Our Instructors
Portuguese Bend is lucky to have excellent instructors who give regular lessons for the club.
Ken Anderson is our dressage guru.
If you ask me why I ride horses, I answer: “I ride horses because I love horses.” My parents observed my love of horses when I was two years old. At ten years old I started riding. I worked at the stable for my lessons cleaning tack, grooming horses, tacking up horses, and cleaning up after horses. I half-leased several horses and began showing in hunter and equitation classes at local shows. At sixteen I bought my own horse, a four year old emaciated thoroughbred off the track, for $700. I trained and showed him for several years, eventually selling him to a well-known jumper trainer when I grew too tall for him. During my high school years I took instructors courses and began teaching beginners at the stable. At 19 years old I bought another thoroughbred, a big four year old jumper prospect. During my college years I taught beginner and intermediate riders at a local stable and I tutored freshman students at college in English. These two jobs helped me pay for my college education. I ultimately earned a Bachelor and Master degree in English. After graduation I became a high school English teacher, which I am still today. My big jumper had soundness problems so I stopped jumping him and began my dressage career. My horse had great talent for dressage and we had a successful career together from training level to the FEI level. I was hooked and I began my intense study of dressage which I continue today. I have trained more horses than I can count in dressage and jumping. I am now a USDF bronze and silver medalist and an L graduate with distinction. I now judge dressage schooling shows. I continue my dressage education through reading, clinics, seminars, and symposiums. I teach dressage to students with their own horses and on my own three lesson horses. My study of dressage has enriched my life in innumerable ways and my love of horses is stronger than ever. I have developed many principles which guide my life with horses:
The horse’s welfare always comes first.
It is never the horse’s fault. All problems with horse behavior are due to present or prior human error in handling the horse.
When problems arise there is usually a physical cause.
Horses have only a limited number of jumps, extended trots, and canter pirouettes in them; do not waste or exploit them.
Listen to the horse; he/she is the best teacher.
Let the horse show you where his/her talent lies; do not force the horse to do what he is not meant to do.
Follow the training scale and you will be humane and successful.
When training problems arise go back to the basics to solve them.
Every time we handle or ride a horse we are making the horse better or worse.
It is better to ride training level well than grand prix badly.
Where violence begins art ends.
A correct seat is essential for success.
Hayley Sullivan is an HA Traditional certified Pony Club graduate from Portuguese Bend Pony Club. She grew up on the Palos Verdes Peninsula, competing on the Varsity Palos Verdes High School Equestrian Team in hunters and jumpers while going to PVHS. She then attended the University of California, Davis where she received a bachelor’s degree in Equine Science and was a member and officer for the UC Davis Equestrian Three-Day Eventing Team.
While going to UC Davis, she was a regular instructor for the Panache Pony Club in Davis, CA. She now is a student of the College of Veterinary Medicine at Western University of Health Sciences, and will graduate as a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine in 2018.
After graduation Hayley plans on specializing in equine surgery and sports medicine. She is an active three-day event rider who has competed through the International CCI 1* level with her horse, "All Riled Up" whom she got off the track many years ago. Hayley has spent six years riding and grooming for two-time eventing Olympian Hawley Bennett-Awad. Hayley's favorite part of teaching is seeing riders ride tough on cross country! She is excited to share her love of pony club and her veterinary knowledge with PBPC.