Maria Faria de Carvalho is a dressage rider and trainer who is based in Portugal. She has trained and competed horses to GP-level classes.
Mari gives dressage clinics and lessons in Portugal, Germany, Finland and Switzerland.
from finnish riding schools to portuguese competition arenas
Maria begun riding when she was 9-years old. She graduated as a riding instructor as a young adult and moved to Portugal in 1992 where she has lived since. She worked at the Coudelaria Joao Pedro Rodrigues for the first 15 years at Quinta da Marinha in Cascais.
JP Rodrigues is one of Portugals main lusitano breeders. He is very well known for his horse training and dressage judging based on classical dressage. He is a very appreciated horse trainer in the field of dressage. He is also known as the director of the internationally famous Escola Portuguesa de Arte Equestre which is the Portuguese school of classical dressage.
Mari trained and showed horses at many levels under the guidance of JP Rodrigues. She worked at JP Rodrigues as a rider and teacher. She has always wanted to teach how to ride in a soft manner that always respects the horse. Working equitation champion Pedro Torres and Olympic dressage rider Goncalo Carvalho worked in the same team with Maria.
a successful competition career
Maria participated in many national and international competitions in 1995-2007. In the national competitions she won several championships both in young horse classes as well as Prix St George and GP-classes. You can have a look at the wide variety of her competition horses from the gallery.
Maria was very successful with her horse Nuxeque (http://pedropassanha.pt/en/nuxeque.html ). Martina Hannover, Rick Klaassen and Olympic rider Carlos Pinto are some of the many professional high quality trainers Maria has trained with during her career.
After the birth of her third child Maria finished her competition career. She has focused on training riders as well as horses since that. She has her horses in a small village called Santo Estevão near Lisbon. She gives lessons at the yard with her own horses and takes a few horses for training per year. Maria focuses on quality and long term solutions. She wants all the horses she trains to get the time they need to learn in a calm way.
MFC Dressage 