Abbey’s Run

Abbey’s Run is a 40 acre property situated in the foothills of the Great Dividing Range in North East Victoria. Sarah Nickels and Benn Sheffield established Abbey’s Run 7 years ago when they bought the property and since that time, have been slowly but surely evolving the property to be a functional and healthy horse property – both for the horses health (mental and physical) and that of the land itself.

Meet the Team

Sarah Nickels

Sarah has been instructing horse handling, management and riding for 27 years. Beginning her instructing career at a Riding School, Sarah has moved through teaching at various Riding Schools, Pony Clubs, Adult Riding Clubs, Working Equitation Clubs and private students. Ridden disciplines taught in the past have included dressage, show jumping, cross country and working equitation.

While initially trained to handle and ride horses conventionally (including lessons from Olympians) and passing on that approach through her instructing, Sarah was always interested in better ways of working with horses. Like many, Sarah discovered and went through a phase of learning about ‘natural horsemanship’ training methods when they first rose to prominence, then due to a series of articles and learning opportunities, began exploring classical dressage, then more specifically, horse and rider functional anatomy.

A freak accident (not related to riding) with her horse Fernando in 2008 saw Sarah air-lifted to hospital with life threatening injuries. This did not deter her from progressing in working with horses, however it made her more determined to find better ways to work with horses well to create a safer environment and prevent others needing a helicopter ride and life-saving surgery! Thankfully a very experienced instructor was able to help Sarah regain her balance and strength to be able to return to riding before she faced the task of starting her young horse (Fernando) under saddle.

Between 2010 and 2014, Sarah trained under Philippe Karl (France) and Sylvia Stössel (Switzerland) as a participant in the School of Légèreté Instructor Training course. Sarah spent 6 years (2013 - 2019) learning from and beside instructor and Associate Professor of Veterinary Science (Melb. Uni), Dr Helen Davies, who specialises in functional anatomy. All the while funneling learned information to her students.

Bonnie, 2012: ‘I cannot thank Sarah enough for what she has done for my horse and myself. I now view dressage in a completely different light and am very excited for what the future holds. My horse has never gone better and is very happy in his work. Thank you for showing me a light, and more harmonious way to ride. I'll never look back.’

In early 2015, desperation with a challenging horse saw Sarah resort, with minimal knowledge on technique, to introduce the use of food in training. Despite not having a great deal of knowledge of skill in using food, the challenging horse improved a great deal. On showing a well-known natural horsemanship trainer what she was working on, he expressed that he was impressed at Sarah’s competent training as he was sure he couldn’t work with this horse.

Thanks to a student who was trying something new one lesson - the whole world of training using positive reinforcement (often food), and the wealth of science and research that sits behind that began to open up to Sarah, who hasn’t looked back since and now trains her horses (and dogs, students and colleagues) predominantly using positive reinforcement.

In 2019, a renowned equine health professional, on working with Sarah’s horses, paused and commented that of all the 1000+ horses seen each year - he had not seen horses who had so much trust and connection with their human as have Sarah’s.

Sarah has been learning through various online mediums, learning from some wonderful humans, with her horses as the best 3D teachers providing valuable feedback and data. In 2020 Sarah first completed the Behavior Works Living and Learning with Animals Professional course, Auditing the same course again in 2022. Sarah intends to go on to undertake a Masters in Applied Animal Behavior.

Sarah is passionate about bringing top quality information to horse people on horse care, management and training to help improve welfare outcomes for horses everywhere.

Finlay, September 2022: ‘My goal is to bring positive training into my actual riding as well as on the ground. I want to create a relationship with my horse where we meet in the middle with a happy rider and happy horse. I didn't know how to achieve this until I did Sarah's course. Thank you Sarah, I got so much out of the training and workshop weekend.’

Angela, September 2022: ‘Although I am quite comfortable with learning theory and the principles of positive reinforcement, I found the hands-on games at the workshop and experiential learning very helpful. I was very excited to play PORTL and to be reminded about the importance of constructional training. I also loved seeing Fernando and the hands-on training with the horses. Did I say I loved seeing Fernando and how emotionally secure he feels with this type of training. Such a different horse to the one I remembered handling at a riding clinic with Sarah about 10 years ago.’

In parallel with her equine career, Sarah is a qualified and practicing Social Scientist in the Environment field.

Benn Sheffield

Logistics and tech extraordinaire, things would grind to a stand-still at Abbey’s Run if it wasn’t for Benn and his breadth of skills. From fencing to fixing the tractor, tech support to website updates and video editing, Benn forms a vital part of the Abbey’s Run Team.

The Horses

Fernando, Tolly, Ted, Rufus, Flex & Affie make up our current team. The almost perfect colour scheme was a total (happy) accident.