Maryal Barnett – biographical information

          Maryal Barnett is a FEI “C” Dressage Judge, an USEF “S” Dressage Judge and a Canadian Equestrian Federation Senior Dressage Judge.  She has attended many of the USEF Judge’s Forums offered since 1972.  She has also participated in:  the 1989 USDF International Judge’s Forums held in Neumunster, Germany and s’Hertogenbosch, Holland; the 1992 and 1998 USDF International Judge’s Forums in Germany, and the 1993, 2000, 2003, and 2006  FEI Seminars for Dressage Judges in Orlando, Florida, San Diego, California and Blainville, Quebec, Canada, Del Mar, California respectively.  Maryal has given many judges mini-forums throughout the United States; and she has been accepted on the USDF “L” Faculty to teach others to be dressage judges.  In March of 1998 the AHSA appointed Maryal to be an Instructor, Examiner and Senior Official for the “r” and “R” Dressage Judges Training Program.

Maryal attended the USDF/Violet M. Hopkins National Dressage Instructors’ Seminar since its inception in 1979.  At first she took part as a participating rider and participating instructor in 1979, 1980, and again in 1986.  She was chosen in 1986 by the senior staff to become a regional workshop instructor.  In 1987, she was a member of the teaching staff at the National Seminar and a co-instructor at several USDF Regional Workshops.  After passing her apprentice program, Maryal began giving her own USDF Regional Workshops in 1988.  As chairperson of the USDF/Hopkins National Seminar for Dressage Instructors Planning Committee, Maryal had the responsibility for the planning, from 1981 to 1989, of the annual seminar held in Union Lake, Michigan.  In 1998 she was chosen to be an official USDF Instructor Certification Examiner and Faculty Member.

In April of 1994, the USDF Executive Board requested the Maryal chair the USDF University Committee.  This committee coordinates the USDF’s different educational programs and identifies areas where improvement in needed.  Maryal was also elected to Executive Board of The Dressage Foundation in 1997.

In the competitive scene, Maryal has shown her own horses from training level through Grand Prix.  During her competitive years, she won the Midwest Dressage Association’s “Award of Excellence” trough the levels to Grand Prix.  Her horses have also won numerous local and national awards, including the USDF Horse of the Year (training – USEF Intermediate 1).

Maryal Barnett is a full-time dressage instructor working out of Nottingham Equestrian Center (of which she is a part owner) in East Lansing, Michigan.  She teaches at many other stables throughout the state of Michigan and gives regular clinics in Illinois, Indiana, New York, Missouri and Wisconsin.  Many of Maryal’s students have earned local and national awards; and they are USEF Judges and USDF Certified Instructors themselves.