Darrell Roberds Journey
Darrell Roberds started riding at 3 years old. He was an annoying child who begged, borrowed and snuck rides on anything with 4 legs. By 6 years old he was going to rodeos where he rode sheep ( mutton busting), steers, ponies (wild pony races) and at night cooled out the chuck wagon horses. Finally at 12 he was able to buy his first horse. A 3 year old running quarter horse that he started and trained himself. Darrell and Whiskey taught each other and put on a lot of trail miles before becoming the local gymkhana stars. After surviving the disaster that is green rider training green horse he made the commitment to learn everything he could about riding and training horses.
Fast forward 50 years and Darrell is still committed to learning and riding. He and his wife Cheryl own Practical Horsemanship academy where they teach classical dressage, working equitation and liberty training.
After an almost 25 year hiatus from showing horses Darrell became interested in working equitation and after a few trips to Portugal to learn the sport went to his first WE show and was hooked. He continues to travel on a regular basis to Portugal to further develop his skills as well as taking clinics at all opportunities. Darrell is sharing what he is learning by teaching lessons and clinics. He is looking forward teaching and competing at the 2019 Cross nations cup.
Darrell’s short term goals for working equitation are to develop and compete with a couple of his horses and to help share through lessons and clinics the amazing horsemanship that working equitation is. Long term goal is to be part of the first Canadian team to compete at the world championships.
West Coast Working Equitation 
Going to Portugal to learn the sport sounds like something I’d like to do! Any tips or contacts you can share with me on how to do that?