Ron Smeets started his riding career training with Sjef Janssen (trainer & husband of Anky van Grunsven, and the current trainer of the Dutch Dressage Team). He became extremely successful at a young age, showing in many different national and international competitions. At 18 years old, he joined Young Riders and competed with them till the age of 21, representing Holland in many different international competitions.
Ron has been a Dutch Gold Medal rider for 20 years. He owns R&B stables, an 18-stall dressage training facility with both indoor and outdoor regulation arenas. He is currently focused on his training, selling, and breeding programs at home and has 10+ horses that he is bringing through the levels, ranging from horses that have just been started to Grand Prix. He travels several times a year to teach clinics in the United States and England. As a trainer and clinician, he has the unique ability to identify and pinpoint areas of opportunity for improvement and teach the rider how to address each issue specifically. He gives you the tools that you need to continue to improve even after he leaves. Ron not only explains how to do something, he explains the process of … why you are doing it, as well as the result you should expect. Ron’s teaching style removes the mystery from Dressage and makes it accessible to riders of all levels. He enjoys working with students of all levels from Training – Grand Prix. Both Dressage and Eventing pairs will benefit from his expertise and teaching.
This is a video of Ron training his Grand Prix horse Tinus. This is not a sales video. It is just a normal training session.
Summary
- International Grand Prix Competitor from Holland
- Trained with three of Holland’s top trainers; Sjef Janssen for 19 years (Dutch Dressage Team Coach), Bert Rutten (former Dutch team Chef d’Equipe) and Henk Van Bergen.
- Training multiple horses up to FEI level since that time, including Ledalco who was sold to Japan as an Olympic mount.
- Two time Champion of Holland, 3rd and 4th level
Horses Imported to the Southeast US
- Lestera, competed through GP levels with Kelly O’shea Duncan, Gigi Nutter, and Adrian Rogers.
- Ivo with Denise Cole
- Joey, with Denise Cole and Scott Peterson
- Zidane (with Kerri Stevens) who Ron has trained for the last 2 years. Zidane and Kerri were ranked in the USDF Top 10 Amateur First Level (2010) and Second Level (2011).