About Luca Maria Moneta

Life among horses started for me thanks to my brother Peter, an award-winning endurance rider.

At the age of fifteen I began to specialize in show jumping and three years later I attended the equestrian school of Pratoni del Vivaro to become a Federal Instructor.

I graduated with flying colours and won a scholarship on Eventing. Then I moved to Northern Italy where I started to work in many riding schools. Up to the year 2000, I was much more an instructor than a rider but in my spare time I tried to devote myself to the improvement of my riding technique. It was not until I was thirty, that I entered my first Grand Prix. At that time, my professor was the famous Italian rider Giorgio Nuti.

Today I’m a third level instructor and a professional rider, member of the Italian team in many Nations Cup, European and World Championships, and since 2009 I’ve been taking part in CSI5* shows (World Cup, Global Champions Tour, and other big international shows).

But what is more important for me is my relationship with horses. It was 1999 and I was reading an article on a horse magazine, when I chanced upon a picture of an English rider who was jumping a tank on a horse bareback and bridleless. I felt completely bewitched by it and I started to look for more information about what horsemanship was about.

I met the Parelli method, I studied ethology and, most important, I started to call myself into question. I understood that there’s so much more satisfaction in winning a competition when my horses are on my side and from that day on I looked for a better relationship with them. I have been in the States with Pat and Linda Parelli, I’m friendly with Michel Robert, George Morris and with many other famous horsemen. It’s from them that I learned what I needed to complete my growth as a horseman.

My objective is to practise this sport with a natural approach, as it is the only one you share with an animal. For this reason I continue to tell my students that if one day we stepped in a riding centre it was because of the love for horses: we must not forget it, shows and results come after and should always come after. Our heart should keep beating as the first time we met a horse. I feel very grateful to Neptune Brecourt, Jesus de la Commune and Connery who made me learn so much.