About Craig Stevens

Craig Stevens is the former director and founder of the Snohomish, Washington based National School of Academic Equitation. Recently relocated and retired to Fort Collins, Colorado, He continues to specializes in short term intensives and instructor training in classical horsemanship, as well as offering select and limited lessons for local riders.

Clinics & Publications

He continues to work as a consultant dividing his time between promoting gentle and compassionate classical horsemanship and clinic tours. Mr. Stevens is a much sought after international clinician with a regular touring schedule that includes sites throughout Europe, Canada and the United States, though suspended or curtailed at this time due the pandemic. His own articles and articles about him have appeared in many national and international publications around the world, including Hast Focus in Sweden, Tunne Hevonen in Finland, Ride Magazine and Flying Changes in the US. Craig has two books both co-written with Mary Anne Campbell: The first on the Theory of Classical Equitation, the second on the Classical Work In Hand. He’s also co-author on a book written by his wife about Mediterranean Horsemanship, a classical approach to ground work that joins the calm and warmth of a natural approach with the precise understanding of classical work. His DVDs and videos on dressage and seat training are available upon contacting him.

Craig Stevens is an acknowledged master of the horse and an expert on equitation history. Professor Invgar Fredricson, head of Flyinge (the Swedish National Stud) from 1983 to 1998 appreciates Craig's decades of study, and refers to him as an "American scholar of the horse". Dag Nätterqvist  ("Dadde") the Swedish Olympic jumping star as well as a prominent teacher remembered for his years teaching at Strömsholm - the Swedish National Riding School, said "Craig Stevens is the first really good riding teacher to teach dressage in Sweden since the 1950´s." Craig's work is supported by Philippe Karl, the French classical master, and recommended by internationally recognized by many natural horsemanship clinicians and trainers.

Craig has judged shows and taught clinics to private groups and riding federations both in the states and abroad. He regularly gives clinics for the Swedish National Equestrian Federation and has also given clinics for the United States Dressage Foundation (USDF). Craig was honored to be included as a guest lecturer at Flyinge in 2010, lecturing about the historic Swedish trainer, Claes Adam Ehrengranat. He is one of very few Americans recognized as having the skill to offer clinics in Europe, where he has been touring regularly since 1997.

Training Method

Craig is teaching and training using a method much older than what is commonly used today. There are problems in the modern system of riding that are entirely predictable—that were, in fact, engineered intentionally by cavalry trainers who modified riding to answer 19th century military needs. If you're discouraged by your experience in riding, if the modern riding culture just doesn't seem quite right to you, or if achieving higher level movements seems a distant dream- you are not alone. There are time tested, much older alternatives to the common approach that avoid the problems common training creates by design.

Many years ago, Craig Stevens was one of those riders who had a sense that there was something more that he wanted in relationship to horses and to equitation. As a student, Craig worked with the best of the 20th century classical trainers, studying with such master horsemen as Joao Oliveira of Portugal, the French masters Michel Henriquet and François Lemaire de Ruffieu, members of the Cadre Noir, as well as with Katherine Durand. Most importantly, he learned to read French in order to research equitation history. He read everything he could get his hands on, and he's not done yet. Craig is constantly engaged in a relentlessly joyful pursuit of an equestrian education, he continues a lively dialogue with modern masters exploring the older ideas, and he loves finding and bringing to light treatises by historical horsemen whose works are not well known.

Over the years, Craig tested what he was learning, making it a point to separate out what is "right" because it's a current understanding, influenced by prevailing culture and unrecognized myth, and what is "right" from the point of view of what is most effective for the horse. Studying the historic texts helped him put modern ideas into perspective against a wider backdrop, and helped him develop the tools to test his results empirically.

Craig is adamant that this is not “his” system, but rather is very old classical work drawn from historical sources and informed by the horses he's ridden. He's updated some of the metaphors-- it's not unusual to hear Craig explain an equine movement in musical terms, or the horse-human relationship in romantic ones. This ancient material-- the material that was set aside in the interests of military concerns-- is where the relationship with the horse gets magical, and in our modern world, the horseman is hungry for something much more connected.