In 2005, a talented Belgian Dressage rider/instructor with weak shoulders, and a passionate American Natural Horsemanship instructor seeking a new path, met in a dark Spanish airport, and discovered they shared a vision for the future of sporthorse development and the welfare and well-being of all the worlds horses...

For the next six years we continued our research, teaching, learning, collaborating and staying up talking late into many a night. Our collective experience with hundreds of horses was further honed by two very challenging equine professors who became our inspirations for developing a new way to be with, and be seen by, our horses. Saskia's champion dressage mare Rayou, and Alissa's partner in liberty and play, the dominant gelding Doc A'Nalu, challenged us to become more creative, more clear in our communication, more horse-like in our mind-set, and more aware of the impact of all the aspects of the life that we impose upon these beautiful domisticated creatures...

February 2011 - we presented the first official Rayou A'Nalu Dressage™ Clinic in Kilauea, Kaua'i, Hawaii - three fun and fabulous days of demonstrations, one-on-one and two(instructors)-on-two(horse/human) sessions of riding and training, horse behavior observation and analysis, horse psychology, group simulations and hands on work with the horses and many and varied question & answer sessions with our lovely crowd and student body.  Our vision is to get students to take a wide view of the horse not just as an athlete capable of amazing feats of physical expression and inter-species bonding, but also as an intelligent animal with thoughts, emotions, and needs. These unique qualities of Equus are enabled and enhanced by excellent health, soundness of body and mind, and the building of a relationship between horse and rider based on trust, clear communication, and mutual respect. This panoramic way of looking at the whole horse, this new way of looking at the whole training picture, is Holistic Horse Development™

We are excited to share our knowledge to help horses and horse-people live out their dreams and fulfill their potentials by working from every angle..

Athletic training, coordination, and honing sensory feedback and response time is accomplished with

Performance Enhancing mind-body connection and conscious relaxation and control of muscles is achieved with Equine Hanna Somatic Education®.

The Hoof Mechanism is free to function in all it's glory of sensory feedback, increased circulation, hydrolic shock absorption, and economy of motion with Performance Hoof Care.

The social and physiologic needs of the Equine, (ie. movement/self-exercise, grazing/browsing, play, freedom, and a sense of herd life) are met by living in a Hybrid-Stable Habitat™.

Restricted free-access to low calorie forage-based feeds and mineral-rich natural resources mimics a horses natural grazing and food-seeking activities and promotes a healthy gastro-intestinal environment while providing the necessary Nutrition.

A positive educational environment designed to encourage exploration while building life skills and self-confidence creates the ideal opportunity for horses to grow and develop responsibility and obedience to good leadership, as in HHD Foundation Training.