Wiola Grabowska

Wiola Grabowska

Wiola came to the UK from Poland in the summer 2003. Her grand goal was to travel around Europe countries to gain the skills and knowledge to set up a training centre and a riding academy in her native country. In 2005 Wiola met her partner Rick the decision to develop her riding and coaching career here in the UK was made.

Her adventure with horses started in 1989 when, aged ten, and her lucky break came in 1995 when she landed the chance to train with one of the top Polish show-jumpers, Grzegorz Kubiak. Throughout her Junior and Young Rider years she competed for BKJ Boguslawice (Boguslawice Stallion Depot) on a variety of performance and breeding stallions and bought her first horse age 17; he was an experienced 12 year old Trakehner stallion.

For Wiola a very important time came in her late teens when she discovered her passion for teaching. Due to a serious knee injury which put her in plaster eight times in the space of two years, she was unable to continue riding and competing, so out of frustration and necessity she threw herself into teaching, and it changed her outlook life completely.

In 1998 she studied a MSc in Management & Marketing to gain business knowledge in preparation for her riding academy plans and moved to Warsaw with her new four year old Anglo-Arab stallion to compete for Legia Warszaw. Whist training and competing, she was also grooming, schooling and teaching after university lectures to fund it all.

After coming to the UK, Wiola passed the BHS coaching exams up to the BHS Intermediate Teaching Certificate and built up her freelance teaching in London and the home counties. In 2009 she was given a fantastic opportunity to learn from international dressage rider and trainer Anna Ross-Davies; she still tries to organise her work to be able to shadow some of Anna's training and teaching each month. Out of interest in coaching she is also enrolled on Hartpury College’s BSc Equine Sports Science course which she hopes to complete soon.

Wiola is in the process of setting up the Aspire Equestrian Riding Academy, a project that has been growing in her mind for the last ten years. It will combine her equestrian, coaching and non-sport specific knowledge to bring interesting and hopefully inspiring training programmes for all dedicated and passionate riders.