Mike Nielsen
Mike Nielsen began his riding career working with the W.K. Kellogg
Arabian horses while attending California State Polytechnic University,
Pomona, majoring inAnimal Science. This included riding and performing
in the Arabian Horse Open House Exhibition at the university and by invitation
at off-campus sites. He worked as an assistant trainer for Glenn
Gimple showing western and stock horse for eight years. He served his
country as a United States Marine in the VietnamWar. When he returned,
he resumed working with horses as an assistant trainer for Bob Bradley at
BonitaValley Farm in ChulaVista, California teaching and showAmerican
Saddlebred Horses, western and stock horses, and hunters and jumpers.
Mike decided to open his own stable and operated the Mike Nielsen
Training Stable for over twenty-eight years. Mike has trained both hunters
and jumpers from green status to made, at all levels starting from the baby
green hunter to the grand prix jumper. His hunters and jumpers have won
numerous A.H.S.A. and P.C.H.A. Championships. Equitation riders under his tutelage have won almost
every equitation medal offered at shows on theWest Coast. He closed down his training stable in 1997 to
open more opportunities for judging, course designing and teaching clinics. When Mike is not on the road,
he is a regular clinician with Tracy Baer atWindsong Farm in Huntington Beach, California.
Mike is a Registered Judge and Course Designer with U.S.E.F. (formerly the American Horse Shows
Association) in the hunter, hunter breeding, jumper and hunter seat equitation disciplines. Mike has judged
and course designed shows all over the United States and in Canada. He has judged and designed courses
for several equitation finals throughout the United States, many of them multiple times. The International
Arabian Horse Association has asked Mike to judge the Arabian and Half Arabian hunters and hunter seat
equitation at their prestigious National Championship Show and the I.A.H.A. Junior National Championship
Show multiple times as well.. He was also the featured clinician for the training of other judges on the
video, Hunt Seat Equitation, Not to Jump, produced by the International Arabian Horse Association.
Attorneys have used Mike's services as an expert witness for trials involving equine accident and
liability issues.
Giving back to the equestrian community is important to Mike. He
currently serves the equestrian community as President of the Pacific Coast
Horse Show Association and is a member of the U.S.E.F. National Jumper
Committee. He and Janet Carlson were the founders of the Orange County
Horse Show Association and Mike served as the President for the first ten
years. He is a past president of the California Professional Horsemen?s
Association and the California Professional Horsemen?s Association, Chapter
Two and a past member of the Los Angeles Horse Show Association
Board of Directors. Mike has been recognized for his contributions to the
sport by being named the 2002 C.P.H.A. Horseman of the Year.