STC Dressage

Now based in the up-and-coming center of horse sport, Ocala Florida. After a 12 year long stay in California, I made the difficult decision to close our training center there to get closer to and re-immersed in the top levels of the sport again. Stay tuned to see where we go and what we do from here!

Sean Cunningham, Owner & Head Trainer

My vast experience includes training horses to upper levels, handling young horses and overall equine management. I have been riding for over 20 years and have worked at some the country’s top sport horse facilities with international-level trainers.

My formative riding years began as any other young aspiring trainer-to-be; riding, taking lessons, mucking stalls, doing things I wouldn’t dream of doing on horseback these days!  Kid stuff, really.  But important nonetheless.  It helped develop a deep-seated passion that continues to drive me to this day;  A love for horses and animals in general.  A desire to learn anything and everything I can about them.  I spent my first few years in the horse industry under the tutelage of June Pedersen of Castle Ridge Keep in my hometown of Crystal Lake, IL.  She helped plant the seeds that would someday grow me into the horseman I am today, as well as the one I continue aspiring to be.

My professional equestrian career began in 1999, when I was accepted as a working student at the prestigious Tempel Farms in Illinois during my summer breaks from college. There, I was immersed full-time into advanced dressage training.  I worked closely with my trainer, Bill Clements, learning everything from breeding to starting young horses under saddle all the way up to the movements of the Grand Prix and the Airs Above The Ground.  Upon graduation from college in 2002, seeking to continue my education into the world of high-performance dressage, I took a working student position for Lendon Gray in New York.

While at Lendon’s, I continued to expand my horizons.  I was involved in all aspects of the care, management and training of competition dressage horses from the ground up.  I learned the importance of having a proper support staff of grooms, farriers, vets, etc. as well as developing relationships with people such as show managers, horse transports, local GMO leaders and the like.

After my time at Gray’s, in 2004 I took the position of sales manager at Iron Spring Farm, one of the country’s top sport horse breeding facilities. At Iron Spring, I brought young horses through the levels, and showed them both under saddle and in hand.  I developed my eye for looking at young dressage horses, and enhanced my understanding of how to make quality breeding choices.  I was honored to play a role in Iron Spring’s repeated success at Dressage at Devon.

After moving to Albuquerque, New Mexico in 2007, I returned to Devon again for Horses Unlimited, a sport horse breeding and training facility in central New Mexico. I won the mature stallion class at Devon with Wild Dance and along with our team, secured many other top placings at the prestigious show that year. With their top quality horses, I was able to make a pretty big splash in the local competition scene right off the bat too.

Still, I desired to start building the training barn I knew I was destined to.  In 2008, I finally made the decision to strike out on my own. I rode and competed for Paradigm Sporthorse Farm, Camelot Friesans, and various other private clients in the Albuquerque metro area.  Collectively, we won an impressive number of High Point, Show Championship, Breed Championship, Regional Championship and various national awards. As much success as we were having, and as difficult as it was to leave my clients and friends there after we had done so much together, I knew I needed to be more in the middle of the action to accomplish my goals. We were just too isolated in New Mexico to access the level of training and competition that I knew was necessary. So, with the help and support of Hilda Gurney, I moved to California in 2011.

The main thing that made it possible was Wendy Gray-Bizzaro offering me a job at her Gray-Barron Ranch in Chatsworth, CA.  They had earned an astounding number of awards and accolades with their home-bred Morgans, and I was humbled to have the chance to help continue that trend!  I also spent my afternoons at Hilda’s Keenridge Farm for two years.  There, I continued to develop my eye for quality young horses, improve my riding and training abilities, and overall strove to improve my knowledge as a horseman.  My desire to run my own training center remained strong though, and after locating the perfect place in 2013, I signed a lease at AA Ranch, and began building a clientele. 

I had operated continuously at AA Ranch from then until my move to Ocala, FL in July 2023, and I was so very fortunate to have such a wonderful facility in the heart of Moorpark to be based at.  I’ve also been training under the unparalleled eye of David Hunt since then, and will continue to do so in Ocala. 

To learn more about me and how I can help you, just contact me!