AEA Dressage Team

Every team member is committed to the safety and well being of every horse in our care.

Whether horses are with us long- or short-term, for training or breeding, their comfort is our primary concern, and each and every horse is encouraged to meet its full potential.

AEA Dressage is a very ‘family’ environment.  Dirk and Alisha are the proud parents of two beautiful children; Ted and Isabel. Alisha loves being a mum and Ted and Isabel have a great life on the farm growing up and just being kids. If you visit AEA Dressage you will meet the children as they are always around the stables and with the horses.

Ted is a great rider and even has his own pony called Tiny!  When Ted gets older he says he wants to ride Metallic!!!

Isabel turned 1 on the 5th July 2011.

Dirk has two older children; Michael and Stephanie. Micheal lives in Sydney and is the Director of his own creative design company called Ninety9Creative and Stephanie lives in Geelong Victoria and she is the sole distributor of the equestrian label Anky Australia.

 

 

 

Dirk Dijkstra

Dirk is the owner of the business AEA Dressage (formerly AEA Burong). He is an accomplished rider and competitor, with more than 40 years experience. Dirk has won a number of State and Australian national dressage championships since moving here from the Netherlands. In the Netherlands, Dirk competed primarily in show jumping events. When he moved to Australia in 1982, The Dijkstra’s bought the Australian Equine Academy from its founder Fred Hoevenaars. It is this business which forms the basis of today’s AEA Dressage, although along the way Dirk’s interests and skills have expanded and developed.

Dirk is successfully competing the stallions AEA Metallic and AEA Tuschinski and is a member of the Victorian State A Dressage squad.

Dirk is highly qualified. He is:

• An EFA NCAS Level 3 Coach
• A Coach Educator
• An EFA Assessor
• An A level Dressage Judge
• Colt Classifier

Dirk gives clinics throughout Australia Japan, Malaysia and Indonesia.

Dirk is available for private lessons at a cost of $80. Please contact us to book.

Alisha Griffiths

Alisha plays a big part of the AEA Dressage team as both Dirk’s colleague and partner. Alisha is highly skilled in marketing and public relations and has assisted immensely with the professionalism and standards of the business going forward. Alisha is also passionate about the world of horses. Since childhood she has had a love for horses, and she spent many years at pony club, and later excelled in local competitions. Alisha took some time out from her riding for a few years, because of study and travel commitments, but in 2004 began actively riding again. From 2004-2006, Alisha’s horse riding centred around polo, but in July 2006 she bought a dressage horse and is now training hard as a dressage rider.

Alisha is pictured to the right training Hilken’s Nougat Cream. (A beautiful German riding pony)

Lauren Irving

Hi, my name is Lauren Irving and I’m from the Bellarine Peninsula.
I have been around horses all my life and have been riding for 11 years, with my focus always being eventing, even on my first little white pony (doesn’t everyone start out on a grey)! I have been successful at Pony Club level in all disciplines up to level 1, and I have competed for the Barwon Zone a number of times, I also compete EA up to Pre novice eventing and novice dressage (sadly my beautiful boy that I event on has as much movement as a pogo stick!).
I am loving working at AEA and jumped at the chance to further my riding with the help of Dirk and Alisha, this is an amazing opportunity and I am thoroughly enjoying riding some of their beautifully bred and well behaved Warmbloods in this lovely environment.

If you’re interested in joining the team please contact us.