Michelle Gibson

Introduction to Michelle

Michelle GibsonMichelle Gibson has been giving clinics at Knollwood Farm for about two years, and has impressed riders and auditors with her thorough approach.  She is an expert at pinpointing the major issues and addressing them in a clear and concise way, making her solutions easy to understand and carry out.  Michelle is helpful with riders and horses of all levels, as long as the rider is willing to learn and to trust her instruction.  She believes strongly in her system, and her teachings make a significant difference with the clinic horses over the course of the weekend.

Michelle started her sterling dressage career by flying over to Germany and training with Willie Schultheis, who started her out schooling his wife's racehorses in dressage, but Gibson's abilities impressed Schultheis enough to eventually coach her on his own horses.  Schultheis wasn't the only one impressed with Michelle's talents.  Schultheis' most gifted bereiter was watching from the sidelines, and soon asked Michelle if she would come work and train with him.  She accepted what she saw as the "opportunity of a lifetime" and went to train in Rudolf Zeilinger's barn.

This is how, at age twenty, Michelle created one of the most formidable rider/trainer partnerships in dressage history.  In the beginning, Michelle rode one horse a day, but as she proved her talents to her new coach, she worked her string up to ten horses a day, their abilities ranging from the beginning levels through Grand Prix.  Under Rudolf's tutelage, Michelle quickly mastered the now widely respected Schultheis system and developed a seat that was voted "Best Seat" by German judges.  When asked what it is she likes the most about the Schultheis system, she is hard pressed to come up with a single response: "I think one thing that impressed me most about working in Rudolf's barn is that day after the horses were worked as hard and as honestly as they could be worked, but day after day they all came into the ring eager and schooled with unrestrained freedom."

Michelle paired up with her famous partner, the Trakehner stallion Peron, and after three years of successful campaigning in Germany, Michelle found herself bearing toward home again.  Not because she was homesick, but because in a strangely self-fulfilling manner, Michelle's joking prophecy a decade earlier had come true with a vengeance: the 1996 Olympics were going to be in Atlanta.  Gibson was going to be in them.

Gibson considers the 1996 Olympics to be the biggest moment of her life.  It was also the biggest moment of Olympic dressage for the United States since Gibson's 75.20% was the highest score ever awarded an American at the Olympics.  "I rode the best Grand Prix I've ever ridden.  Peron was so on.  That was definitely awesome."  After the Olympics, Peron's owners decided to keep him in the states to breed and the magnificent stallion faded from the dressage scene.  Gibson made the difficult decision to move home to Georgia.  "My family is here and I'd like to be more involved in dressage in America," she said at the time.

Gibson established herself at Applewood, the lovely farm of Brad and Laura Thatcher, in Alpharetta GA.  For the next five years, Gibson distilled all her previous education into a seamless training methodology, and began to hone her skills as a teacher.  Gibson tackled her new role as educator with the same concentration and dedication she applied to her own riding.  She quickly built a clientele base at Applewood, as well as in Wellington, FL where her students come from all over the country.  Michelle enthusiastically welcomes riders from all levels to come and train in her program.  Coming into Gibson's system early in one's riding career ensures that a student will receive the proper foundation to advance correctly toward their ultimate goals.  Despite this, Gibson muses over the fact that "most of my clients are professionals.  The first thing I say is, I can help you and I can be a person on the ground if that's what you want.  If you want to learn my style, if you want to learn how I do it, then you have to tell me because it's going to change everything.  It's going to change how you sit, how you think, everything; because the style that I ride is different from the norm.  To ride this system you need to get back to basics and get down to work." Gibson's legion of dedicated and successful clientele are a testament to her teaching achievements.  As one student said, "Michelle is a perfectionist, and her goals to this end are contagious.  She'll push you in a particular movement with a power and enthusiasm that is almost unnerving, but she's with you all the way, and when you finally get it, and grasp what she is looking for you realize how phenomenal perfection can feel.  It's addicting.  There's no going back."

Michelle now trains full time at Dick and Terri Kane's Diamante Farm in Wellington, FL.

For more information on Michelle, please visit www.michellegibson.com.