About Us
Our passion at Tayside Sport Horses is working with horses and the riders who love them. Our mission is to inspire clients to reach their highest potential and achieve their personal goals.
We promote learning and showing in a fun, safe environment that is respectful of the welfare of both horse and rider. If you are looking to compete at a higher level, need help setting personal goals, or have a problem horse, we can help. We welcome all ages and skill level.
Tayside Sport Horses operates out of The Horse Park at Woodside, a 270 acre premier equestrian facility. The property has a round pen plus 8 arenas, 3 of which have Olympic quality footing watered and dragged multiple times a day. The International level cross country course and exercise track footing is maintained year round is open for schooling a majority of the year. Our horses are stabled in 12 x 12 box stalls cleaned 3 times a day with fresh mini flake shavings, automatic waters, and multiple turn outs available day and night. The million dollar views from every arena make every ride feel like a dream. Come experience the beauty of horses at Woodside with us!
Staff
John Robertson
John Robertson is part-owner and head trainer at Tayside. John teaches lessons as well as rides and oversees the training program for every horse. He is a United States Hunter/Jumper Association Certified Trainer as well as an Australian National Coaching Accreditation Scheme Level One Instructor. He has been teaching lessons for over 50 years and has been a clinician in 15 different US cities. He was also a Pony Club Chief Instructor and Instructor Examiner in Australia.
John trained full time in the UK for two years with World Championship and Olympic rider Barbara Hammond, who successfully represented her country in the disciplines of 3 Day Eventing, Dressage, and Show Jumping. He also has trained with Franz Maringa, head of the Spanish Riding School.
John has trained and competed in Australia, Europe, and the USA. He has worked with multiple international competitors including Barbara Hammond in the UK and Franz Mairinger in Australia. He competed at the Grand Prix level in both Dressage and Show Jumping, as well as Advanced level Eventing in Australia.
Kelly Schwisow
Kelly Schwisow is part-owner, head rider, and operations manager of Tayside. Kelly spends a majority of her time riding and training horses, but also assists John in teaching lessons. Kelly has been working full time and learning from John since 2018 and is currently working to achieve her United States Eventing Association Instructor Certification. She has also ridden in multiple lessons and clinics with Eventing Olympians David O'Connor and Gina Miles.
Kelly started riding in 2009 and has since explored riding in over seven different disciplines. These included English, Western, Saddle Seat, Driving, Showmanship, Bareback, and Gaming.
She found her love for Eventing on the cross country field in 2015, and has been pursuing competition at the upper levels ever since. In 2019, she placed 9th in the American Eventing Championships in the Beginner Novice Adult division. Kelly has also finished every season ranked in the top 10 of the United Stated Eventing Association's National Leaderboard in the divisions she competed most actively in since 2019.
