About Us
Abbey’s Run Equestrian
is an educational business helping to connect horse people to quality information and experts along with sharing our knowledge. Our aim is to help horse people be the most amazing horse people they can be for their horses.
There are four ways we can support you and your equine partner:
Abbey’s Run Equestrian Membership: our monthly, virtual Membership is ideal for you if you’re looking to learn & make connections but your life can be a bit bonkers and you don’t always have a lot of time, so you need something you can dip in and out of as life allows.
VIP Weekends: these weekends are for you if you love learning in-person, hands-on, in a beautiful environment and as part of an intimate group where you get to share, be heard and get ample time to have your questions answered.
From Green to Growth - developing positive partnerships for the future: this fully virtual 4-month program is for you if you’re an owner of young and/or green (inexperienced in any way) horse and you would like a structured, step-by-step, supported pathway to make efficient progress and to develop your confidence, clarity (ditch your analysis-paralysis) and feel empowered in taking your training forward.
Self-paced short courses: are for you if self-guided, self-paced virtual learning works well for you. Our first course, Prioritise Your Training is a step-by-step process to work through that will give you the clarity and certainty about your training priorities - literally, so you know, with confidence, what to go out and work on today (tomorrow & next week too).
If you think you’d like to learn with us, but you’re not sure which option is for you, book a free 20-minute, 1:1 call with Sarah and we can see if any of our offers are a good fit for you and your horse, or, we can refer you on to some of our wonderful colleagues and/or other resources.
We also have our popular podcast, An Equine Conversation (available on most podcast apps), that connects you with top-quality information from experts and horse-owners around the world and has over 40 episodes in the back catalogue for your reference.
Occasionally, we explore other fun, equine-learning activities and opportunities too. Be sure you sign-up to our mailing list, to be the first to find out what we’ve got happening.
Our online services are available from anywhere in the world (except the USA and Canda due to insurance limitations) and face-to-face activities are based on-site at Abbey’s Run, near Benalla in Northeast Victoria, Australia.
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 10 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 30 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
Abbey
The namesake for Abbey’s Run Equestrian. Sadly, Abbey passed away in late 2015 and is buried at Abbey’s Run. The property was named after her to honour all the learning she brought to our lives.
Fernando, Flex, Rufus, Affie & Wren make up our current team (with the recently departed, Ted & Tolly included in our content too). The almost perfect colour scheme was a total (happy) accident.
Bobby, Charli & Bessie practise ‘in the bucket’ on a Summer’s morning
Charli, Bessie & Bobby
Not to forget these integral members of the Abbey’s Run Equestrian Team!
Bobby (left), Charli (middle) and Bessie (right) are all rescue dogs we have adopted. Charli came to us through Blue Cross as a 1-year-old, Bessie from Labrador Rescue as a 5-month-old and Bobby from Working Dog Rescue as a 3-year-old. They all have some physical challenges that we have had to work with: both Charli (now 13-years-old) and Bobby (now 5-years-old) are blind, Charli has doggie dementia now too, and Bessie (now 9-years-old) has hip dysplasia and had her left hip fully replaced at only 11 months old.
They are all fun to train and Bessie especially can often be found training together with Sarah and the horses - learning a surprising amount by modelling behaviour the horses are reinforced for.
Training blind dogs is quite the interesting challenge but incredibly rewarding to see them live their lives to the fullest.
These gorgeous individuals help keep us entertained, forming a key part of our learning team.
