IT is with great sadness, both personally and for the horse world, we learnt of the passing of Sylvia Stanier last week – she was undoubtedly one of the true masters of 20th century equitation.

Riding from an early age, she grew up with a hunting and showing background and was a pupil of Sam Marsh in her early years. Sylvia then became a student of Lt. Col ‘Joe” Dudgeon, himself a pupil of Paul Rodzianko (Caprilli and Fillis). In addition, she studied Haute Ecole with two of the greatest dressage minds of the 20th century for many years, namely Einar-Schmit-Jensen (DeCarpenty and Beudant) and Nuno Oliveria. Between the three masters, she learnt both the art of showjumping and Haute Ecole from some of the finest equestrians at the time. Sylvia trained horses as a result for the Olympic Games in Japan in 1964, Mexico in 1968 and Munich in 1972.