Getting to Know 2024 Dressage at Devon Masterclass Presenter Brett Parbery

by Anne Gribbons

This year will be the third time Dressage at Devon offers a Masterclass as part of the show program to bring further education about the principles of dressage to its audience. After hosting two successful Masterclasses featuring Sabine Schut-Kery and Cathrine Laudrup-Dufour, the Dressage at Devon board decided to look in a different direction for a presenter of our eagerly anticipated 2024 Masterclass.

In an effort to bring even more innovative educational content to our audience, it was decided to invite the Australian team rider, trainer and representative for dressage on the other side of the Pacific Ocean: Brett Parbery.

Brett Parbery

Brett has a colorful background, and one American horsemen can easily identify with. He grew up on a ranch and rode western as a child and young man before becoming involved in dressage. His father trained horses professionally with a focus on cattle horse sports and cutting. Brett worked with him from a young age, breaking horses and developing his skills to become a rodeo bronc rider. He rode broncs for over ten years, becoming one of Australia’s top 20 riders. However, the love of training horses was still deep within him, and even before ending his rodeo career Brett was exploring the world of dressage. Starting seriously in 2000 to dive into his new passion, it took Brett a mere ten years to compete at the top of the game, placing 8th at the 2010 World Equestrian Games, tenth at the World Cup Finals, sixth at Aachen CHIO, and third at Rotterdam CHIO. In the meantime, he has been the Australian Dressage Champion at various levels over thirty times.

Brett now devotes his efforts to training and developing young horses and has his own online educational system that takes people of all ages and stages through a six-week modular dressage program to prepare them for more intense training, which is also available online.

Outgoing and Enthusiastic

I had the pleasure of meeting Brett during one of my judging assignments in Sydney, Australia and listening to his speech about dressage in his country as well as New Zealand. A more outgoing and enthusiastic person is hard to find, and yet Brett is very humble about his success in promoting dressage “down under.” After enjoying the expertise of our own Sabine Schut-Kery and Danish Cathrine Laudrup-Dufour for the last two years, Dressage at Devon is proud to present Australian Brett Parbery’s view on the always fascinating subject of training and developing horses and riders!

George Williams had this to add about Brett, “This year, Dressage at Devon is bringing a warm, well-loved, and talented expert to our Masterclass, who is known for his ‘horse first’ approach. Brett combines classical dressage training with a unique background that is sure to deliver inspiring educational content for all. We can’t wait for him to share elements of his program with Dressage at Devon’s knowledgeable audience.”

About Anne Gribbons

Anne Gribbons was the U.S. Equestrian Federation technical advisor for dressage from 2010-2012. She has trained and shown 15 horses of her own to Grand Prix and competed in 10 national championships, as well as in Europe, including the Aachen CHIO (Germany). Seven of her horses have been named U.S. Dressage Federation Horse of the Year, and she was a member of the 1995 Pan American Games silver-medal winning team for the United States. Anne is a Federation Equestre Internaionale five-star judge, and she was a member of the FEI Dressage Committee from 2010-2013. She was inducted into the Roemer Foundation/USDF Hall of Fame in 2013. Anne is a columnist for the Chronicle of the Horse and a collection of those columns is now available in her book “Collective Remarks.”

Anne currently sits in the Dressage at Devon Board of Directors.

About 2024 Kingsview Partners' Dressage at Devon.

For more information about Masterclass and tickets visit www.dressageatdevon.org