French National Champion - Michel Assouline
| In 1977 Michel graduated from the
National Equestrian School, home of the Cadre Noir in Saumur,
France before gaining international experience in the USA and
Germany as a rider and trainer. In 1988 Michel was long-listed to represent France at the Seoul Olympics and during time spent in Europe received further training from Commandant Saint Fort Paillard (France), Willi Schultheis (Germany) and Jürgen Koschel (Germany). Throughout Michel has been a regular competitor with several International successes. With his Grand Prix mare Annastasia (Hanoverian, by Akzent II pictured top right) they were consistently placed internationally in 2000. They won the Ardingly Premier League Grand Prix, the Etal Manor Premier League Grand Prix, the Royds Hall Premier League Grand Prix and the Grand Prix Kür at the Saumur *** CDI. They were also fifth in the Grand Prix Kür at the Hamburg Derby CDI and the Hickstead CDIO, and were second in the Hickstead Derby. They won the French National Championship in October 2000, which was contested over 3 days (Grand Prix, Grand Prix Special and Kür). The pair finished on a final score of 75.80% .
With Louis Feraud, a 12 year old British bred horse by Lord David S they won several large tour classes in 2006, including the Patchetts Equestrian Centre Grand Prix and at the Hickstead CDIO meeting they were the Grand Prix Master League Champions. (pictured middle right)
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Fluent in French, German and English, Michel has become a highly respected trainer, teaching numerous riders of all levels across Europe up to Grand Prix at CDI International level. This includes three years as resident trainer to Suzanne Lebek, the former European Gold Medal Young Rider Team Champion, in Braubach, Germany. Michel was voted ' 1995 UK Dressage Trainer of the Year, ' and is a member of the International Dressage Trainers Club. He is also currently on the British Dressage panel of trainers eligible to judge Potential International Dressage Horse classes and officiated several times at the Championships for four and five year old horses. In 2005 Michel became the UK National Para-Equestrian Dressage Squad Coach and has so far taken his Team GB riders to win team gold medals at the 2005 European Championships, the 2007 World Championships and the 2008 Beijing Paralympic Games (photo below). At the Beijing Games all 3 counting scores in the team competition were well above 70% and the riders won a total of 5 gold and 5 silver medals.
