STC Dressage was founded in 2008 by Sean Cunningham to provide dressage training and teaching in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Meet our current staff:
Sean Cunningham, Owner & Head Trainer
Sean's vast experience includes training horses to upper levels, handling young horses and overall equine management. He has worked at some the country's top sport horse facilities with international-level trainers.
Sean's professional equestrian career began during college, when he was a working student at the prestigious Tempel Farms in Illinois. There, he had the opportunity to get to know George and Roberta Williams. He went on to work for Lendon Gray in New York.
After his working student tenure ended at Gray's, Sean took the position of sales manager at Iron Spring Farm, one of the country's top sport horse breeding facilities. At Iron Spring, Sean brought young horses through the levels, showed horses both under saddle and in hand. His scores were consistently in the 60s and 70s. He also played a significant role in Iron Spring's success at Dressage at Devon.
Sean returned to Devon for the fifth time for Horses Unlimited, a sport horse breeding and training facility in central New Mexico. In 2007, he won the mature stallion class at Devon with Wild Dance and secured many top placings at the prestigious show that year.
Sean struck out on his own in 2008. He currently rides and shows for Paradigm Sporthorses, Camelot Friesans, and various private clients in the Albuquerque metro area. He is also a USDF Bronze and Silver Medalist.
Acacia Coast, Business Manager & Assistant Trainer
Acacia is the owner/operator of Elevation Friesians, previously based
out of
Elbert,
Colorado.
Elevation has produced top-quality friesians over the last few years and
captured several top honors at the FHANA Keuring in 2009.
Her operations have joined forces with STC Dressage.
In addition to her knowledge and passion for
horses and what it takes to run a successful breeding program, Acacia brings
many other things to the table.
She has
a degree in International Business from
FortLewisCollege
and has spent time studying abroad in
Europe
as part of that degree.
Upon graduation, Acacia took a job with the Center for Creative Leadership(CCL.)
CCL is one of the largest management training
firms in the world, with campuses both here and abroad.
Acacia’s time with CCL as the Custom Solutions Project
Manager has given her
experience with international travel, event planning, sales and negotiation and
information technology, among other things.
Acacia has been helping with the
day to day operations of STC Dressage, as well as continuing to improve our
networking and marketing pipelines.
Sean's vast experience includes training horses to upper levels, handling young horses and overall equine management. He has worked at some the country's top sport horse facilities with international-level trainers.
Acacia is the owner/operator of Elevation Friesians, previously based
out of