About STC Dressage, LLC
STC Dressage, LLC was founded in early 2008 in Albuquerque, NM by Sean Cunningham to provide dressage training and teaching for horse and rider. During the operations in New Mexico, Sean and his students brought home more championship titles and national awards than any other training team in the state. In November of 2011, STC Dressage relocated to the north Los Angeles are of southern California, where we hope to have the same impact. Sean is now accepting a limited number of horses for training. You can also learn more about us in an article published in the April 2011 issue of Sidelines! 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 been riding for over 20 years and 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 rode and competed for Paradigm Sporthorse Farm, Camelot Friesans, and various private clients in the Albuquerque metro area. Collectively, they won an impressive number of High Point, Show Championship, Breed Championship, Regional Championship and various national awards. He is also a USDF Bronze and Silver Medalist.
Check out the Accomplishments page for a glimpse at some of our more recent successes. Please also consider sponsoring Sean, and be an important contributor to his success!
Acacia Coast, Marketing & Support
Previously the owner/operator of Elevation Friesians, Acacia has relocated to New Mexico to join operations with Sean, and currently also holds a dream of a job at the Brewers Association.
While based out of Elbert, Colorado, Elevation produced top-quality Friesians over the last few years and captured several top honors at the FHANA Keuring in 2009. In addition to her knowledge and passion for horses, and what it takes to run a successful breeding program, Acacia brings many other assets to the team.
She has a degree in International Business from Fort Lewis College 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.
While living in New Mexico, Acacia began her career as State Brewers Associations Coordinator in the professional division of the Brewers Association, traveling the nation in support of America’s craft beer. Her organization promotes and protects craft brewers, and also puts on the nation’s most prestigious craft beer festivals, such as SAVOR, the Great American Beer Festival, and the World Beer Cup. She will continue working in this position from our new location in southern California.
Acacia’s degree, international travel, time with CCL, paired with her experience with the BA has blessed her with experience in international business practices, government affairs, event planning, marketing, sales, negotiation, information technology, and all sorts of other things.
Acacia helps the marketing operations of STC Dressage, creating our flyers, and national advertisements, as well as managing this website, supporting Sean at shows, and continuously improving our networking and professional representation.
To learn more about STC Dressage, contact us!