Diana Mukpo

British-born, Grand Prix trainer and competitor, Diana Mukpo, recently relocated her full-service business, Windhorse Dressage, to Stonehenge Farm in Dover, MA. With more than a dozen horses in full training, Diana prides herself on creating a professional environment and training program for the serious amateur client to flourish.

“To a certain extent being a good dressage rider is closely keyed into personal development,” Diana relates. “How people learn to work with discipline, as a group, creates a positive energy.”
Right now, Windhorse Dressage has an extraordinary community, a unique group of students who are very successful in their own professions, so they come with an excellent work ethic, interpersonal skills, and focus but they come to dressage as amateurs.

Along with her assistant trainer, Mary Bahniuk Lauritsen, and her students’ resounding success during the Florida season from Training level through Grand Prix, Diana is excited to showcase her riders, many with mounts she personally hand-picked, on the New England summer circuit in 2012.
“I don’t know which horses I like best!” she says of the 15 horses settled into Stonehenge and gearing up for spring. In addition, an April shopping trip to Holland, Belgium and Germany, yielded two excellent Prix St George finds: V.I.P, a 2001 gelding by Gribaldi and Wench de Jeu, a 2002 mare by Jazz out of a Contango mare bred by Emmy de Jeu who has bred some of the best horses in Holland including Sisther de Jeu ridden by Edward Gal. Wench is the dam of Che de Jeu, a young stallion that Gal has in training.

Following her FEI Grand Prix Open win with her consistent partner, Pascal, at the Wellington Classic Dressage Challenge 1 in January 2012,  plus the pair’s several solid placings, Diana plans to continue to campaign and refine their relationship.  In Wellington, Diana also competed Rubato, 2004 Oldenburg gelding by Rosario, for owner Donna Cameron in his first season at Fourth level with an average score of 67.78, currently, ranked second for the USDF preliminary awards. Now that Windhorse has relocated, Diana acknowledges that someone else will take over the reins but says, "I will miss riding this wonderful horse."

Diana’s resume includes years in training with some of the world’s best dressage riders and trainers, notably Herbert Rehbein and Arthur Kottas, establishing what she feels to be the most imperative ingredient in perfect riding – a thorough, strong foundation. She also lived in Austria for three years, having been accepted onto the Spanish Riding School as a foreign student – one of the first women to achieve this rare distinction. For consistency in training principles, Diana arranges clinics with Lars Petersen several times a year for herself and her students.

“The very foundation of life is about extending out,” says Diana, “If you have riches in your life, you need to find a way to offer that to others.” Her outlook encompasses the beauty and benefits of dressage. “This particular sport and discipline has so much to offer people. I have worked to create the opportunity for people to really appreciate a genuine discipline and path, along with a supportive community that creates a lot of joy.”