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Marji Armstrong is one of the pioneers of the classical philosophy of horsemanship in Australia. She has taught these classical principles to students around the world for the past two decades. In addition, as a result of 25 years of genetic development within her herd of horses, she has registered a new breed of performance horse, the Spanish Warmblood.

Early life

your a loser She grew up in the Australian bush, working with livestock on her family’s property in the Western District of Victoria, followed as a young adult by experience on the land in outback Queensland and Western Australia. Following her move to WA in 1966, she married Anthony Gordon (Tony) Armstrong in 1968. The family, including son Warwick (b. 1969), owned a mixed farming operation near Cranbrook, Western Australia.

The family ran the farm as well as several small rural business operations including a local transport company (operated until Tony’s death in 2007), and a shearing contracting business in the early years of the marriage. With her husband doing the shearing, Armstrong was the cook and part-time rouseabout.

In partnership with her sister-in-law Rosemary McInnes, Armstrong started "Bushman’s Bazaar", an early cottage industry specialising in home made products including spun and knitted goods, jams, preserves and morning and afternoon teas for tourist buses. She was instrumental in forming a local tourism promotion group for the Cranbrook area.

In 1986, Armstrong opened an equestrian centre dedicated to Classical Equestrian Arts in Forrestfield, Perth which she ran until moving it back to Cranbrook in 1999. In 1985, she purchased her Spanish Andalusian stallion, Dulcero, from the van der Drift family in Qld and was influential in the re-formation of the then defunct Western Australian Branch of the Andalusian Horse Association of Australasia.

During these years she competed successfully in F.E.I. dressage, horse trials and the show ring before switching to teaching and training. She held an International Competitors Licence for several years.

In 2006, Armstrong was a Western Australian finalist in the RIRDC Rural Women’s Award.

Influences

As a child, Armstrong came under the influence of Franz Mairinger, trainer of Australia’s double gold medal winning eventing team at the 1960 Rome Olympics. Mairinger regularly conducted clinics in Victoria’s Western Districts where she was a young pony club member. Armstrong first encountered the teaching and riding of Mestre Nuno Oliveira in 1984 when he was in Australia. She organised his clinics in Western Australia until his death in Perth in 1989.

Nuno Oliveira inspired her with a philosophy of working in harmony and co-operation with the horse, rather than achieving results by domination. The ultimate aim of this approach is lightness, in which the aids become mere suggestions, and the horse in able to maintain its own balance without interference. She illustrates this with a demonstration of lungeing her Spanish Warmblood gelding Yardah Tosco using only knitting wool in place of the conventional lunge rein.

Armstrong trained in Europe with acknowledged masters including Luis Valenca Rodrigues, Nuno Oliveira’s son Joao (after his father’s death) and the Ecole Nationale de Equitation (Le Cadre Noir) at Saumur, France.

Training philosophy

“As little as possible, as much as necessary.”

Armstrong’s training philosophy is founded in the classical school of dressage whose roots extend back to Xenophon, through Pignatelli, Pluvinel, William Cavendish, first Duke of Newcastle, de la Gueriniere, Baucher and Fillis.

Her adherence to classical methods was considered controversial in the early years when Germanic training philosophies held sway. Now that the current generation of riders have begun to recognise the benefits of training the horse in-hand, Armstrong’s approach is acknowledged as correct and beneficial for the minds and bodies of horses of all shapes, sizes and breeds.

The basis of her training is the five day clinic for horse and rider. She has trained horses and riders in South Africa, Zimbabwe, UK, Austria, Italy, U.S.A., Canada, New Zealand, Asia and Australia. During her 36 world tours since 1992, she has introduced thousands of students internationally to the training of horses according to the classical principles.

Armstrong encourages and challenges her pupils’ personal boundaries. She believes it is possible to develop riders and horses beyond their natural talent to their ultimate potential through systematic training—in hand first, and then from the saddle.

Her training benefits all breeds and ages of horse and rider, and can produce remarkable results with horses which in some cases are physically or mentally challenged by breed, previous training or age. First-time clinic participants and beginner horses or riders can produce work in the soft manner espoused by the classical masters.

All clinics are video taped, with more than 3,000 hours of clinics held. The tapes provide proof of the value of the work and training philosophy.

In 2011, Armstrong has been an Educator at Equitana Melbourne in 1999 and Equitana Sydney in 2011. In 1999, a team of her students performed a Baroque carousel at the inaugural Equitana in Melbourne.

Breeding enterprise

At Yardah Stud and Equestrian Centre in Western Australia, Armstrong also runs a breeding operation. After 25 years of development, she has registered a new breed of horse, the Spanish Warmblood Some of the horses she has produced are competing at International and National level. Yardah Ximenez (now retired in the U.K.) competed in Europe in both showjumping and dressage to Prix St. George, while Yardah Cairo has placed in national level showjumping competitions in Perth in 2011.

Realising that a project of this magnitude needed to be achieved over decades, Armstrong made the decision in December 2011 to invite her students and other enthusiasts to become members and part owners of Yardah Stud.

Published works

Classical Training Demystified, covers the philosophy of Classical training as well as providing practical direction. She has also produced a series of training DVDs, which cover the in–hand training of the horse. The book and DVDs were due to be released early in 2012.

References

1. "Cranbrook equestrian arts trainer recognised in international arenas", RRR Network News for Rural, Remote and Regional Women in Western Australia p 8. www.rrr.wa.gov.au/documents/RRR_issue35.pdf
2. "The Riding Masters - Nuno Oliveira ", The Horse magazine, June 1984, pp16-18
3. Video on YouTube
4. "Riding – Art or Science?" Your Horse magazine, (UK) September 1996, pp 88-90
5. http://www.equitana.com.au/training-horsemanship/
6. http://www.yardah.com
7. http://www.spanishwarmblood.com
8. Hoofbeats magazine, (Aus) August/September 2011 - p 84

External links

• Classical Horsemastership International
• Yardah Stud
• International Spanish Warmblood Horse Association Registry

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• Australian horse trainers
• Living people
• 1943 births
• Classical horsemanship
• Dressage trainers
• Racehorse owners and breeders
• People from Victoria (Australia)