Lara Poynton
Training & Horsemanship
Lara Beth Poynton qualified as a senior Horse Safety Instructor (HSA) in 2015. She operates under the business name of Peninsula Equine Development and is based at Tubbarubba, a premier Arabian stud and equestrian property on Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula. Lara regularly competes and starts horses for a range of multi-discipline equestrian sports from dressage to show jumping and endurance riding.
Lara’s career path was always destined to be equine-related given her passion for horses and has worked in the industry for twenty years. In 2013, she also graduated from Monash University with a degree in Environmental Science; a discipline that often appeals to those who want to make a difference and one that she credits as having provided her with the necessary insights to continually question problems in order to find solutions. A skilled communicator with the confidence to take on any challenge, Lara is firmly grounded in the art of horse management. Her desire to make a positive change to the standards and perceptions of horse training is her number one goal. Lara’s breakthrough moment came when she began to let horses make mistakes: a significant turning point in her approach to training, and one that she believes is key to building the right foundations required of any equine discipline.
At EQUITANA in 2018, the Australian Brumby Challenge provided an exciting opportunity to showcase her talents with Cooper, her re-trained Brumby. They were awarded first place in the Brumby Freestyle Challenge.
Lara successfully applies The System when starting young horses under saddle, re-training, and teaching people how to better educate their horses. A loyal support-base is steadily growing through their online presence, www.equinesystem.com
Visit Lara Poynton at the following sessions
Details
Saturday November 16th
Stallion Rail Demo Arena, OTT Pavilion
Ground work for Dressage
Lara will work though some of her favorite ground work exercises with her dressage horses.
She uses just three simple principles to become a good leader her horses can trust, build a language of cues and develop those cues into soft dressage aids.
The principles
Move the feet – Become the leader
Build a language of cues – Using pressure and release
Mistakes and opposites – Remove punishment and negativity from your training
Lara applies these take home principles to every level of her training in a way that makes it easy for all levels of rider/trainer.
“All good training begins on the ground and it is amazing how simple foundation cues, translate directly to our ridden dressage work.”
No matter the discipline, no matter the horse these fear free exercises work to improve the connection, timing and confidence for any rider horse combination.
Lara believes that every rider is a trainer, we train to live and live to ride.
Details
Sunday November 17th
Duncan Equine Group Arena
You know it’s all about the Half Halt ! #inhandmagic
Lara takes us on a journey of how she starts, builds and perfects soft lateral movements for dressage. She removes the fog that surrounds the elusive half halt demonstrating in hand bridle work that is simple and fun.
All good training starts on the ground, with 3 simple principles that build leadership and trust. However once we have established our foundation cues and can effectively use our horses energy, we can start to introduce our in hand half halts for more advanced movements.
With just three separate rein aids
A side step becomes shoulder in,
A shoulder in becomes a yield,
A yield becomes a travers and all of a sudden you have fluid half pass on the ground.
“Learning in hand bridle work was a game changer for me. Movements that at the time I thought only grand prix warmbloods could do became available to my mix breed, pony club ponies and my off the track thoroughbreds.’’- Lara Beth
No matter the breed or discipline Lara uses these advanced groundwork exercises for every horse who comes to our stable for training, from dressage to endurance. Knowing this will fast track riders to becoming trainers.
