Shannondale Farm - Trainer Biography | |
| Julie Shannon grew up in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, riding Hunter-Jumpers. Trained in various disciplines through college- including Quarter Horses, Arabians, Eventing, and Dressage; having trained successfully through Grand Prix level. Julie worked for In Your Dreams Farm in Alpharetta, Georgia. She was instrumental in bringing in several big-name clinicians, including Patty Stovel. She helped establish Stovel as the resident trainer at In Your Dreams Farm and worked with her to set up IYDF as the training base for the USET Show Jumping Team prior to the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. Julie trained with Gunnar Ostergaard in dressage for 7 years, riding and showing on the winter dressage circuit in Palm Beach, as well as hosting many Ostergaard clinics in the Atlanta area. She began riding with Kenn Acebal while he had Peron (later Michelle Gibson's 1996 Olympic mount), and she still rides with him currently. She also travels to Germany several times a year to ride with Anja Engelbarth, head dressage trainer at Paul Schockemoehle's training center in Mühlen. She currently works with German Judge and trainer, Harald Cornelisson, who travels to Shannondale each year for clinics. Julie and her husband David started Shannondale Farm in 1997, promoting Dressage and Hunter Equitation. Many Shannondale students have competed successfully in dressage and hunters, including at the prestigious Washington International Horse Show and the Palm Beach show circuit. Julie currently focuses not only on teaching and training, but also on managing a state-of-the-art stallion station for breeding management of sporthorse stallions. She also maintains a close relationship with the Paul Schockemoehle training center and breeding farm in Germany, and travels on a regular basis to Germany to ride at Schockemoehle's and to select riding and/or breeding prospects for importation to the U.S. |
