Ron Paterson’s riding career started when he rode around in bare feet and shorts and rode a pony to school. A chance meeting with ex-campdrafter and Ekka ‘red coat’, Bob Williams, led to some lessons and Ron winning his first Champion Boy Rider award at Dayboro Show in 1959.
Since then, Ron has been a force to be reckoned with in the area of Performance horse sports in Australia. (see Career Highlights)
In the rare position of being a competitor, judge, trainer and coach, Ron’s expertise continues to produce both horses and riders with quality and true and correct technique.
The Equestrian Federation of Australia (now known as Equestrian Australia or EA) has only ever offered two scholarships, and Ron has been the recipient of both (the second as a co-winner with the late Gert Donvig). This enabled Ron to train with such ‘masters’ of our sport as Mairinger, Schultheis, Pileke, Feldt and Holzel.
Short-listed twice for the Australian Olympic Eventing team, but both times accident and injury preventing participation, Ron then turned to focusing on his primary passion of Dressage. He has consistently produced many horses to FEI level and dearly loves working with the young horse to create the true and correct foundations that enable the horse to go on and compete successfully through to the highest levels. A strong believer that the correct classical lines produce success in all areas of equestrian sports, Ron is able to turn his training and coaching talents to enhance performances in not only Dressage, Show Jumping and Eventing but also the ‘Hack’ ring, Reining and Campdraft!
His wish is to continue training young horses and riders on the correct classical lines and to demonstrate the success of these principles for all areas of equestrian sport. He hopes to pass on the knowledge that he has learnt from the brilliant ‘masters’ that he has had the privilege to work with.