Glamorgan Manor Dressage was founded in 2000 by Lea Ann Hansen and her husband, Mike Stanford. Located in Doswell, VA Glamorgan is dedicated to bringing the dressage enthusiast quality instruction and facilities as well as superior sporthorse breeding.

We sponsored clinics with Mr. George Theodorescu, German Riding Master, twice yearly until his death in 2007 as well as hosting nutritional programs in association with Ashland Feed Store LLC and Purina Mills.

Our facilities currently include 2 new 6 stall barns, a 20 x 60 meter indoor riding arena with sand and shredded rubber footing and state-of-the-art sprinkler system, a 100 x 200 foot outdoor arena, breeding facility with shredded rubber footing, large grass paddocks, and horse-safe vinyl fencing.

Services Offered:

• Dressage instruction/training with Lea Ann or our new partners Patrick and Lani Tigchelaar.
• Equestrian “clinic” facility
• Warmblood horse breeding and sales
• Dressage judging
• Lay-ups
• Overnight Stabling

Please take a tour of our facilities and check out our Calendar of upcoming events.

Like many, I was a horse crazy little girl and continually asked my parents when I could have a pony. My dad kept saying I had to wait until I was 6 or 7. So I was really surprised one day (when I was 5) that my dad Max said we were going to take a drive and we ended up at a horse dealer’s farm. Max had a fair amount of horse sense, having spent summers during the depression working on ranches in the panhandle of Nebraska. We picked out a medium-sized pinto pony and named her “Dusty”. The deal included saddle, Navajo blanket and bridle, all for $125. Dusty was a sweet pony, although a bit headstrong, as ponies can be. She didn’t have any sophisticated training but took care of me. My mom, Dorothy, although scared to death of horses, would take me to watch local horse shows and I would go back to the farm and try to make Dusty do the same sort of circles and patterns as in the shows. Sometimes Dusty thought I was insane and would stop next to a fence or building and refuse to do anymore. My dad would come to the rescue and get us going again.

When I was about 10, I was outgrowing Dusty and wanted to start going to horse shows. Max struck a deal with a dentist he knew for the purchase of a grade quarter horse gelding named Sunny, for $400 this time, again including all necessary tack. Sunny had a bit more training and was cooperative in doing the walk, trot, canter of a rail class and even knew his leads! We started going to 4-H. The club met at a farm about 10 miles away and we hauled Sunny in a borrowed home-made horse trailer. It makes me shudder to remember that that trailer didn’t have taillights so if it got dark we would tie a couple of flashlights on the back! There wasn’t much traffic on the back roads of Nebraska and Max was very careful so we never had a problem, but I wouldn’t recommend the method. Sunny had a very smooth jog trot (and the longest pasterns you’ll ever see) so our best class at a show was “Ride a Buck”, a bareback class where everyone started out with a dollar bill under their thigh and the last person to be holding theirs received all the money.

From the time I was 12 until 15, I spent two months each summer at Camp Cheley in Estes Park, Colorado. That was a great experience for a shy, only-child, in a beautiful setting. To this day, just being in the mountains makes me relax. The camp offered all of the normal camp activities, including hiking, backpacking, and horseback riding. I, of course, gravitated toward the latter and I had many fun times on all day and overnight rides through the Rockies. We even would ride in the Estes Park Rodeo parade in town. The wranglers (horse counselors) taught us a lot of practical information about horses and there were certificates and awards for those who excelled. Melissa Walker and her sister Prissy Walker were two that I remember fondly.

In the fall of 1975, Chawago entered my life. Her breeders were moving to Alaska and were selling this two year old filly. My father just shook his head that we were spending $2000 for a horse and this time no tack was included! Little did I know what successes lie ahead. The filly came with the appropriate nickname, Chewy. Chewy had been ridden enough so she could walk, trot and canter. I joined a 4-H club and was very fortunate that a woman named Diane Shannon was the leader. Diane had attended a horse school back east, I think it was Meredith Manor, so she had a lot more knowledge than most people I had experienced. She taught me how to train Chewy and other than one month of polishing at Bob Loomis’ reining stable as a 4 year old, I did all of the training myself. Diane also encouraged me to join the Pony Club at Lowell Boomer’s stable, and I did that mostly during the winter months. At the time, I didn’t know how much of a living legend I was working with, who actually rode my horse once with amazing results!

In 1977 I showed Chewy locally and also tried out for the Lancaster County 4-H horse judging team. Under the tutelage of extension agent Cyril Bush, our team qualified as Nebraska’s representative at the judging contest in conjunction with the Quarter Horse Congress in Columbus, Ohio. The 4-H horse judging program isn’t only about horses, it is about teaching young people to gather information, put it together logically, make sound decisions and be able to confidently communicate an opinion. At the Congress, each 4 member team judged five conformation classes and five performance classes. Our team placed 2 nd out of 20 teams and I was the 5 th highest individual. This experience was valuable when I participated in the USDF “L” program and passed with distinction in 2002.

1978 started off with a bang. We went to an out-of-state APHA show for the first time in Topeka, Kansas. We entered a number of classes and won three or four. I remember people asking about where we came from and who had trained that horse! My parents were so generous and hauled me to many shows that year. Our best class was called “Western Riding”, which is a set pattern and for the most part is about lots of flying changes. That experience has served me well in dressage! Chewy and I won the APHA Honor Roll in western riding, which means we earned more points (based on show placings) in that event than any other rider in my age group that year. We were also on the Nebraska team that won the Youth all around contest at the Paint Horse Congress in 1978. The topper was finishing third in the nation of all the kids in my age group. In 1980, upon my acceptance to pharmacy school, Chewy was sold to a wonderful family in Utah. I would need to concentrate on my studies, but knowing I wouldn’t be long without a horse, my dad was again very generous and put all of the money from the sale of Chawago in a bank CD in my name for the eventual purchase of another horse.

After I accepted a faculty position as an oncology clinical pharmacist with the School of Pharmacy at the Medical College of Virginia in Richmond, I immediately started searching for places to ride. I knew I wanted to do something different. The dressage I had seen at Mr. Boomer’s intrigued me and I knew it was popular in Virginia. I found my way to Stillmeadows Farm in the fall of 1985 and began riding with Barbara Price (now Wiefelstede) and Helen George. Other than needing to learn about riding with contact, I began to appreciate just how much correct dressage my 4-H leader Diane Shannon had taught me. My intent was to ride school horses for at least a year before purchasing, but by January I was getting the itch. I fell in love with a barely 5 year old, 17.1 hand, 1500 pound green broke gelding that went by the name of Wilbur who was in training with Debbie Bowman. Wilbur was by the fantastic Trakehner stallion, Troubadour, who was Christine Stuckelburger’s alternate mount for the Seoul Olympic games. Wilbur’s mother was half Clydesdale and half Tennessee Walker, so size and a calm nature were quite evident. However, within the first week of owning this gelding, he bucked me off, took his stall gate off of the hinges, and pushed the window out of his stall. His mischievous streak earned him the name of Dennis the Menace, and his show name was Amadeus (people later pointed out to me that Mozart was a rather petite, delicate man, but I was thinking more of the music than the stature when I chose the name).

I credit most of my progress with Dennis to Helen George and Debbie Bowman. After great success at Training and First Levels with Dennis’ big gaits and willing attitude (Virginia Training Level Horse of the Year in 1987), we struggled at Second Level. A dressage neophyte trying to teach a huge horse about collection was not the best scenario. Another setback was colic surgery, but during that trauma, I became better acquainted with the stable manager where I was boarding. Mike Stanford and I were married in 1992. Dennis recovered very well from the surgery, we persevered in our training and eventually showed up through Intermediare I, earning a USDF Silver Medal. Respiratory problems put Dennis into semi-retirement in about 1996, but he is still with us as a happy babysitter.

Most serious dressage work was suspended during the period from 1994 – 1998, while Mike was attending veterinary school at Virginia Tech. I stayed in Richmond (about 4 hours away) and we commuted on weekends. In the fall of 1998, we splurged on the purchase of a Hanoverian mare from Germany. She had scored an 8.0 and received the 1a prize at her inspection. Her name is Wardenia (from her mother’s name Gardenia). She was bred by Wilhelm Klausing and is from the famous Wolgarune mare line that has produced over 20 approved stallions, including His Highness, and Rhodes Scholar, and high priced auction horses like Ramina K (purchased and renamed Romantik by Sissy Max-Theuer, former Olympian in Austria). Rhodes Scholar is out of the same dam as Wardenia and Romantik is out of Wardenia’s granddam Avignon.

Since Wardenia’s father is Walt Disney, her nickname is Wendy, after the Peter Pan character. She was the first “pure” warmblood I had ridden consistently and it was amazing how much came naturally to her. She has had a successful show career through third level, although some of our training progress has been hampered by injuries and illnesses in both the horse and my family. Wendy will be eligible for AHS elite status based upon this performance record once she has a foal. She will be bred in 2006 and anticipate her being a wonderful mother.

In 2001, I purchased a cute little filly by Woronow from Laura Whitford in Haymarket, Virginia. Laura had purchased her from her breeder Jorg Clausen because she was out of a full sister to a favorite mare Daalny, owned by Marefield Meadows. We named this filly Wasilida (nickname Lida), a Russian name that means “princess”. She was to be my next riding horse, but unfortunately she fractured a facet joint in her neck as a two year old. Despite all odds, she has recovered pretty well and has given us two sons thus far, one by Rhodes Scholar (Rhadivoi) and one by Longchamp (Laurentii). Lida’s relatives continue to do well, including her full “uncle” the approved stallion Dauphin; they can be seen at www.marefield.com.

Our Hanoverian filly Wasilida needed a pasture mate so we found a locally bred Thoroughbred named Sailaway Lady (Sadie). I had known her dam as a dressage horse at Stillmeadows Farm in the mid 80’s and her sire Harbor Man is known around here for producing nice babies. When Lida’s neck injury preventing a riding career, Sadie stepped in. Jontelle Heine (now Forbus) was at our farm for a time and started Sadie for me in the fall of 2003. I have trained Sadie since that time. Working with a thoroughbred, even an unusually quiet one, is another unique experience for me. When we are together, we are really together! In 2005 we competed in recognized shows at Training and First Levels with scores up to 68%.

Starting in 2001, Glamorgan Manor has hosted twice yearly clinics with the German Riding Master George Theodorescu. A local dressage trainer, Radu Marcoci, is a family friend of George from Romania and the relationship began through his efforts. Being able to watch George give a couple hundred lessons and riding with him myself, on multiple horses, has been the biggest influence in my current approach to dressage. This kind man has shared his love of the horses and his system for developing what I truly see as a “happy athlete”, a simple term that has managed to become controversial today. I will be working with him in Germany in 2006.

Over the past ten years, I have had the pleasure of working with a number of students and their horses. My range of experience over a lifetime with horses, culminated with my work in the judging program and with Mr. Theodorescu, gives me a unique background. Having taught pharmacy students for the past 20 years, I have gained much appreciation for the needs of adult learners. I am looking forward to expanding my teaching and training commitment. Please contact me for more information.