Jill Barron

Coach and Assistant Director

A third-generation Canadian cattle rancher, Jill Barron grew up on the back of a horse. Jill has a life-long passion for horses and education. After teaching school for five years, her love of horses took over and she started professionally training horses. Training has taken her all over the world to places like Italy, France, Australia, and the United States. After 10 years of owning and operating her own arena, she shifted her sights to coaching. Her experience in the formal education system has helped to elevate her coaching skills. Jill's approach to training and coaching blends classical techniques and natural horsemanship. She is an extraordinarily diverse equestrian. Growing up on a ranch has helped her to train well rounded horses capable of many jobs. There is a certain skill set horses need to be successful. Her program has honed this foundation and she enjoys sharing it with students. She believes the ability to explain the ‘why’ to students is important in the learning process.

Jill believes there is a universal language horses speak. As riders and trainers, the greater understanding of the language we have, the better we can communicate with our horse. No matter the discipline, horses need a set of tools and we need to know how to access those tools. Jill enjoys the process behind training a horse, figuring out how they think, how they work and setting it up for them to be confident athletes. She believes a confident horse will do any job we ask them to do.

Jill’s expertise has won her global accolades which include the 2019 Andalusian World Cup (Las Vegas) Advanced Working Equitation Championship and the 2017 Haras Cup (Texas) Intermediate Working Equitation Championship. Jill is also the head clinician for the Calgary Stampede Showriders, an elite team of junior equestrians who travel North America representing the Greatest Outdoor Show on Earth, The Calgary Stampede. The team has traveled to the prestigious Rose Bowl Parade in Pasadena, California and the "Daddy of 'em All" Cheyenne Frontier Days in Cheyenne, Wyoming.