About Spark Equestrian
As lifelong members of the equestrian community, Spark founders Julie Brady and Melissa Lund noticed that something was missing—a coherent, step-by-step system for reliably teaching students everything they need to know about the basics of horsemanship and riding that consistently produces educated riders with competence both in and out of the saddle. After years of honing their own teaching programs, Julie and Melissa joined forces to develop an official curriculum, and Spark Equestrian Academy was born.
Our curriculum consists of six consecutive levels, each with their own clear set of outcomes and a week-by-week agenda to ensure all students receive the same complete education. The first three levels—Introductory, Rookie and Novice—provide students with a general education in English-style riding, and consist of a 45 minute riding session complemented by pre- and post-class horsemanship education. The horsemanship portion of these classes will teach students everything they need to know about safely and independently handling, grooming, tacking and caring for our lesson horses.
By the fourth level, Intro to Specialized Riding, students will be able to prepare for their riding class independently. At this level, the riding lessons are 60-minutes long. Intro to Specialized Riding students will get their feet wet in the two different English disciplines we focus on here at Spark Equestrian: jumping and dressage. Following the fourth level, students will select which discipline they would like to continue on with.
Level five classes available are either Dressage Basics or Jumping Basics, where students will begin to delve into the intricacies of their respective sports. The final, sixth levels available are Competition Dressage and Competition Jumping. The Competition classes give students a taste of what it is like to show without owning or leasing their own horse, and are designed to help students decide if they would like to continue into horse ownership or leasing. Parents be warned— by this point in our curriculum, we find that students have been irrevocably bitten by the “horse bug” and will continue to learn and grow in this amazing sport for the rest of their lives!