Sofia
Santos BErnardino
Sofia’s style of training is heavily influenced by both Portuguese and Dutch styles of training, believing that the horses need to simply be forward, in front of the leg, and confident to accept the rider’s aids. Her strength is her great sense of feel to manage horses, especially ones that are more on the difficult side, shaping them for the better. She has a love for Baroque horses and especially enjoys working with Warmbloods as well. She ranked 6th in the country for Level 5 Working Equitation in 2022, and is looking to bring more clients and horses into the show ring this year!
Anyone that knew Sofia as a child will tell you that she always wanted a life with horses, and today, that story still continues through her young adulthood. Born to a Portuguese family, she quite literally was raised in a barn by her Father Carlos, a Gold Medal Rider and FEI competitor, and her Sister, and Uncle, all of whom are Dressage trainers as well. She emerged into the world of horses riding naughty ponies, schooling horses for friends, and becoming a working student for various trainers. Sofia was allowed opportunities by horse owners to compete in Dressage, Show Jumping, Eventing, and Pony Club Events. At age 13, she won a Jr. Trail Class and was blown away by the idea of how practicable it was to combine her Dressage skills into the obstacles, which allowed her to soon discover what Working Equitation is….
At 15 years of age she was encouraged by a mentor to compete in an Extreme Mustang Makeover, which proved her work ethic, sensibility, trust, and love for horses as she took on a 9 month old Mustang named Remi from wild to tame. With successful results and positive feed back, Sofia started taking in clients, riding anything she could get her hands on, eventually learning that she had a knack for difficult horses that had scared off their trainers and owners. At age 18 she went off to university where she continued her riding as a Dressage working student in Moorpark while keeping her small business back at home. In 2019 she joined Tane McClure and Pria Perea as an assistant trainer working in each one of their programs until March of 2020 struck.
Sofia always had an itch to go to Europe to improve her riding abilities, so she took the opportunity and went blindly to Belgium to work for Nico Nyssen. This is where she got a feel for the ins & outs of the international Dressage world, riding as a working student, grooming, looking for sale horses, and getting a front row seat to what was really across the pond. In 2021 Sofia moved to Portugal, and this is when she met her husband, Fred, and caught even more of the Working Equitation bug. Sofia traveled across Iberian Peninsula to learn and experience as much as one could in WE, learning at different farms and procuring sales horses.
It wasn’t until March of 2022 that Sofia decided to move back to the States with Fred, where they would shortly start up their training and sales business, working and showing all over California.
Background
