failing as a show jumper in Holland, his confidence gone, I felt he was the one to join the team and although not easy, I have loved every minute of it.
Having taken a personal break from competing when my children were young, and then focusing on developing the award winning Corvedale brand alongside Nick, it was also great to dust off the cobwebs and return to the competing back at National level and recently winning
2023 Advanced Medium Gold FSM Regional Champion
2023 Novice Gold Regional Champion
2023 Intermediate 1 Gold Regional Champion
Now myself and Nick are excited for developing the Education company and competing our own home bred string of horses!