From the first time Noemie Wheatley picked up a garrocha pole and navigated a bell corridor, she was hooked on working equitation.
The Prince Edward Island rider heard of the discipline 10 years ago from western dressage clinician Lesley Elchuk. What started as a small group with Wheatley and some rider friends learning the basics of the sport from Elchuk has grown into an interprovincial grassroots organization, East Coast Working Equitation, with 100 members.
Working equitation (WE), a sport started in Europe in 1996, combines classical horsemanship with traditional ranch work skills, such as seen in Spain, Italy, France and Portugal. Competitions have up to four phases: dressage; ease of handling (an obstacle course with gates, bridge, etc); a speed phase; and an optional/advanced cattle handling phase.
The discipline has slowly been growing in pockets of Canada over the past decade, but its popularity is gaining momentum.
“People are starting to see it more and it’s getting more attention on social media,” says Kristi Newman, EC coach and founder of the Silverfox Equestrian Club in Whitby, Ontario who recently added working equitation to her barn’s dressage and eventing lesson options.
Matt French (a former Medieval Times rider) and his mustang Navarro helped the US team place 8th at the recent Worlds. (Rearing is not a required skill!) (Brooke Louise Creative photo)
Videos of American rider Matt French riding his rescued reservation mustang, Navarro, at the World Association of Working Equitation (WAWE) World Championships in Jerez de la Frontera, Spain, in September went viral on social media, with hundreds of thousands of view to date. highlighting the Cinderella story of French and Navarro, while raising the profile of the sport. (For the first time, a Canadian Working Equitation team competed at the same championships.) Matt will be giving a clinic at Stonehedge Stables in Stratford, Ontario July 30 and 31, 2027.
Inclusive and Challenging
“Once people see it, they can’t unsee it,” Newman says. “It’s very inclusive and it can be very challenging. People are challenged by the sport, not by each other. There is a big camaraderie and it’s friendly.
“At the lower levels, anyone can do it,” Newman adds, but riders who enjoy challenge will find a high degree of technical skills are required at the higher levels. The introductory level, the first of seven, includes dressage and ease of handling phases, that riders negotiate at walk and trot and ride with two hands. As riders progress, the speed phase is introduced, and at Level 6, they must ride with one hand. Cattle phases are optional, though mandatory at WAWE world championships for team competition.
“It’s a bit of a showy sport and I love that you can wear western tack and clothes. It’s less stuffy than dressage and uses more skills,” says Newman. “It’s less abstract than disciplines like dressage where you may think you rode a good test, then the scores don’t reflect that. In (WE) ease of handling, each obstacle is scored. You either speared the ring with the garrocha, or you didn’t. I think that’s going to be appealing.”
Mallory Haigh, owner of Jamesview Dressage near Belleville, Ontario was focused on dressage until she tried Working Equitation a couple of years ago, “and I haven’t looked back.” She has loved Lusitanos since she was a child, and imported a dressage-bred one four years ago from Portugal with the intention of doing FEI dressage, but he came with challenges.
“I did an introductory WE clinic and watched my horse turn on in a different way,” she says. “The challenge it presents is like nothing else. It’s a more classical way of working with the horse. It’s very much dependent on the horse and rider relationship.”
Haigh says it that can be done with any breed, and while the recent WAWE World Championships had many Lusitanos, there were also Mustangs and Quarter Horses. Clinics Haigh’s held have attracted eventers, western, dressage, hunter-jumper and pleasure riders.
She says “every single movement in dressage” has an application in ease of handling. She often incorporates WE obstacles to help her students improve dressage skills, such as using the garrocha/bull line to teach straightness, and barrels to achieve bend.
“I hear from people looking for something different,” says Wheatley. “They might have a versatile horse that’s a jack of all trades, master of none. I appreciate dressage and enjoy western trail, and for me, Working Equitation is a blend of those two. You do dressage and obstacles. You don’t need a fancy horse, you don’t need to replace all the equipment you have (you can ride in any type of saddle). It’s so versatile and welcoming.”
Canada’s Own WE Identity
East Coast Working Equitation is an interprovincial organization that brings together riders from New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island interested in growing the sport. It’s a member of the Island Horse Council.
Wheatley says Canada has to forge its own WE identity, as the sport is new here, and the horses and riding culture are different from Europe’s. Her East Coast WE group is tailoring the discipline to suit Canadian/Maritimes riders.
“We want to make it easy for people to learn,” Wheatley says. “We don’t disqualify riders for errors on course, for instance. We’ve taken the sport and simplified it at the grassroots level.”
They’ve added an in-hand WE class at their shows so people can expose their young horses to the obstacles, and offer a children’s lead-line division and a grasshopper class, where coaches accompany their young riders in the ring.
“We are even discussing the rule about garrochas (the long pole used in WE) and reducing it from eight to 12 feet to six to 10 feet, as some riders struggle with the long pole. It’s difficult to hold onto a green horse as well as holding a garrocha,” says Wheatley.
Newman is planning to hold a WE pop-up clinic at Silverfox in mid-October; Silverfox’s assistant trainer Ciara Tonno just returned from training in Portugal with WAWE World Champion Gilberto Filipe. Silverfox also has a 10-acre farm in Wellington, Florida and in addition to serving as a base for its dressage students who come south, a WE course will be set up there for riders to school. There is a healthy contingent of WE riders in Florida, says Newman.
Seeking Equestrian Canada Affiliation
Canada has two national Working Equitation clubs – Working Equitation Canada (WECan), formed nine years ago, and the recently formed Canadian Working Equitation Federation.
CWEF aims to support grassroots riders to elite competitors and to work in partnership with regional stakeholder groups. In April, CWEF applied to become a Category C, or Special Interest Affiliate with Equestrian Canada.
CWEF president Kimberly Cox says pursuing EC affiliation is an important step in helping the sport grow with strong support and clear oversight. By aligning with EC, CWEF expects to strengthen its connection to nationally recognized sport standards, including Safe Sport, and established dispute resolution frameworks, giving members greater confidence in the organization’s accountability.
Affiliation may also improve CWEF’s ability to pursue future funding and support opportunities. Any such support would be meaningful for regional stakeholder groups building the sport at the grassroots level, from programming and equipment to competitions, event insurance, and coach development, says Cox.
Affiliation would also help CWEF align with relevant EC resources and programs, such as Safe Sport education, coaching pathways, athlete support, horse welfare, rules, event administration, and national education tools. These supports could reduce the need for CWEF to develop every system independently, Cox says.
The CWEF board identified Category C as the most suitable affiliation category available. Category A generally applies to FEI-recognized sports, while Category B is intended for provincial and territorial sport organizations. CWEF’s governance model has been reviewed through EC’s governance process and appears to be closely aligned with national expectations.
WECan also contacted EC in August to inquire about the Category C affiliation process, confirmed by EC parting CEO Meg Krueger. WECan’s mission is to support riders from national participation to international competition, and it recently handled the selection of riders for the first Canadian team to compete at the WAWE Championships in Spain. It has chapters in several provinces.
As EC is not accepting any new Category C affiliates at the present time. Organizations interested in affiliation, including CWEF and WECan, will be invited to participate in the 2027 Leadership and Collaboration Forum.
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