Upon retiring from a challenging corporate career, Coralie sought to devote herself full-time to her lifelong love of horses. As is so often the case, she found her way to The Masterson Method® in search of a way of helping her own horses. Certification quickly followed and then she began teaching The Masterson Method®. She has taught the Advanced Class for over five years.
She is the co-author with Jim of the Dressage Movements Revealed DVD and the Dressage Horse Optimized book.
Coralie pursued a personal interest in the biomechanics of various disciplines to be a more astute bodyworker as well as deepening her effectiveness as trainer and rider. She has created a biomechanics course focusing on dressage, jumping and western events, either individually in a one day class or over multiple days covering several disciplines. In the course, the students paint the skeleton and muscles on the horse and watch it move after learning the basics of biomechanics. When the class is taught to bodyworkers, it includes bodywork practice on horses of the specific disciplines studied. The biomechanics class is also taught to students who are not bodyworkers. The biomechanics of the rider and how that affects the body of the horse are also included in the class.
Coralie is a sought after speaker on numerous topics including podcasts for the United States Dressage Federation on how bodywork can help a horse be at his best, a featured speaker at the 2016 United States Dressage Federation on horse and rider biomechanics and how The Masterson Method® can help the performance horse be at his best, the work of Dr. Kerry Ridgeway on ulcer points and The Masterson Method® at the Pacific Hoofcare Conference.
Coralie pursues the training of her dressage horses at her Indiana farm and hopes to finish the Silver performance medal soon. She cross-trains her horses in the skills of trail and obstacle negotiation to make them quieter and “useful”. She has also developed a unique method of rehabbing horses that have had their backs ruined through incorrect riding. Coralie has translated six books on dressage and training from the original German by authors such as Gerhard Heuschmann, Anja Beran, Uta Graf, Ulrike Thiel, and others.
Equestrian Resume
Coralie J Hughes
Coatesville, IN, and Wickenburg, AZ
In brief…
Lifelong equestrian across many disciplines (jumping, reining, competitive trail, etc), devoted to dressage riding, teaching, training, equestrian book translation from the German, Masterson Method® bodywork and running my own boarding facility after a long corporate career of significant responsibility. I lesson on several different horses every week from top area riders to continue to improve my riding and training knowledge.
Equestrian Accomplishments
- USDF Silver Medal recipient
- USDF Bronze Medal recipient
- USDF L graduate with distinction, active schooling show judge
- Frequent winner of Indiana state awards (Indiana Dressage Society)
Instructing experience
- In the ’90s, I taught jumping and English equitation to my daughters and their friends through ten years of County 4-H.
- Five years instructing boarders in dressage (without charge) after work
- Since 2010, post-retirement from the pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly & Co, I have been teaching and training full time
- My program has been growing rapidly by word of mouth. There is a significant demand for dressage instruction in the area I live in and there are few opportunities.
- Instruct 15-20 students a week in dressage at Intro through the Second level
- Twenty years experience teaching in the United States and internationally: foreign languages (German and Spanish) in corporations, university and in high school; competitive intelligence and market research in the US and internationally; reading and study skills at the middle school level.
Training experience
- Putting in around 15 rides a week on customer horses
- Currently retraining several eventing horses whose teen-aged owners have been receiving low dressage scores
- Currently training my own Arab/Trakehner mare and Thoroughbred for dressage competition.
- Arab/Trakehner mare showing the Second level, schooling upper-level movements, Reserve Second Level Champion at the recent sanctioned show.
- Thoroughbred currently showing First (just qualified for Regionals), schooling lateral work
- Multiple previous successful training experiences on my own horses across multiple disciplines
Performance Horse Bodywork
Certified practitioner of The Masterson Method®, a multi-modality approach to relieve restriction and muscle tension in performance horses.
Equestrian book translation
Translated Gerhardt Heuschmann’s new book for Trafalgar press. Currently working on a book by Ulrike Thiel