Yonathan Rue
Yoni has extensive experience in multiple areas of equine science, equitation, and horse training. He has a degree in Equine Science from the University of California at Davis, and was a member of the UC Davis dressage and jumping team.
Yoni started riding at the Los Angeles Equestrian Center when he was thirteen and developed a passion for horses. He worked his way up, initially as a working student and summer horse camp counselor and later camp director. Always looking to challenge himself, he sought out the most accomplished riders to mentor him.
Yoni’s first advanced training was in High School (Haute Ecole) riding Andalusian horses under a student of the incomparable Albert Ostermaier. As assistant trainer at Winter Park Farms, Yoni specialized in starting horses and re-educating problem horses. After college he studied dressage under Jaye Cherry, a member of the US Olympic Team in 1984 (who learned from Hilda Guerney, also a US Olympian). He studied reining in Houston, Texas with one of Craig Johnson’s students. Yoni has also trained with some of the best horsemen and horsewomen including Gisela Festerling (who's father is Gunther Festerling), Johannes Westendarp and Richard Spooner and attended clinics under Charlotte Dujardin and David Jay. Yoni worked as a horse trainer and barn manager at the Los Angeles Equestrian Center where he focused on his students’ fundamental equitation skills required for developing a safe seat and effective aides, which is necessary to build trust and relationships between horse and rider.
To complement his vast riding experience, Yoni studied farriery at Danny Ward's school and interned with the podiatry department at Rood and Riddle Equine Hospital in Kentucky. Yoni also worked as a veterinary technician for Dr. Neil Gray (equine practitioner) in Los Angeles.
Yoni is now bringing all of the skills and techniques he has developed over the 21 years he has been riding and training horses to Bloomington, IN.