Shelley Van den Neste is a United States Dressage Federation (USDF) Bronze and Silver medalist, and has trained several horses and students to Federation Equestrian International (FEI) levels. She is also a USDF “L” program graduate with Distinction and actively judges schooling dressage shows. Shelley is currently the Director of Equestrian Activities at Promontory, The Ranch club in Park City, Utah. Previously, she was the Equestrian Facility Manager for the Palm Beach County Jim Brandon Equestrian Center, an eight arena multi-venue horse park, opened 2006, in Palm Beach County Florida.

Shelley is one of six children and the only one in the family to have the horse ‘gene’. From a very early age she started begging her parents for a horse and at 12 her wish came true. The trainer at the barn found her an aged AQHA mare that he explained ‘knew more than Shelley would ever know’. There was no saddle to ride with, so she rode bareback for the first summer and learned more that way than if she had taken lessons. “I learned how to fall off and how to get back on without aid, and how to sit on the horse and how the muscles of the horse were moving at all gaits. The trainer would put me on young horses and send them forward with a longe whip and I would just ride without interfering with the horse.”

Her family eventually found that they had the ‘horse gene’ also and discovered their passion in Arabian horses, and acquired some prominent breeding stallions and athletic brood mares and young stock. Shelley went on to manage and train at the family owned training facility, Sunrise Farms, Inc. and later developed Sunrise Farms Sport Horses, Inc. for 17 years. She combined the best of the Arabian bloodlines with FEI warmblood stallions. Clients started to bring warmbloods with FEI talent for her to train.

Along with her students, she has amassed Regional and National championships in Saddleseat Equitation, Western Pleasure, Hunter Pleasure, Hunt-seat Equitation and Dressage through Intermediare 1 at the National Show Horse Finals, Arabian and Half-Arabian Nationals, and the Arabian and Half-Arabian Sport Horse Nationals.

Since 1995 Shelley has ridden with Michael Beining, Sue Blinks, Jan Ebeling, Carole Lavel, Walter Zettl, and Miguel Duarte. In addition to her regular training schedule, she has been selected to be a rider at several USDF adult clinics and a demonstration rider at National events and for videos.