Some more background on Bill:
Offers an experience gained through over forty years of working with horses, having ridden literally thousands of them and having taught thousands of riders at all levels.
Has an eclectic riding background that began with Eventing, foxhunting, and polo.
A USEF judge (now "R") for more than 25 years, he brings a special perspective to his teaching, which is especially helpful for riders who want to compete.
Was mentored by Swedish Olympian Maj. Anders Lindgren for more than twenty years. Rode extensively with Tom and Michael Poulin, Louise Nathhorst (SWE), and M. Lockie Richards (NZ). Also Col. Aage Sommer (DEN), Col. Bengt Ljungquist (SWE), and Kathy Connelly.
Graduate of Yale and a recipient of American Dressage Institute scholarships in 1972 and 1976.
A former three-time participant at the storied Violet Hopkins/USDF National Instructors’ Seminars. Then joined its staff in 1985, serving with Col. Sommer, Maj. Lindgren, Eric Lette (SWE), Karin Schlüter (GER), Gerd Politz (GER), Gunnar Ostergaard (DEN), Robert Dover, and Sally Swift through 1991.
The first American designated by the USDF to conduct official Regional Dressage Instructors’ Workshops. Presented over 30 of them in such diverse locales as California, New York, Arizona, Minnesota, Louisiana, and Alaska.
Chaired the USDF Council of Instructors and Trainers for seven years and was largely responsible for pushing to fruition the USDF’s program for instructor certification and the beginning of the USDF's program of annual National Symposiums.
The writer, associate producer, and narrator of the Farnam Company’s video “The Official USDF Introduction to Dressage.”
Produced two popular instructional videos for Learning Partners: “Putting Your Horse on the Bit” and “Leg Yielding” in the 1980s.
The “voice” of the annual USDF National Symposium and editor of the symposium tapes each year from 1992 to 2002. Many of these two dozen programs are still occasionally shown on RFD-TV.
Scripted, edited, and narrated the first “On the Levels” video set for AHSA/USDF in 1995.
His articles on dressage have appeared in the USDF magazine Connections and in Dressage Today.
Member of the Dressage Foundation's screening committee for Hopkins Grant applicants.
Named in 2003 at its Thirtieth Annual Convention, as one of the USDF's 20 most influential members in the organization's history.
Author of the new book Dressage Unscrambled, released by Half Halt Press in October of 2009.
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will round out your dressage education.
Click here to see them.
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Video for your perusal:
Bill riding and training....
Pirouettes.
Tempis.
Half steps to improve the trot.
More of Bill riding
A riding "experiment."
since the horse was young. It is fairly rare that a horse would
come all the way to the brink of Grand Prix--at age eleven--having
only been ridden by a single person. Thus, the "experiment,"
not really a schooling ride but a sampling of his wares by Bill and
a chance for Mitras to feel a familiar "language" but with a different
accent and inflection. Click on the link above to watch.
Explaining the Rules to Rubi
Rubi's Canter Conundrum
A short video of movements from Prix St. Georges and Intermediaire 1 recorded in competition at Conyers, GA.
A Training Level Test 3 on a green horse (judged aloud) by Bill.
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Click here to see photos of Bill's riding adventures over the years.
Click here to go to a page of his very favorites
Some Lyrics for your Soul
Far between sundown's finish an' midnight's broken toll
We ducked inside the doorways, thunder went crashing
As majestic bells of bolts struck shadows in the sounds
Seeming to be the chimes of freedom flashing
Flashing for the warriors whose strength is not to fight
Flashing for the refugees on the unarmed road of flight
And for each and every underdog soldier in the night
And we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing
Through the city's melted furnace, unexpectedly we watched
With faces hidden as the walls were tightening
As the echo of the wedding bells before the blowin' rain
Dissolved into the bells of the lightning
Tolling for the rebel, tolling for the rake
Tolling for the luckless, the abandoned and forsaken
Tolling for the outcast burnin' constantly at stake
And we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing
Through the mad mystic hammering of the wild ripping hail
The sky cracked its poems in naked wonder
That the clinging of the church bells blew far into the breeze
Leaving only bells of lightning and its thunder
Striking for the gentle, striking for the kind
Striking for the guardians and protectors of the mind
And the poet and the painter far behind his rightful time
And we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing
In the wild cathedral evening the rain unraveled tales
For the disrobed faceless forms of no position
Tolling for the tongues with no place to bring their thoughts
All down in taken for granted situations
Tolling for the deaf and blind, tolling for the mute
For the mistreated, mateless mother, the mistitled prostitute
For the misdemeanor outlaw chained and cheated by pursuit
And we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing
Even though a cloud's white curtain in a far-off corner flashed
And the hypnotic splattered mist was slowly lifting
Electric light still struck like arrows, fired but for the ones
Condemned to drift or else be kept from drifting
Tolling for the searching ones on their speechless seeking trail
For the lonesome hearted lovers with too personal a tale
And for each unharmful, gentle soul misplaced inside a jail
And we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing
Starry-eyed and laughing, as I recall when we were caught
Trapped by no track of hours for they hang suspended
As we listened one last time and we watched with one last look
Spellbound and swallowed till the tolling ended
Tolling for the aching whose wounds cannot be nursed
For the countless confused, accused, misused, strung-out ones and worse
And for every hung up person in the whole wide universe
And we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing
So what exactly IS this?
One little CLICK HERE
and you are about to find out!
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WOW, A CONTEST!
CLICK HERE
AND YOU JUST MIGHT SAVE BILL'S BACON!
egressed an aircraft at twelve thousand five hundred
feet. Will he reach the ground?
