About Hervé Maurel and
Working Equitation Academy
Daily routine can get boring for horse and rider, and Working Equitation is a varied discipline that doesn’t only offer spectacular demonstrations and competitions - it also brings more fun and challenge into the lives of both rider and horse.
Hervé Maurel has been practicing Working Equitation for over 25 years, competed for years both in France and internationally, and has been training others in Working Equitation for over 20 years.
In doing so, Hervé developed a unique horse training method that is not just more fun and efficient for riders who train by themselves, it also allows them to take their horse further than ever before.
Working Equitation Academy was founded to allow Hervé to share this method with riders who don’t have easy access to the right teachers and training opportunities in real life. We turned his method into a series of online courses, offering a more dynamic way to evolve with your horse.
The online training courses have been a resounding success in France (over 900 students and counting), and we’re now excited to offer it in English to equestrians around the world.
About Hervé Maurel
Hervé caught the horse-riding bug when joining horseback rides on vacation in the Cévennes. Back home, he joined a riding school and had a mostly classical training.
One day, he had a revelation seeing a Doma Vaquer demonstration (Spanish working equitation): it combined the elegance and rigour of dressage with the challenge of working with cattle, with beautiful music, working in wide and open spaces,… Hervé immediately fell in love with the whole culture around working equitation.
He started training in Working Equitation and in 1998, participated in his first European championship in Santarem (Portugal) with his Camargue horse. Since he was already teaching classic dressage, it was only a short leap for him to start coaching other riders in the intricacies of Working Equitation - and in 2022, he even had the chance to train the French National Team in Working Equitation.
How Working Equitation Academy got started
Cynthia Maugard and Hervé Maurel met in 2018, and hit it off right away.
A mutual acquaintance was training with Hervé and was blown away by how simple but efficient Hervé’s signature method was. He convinced Hervé to turn it into an online course - and Cynthia was the driving force who made it happen.
Cynthia had been fascinated with horses from a young age, and had a classical training as well. She had discovered Working Equitation a couple of years earlier, and found the discipline gave a real purpose to the dressage she had been practicing until then.
The partnership between Cynthia and Hervé is a match made in heaven: while Hervé is the real WE expert and teacher, Cynthia handles the day-to-day operations, builds the courses, update the website and is the main contact for customers and media.
You will also see her (and her horse Balayo) demonstrate some of the exercises in the course videos… at beginner level at first, and making fast progress throughout the training!
in the training videos, you will also meet Laetitia (with her horse Dastane) and Pierre (with Topkapi) who demonstrate the exercises and obstacles at different levels.