Rick Silvia

The Young Man Behind the Dream

What drives a 22 year old to desire to own and operate one of the countries up and coming stallion stations? If you ask Rick, you are likely to get a simplified answer such as, “I like stallions”. But don’t let his flip facade fool you. Rick has spent a great deal of time studying performance horse bloodlines in Europe. He as a vast knowledge of mare lines and comes from a prosperous family with agricultural business savvy.

But like most of us, Rick’s passion started out as a simple love of horses. From age seven, Rick rode horses every chance he got on his Fathers’ farm in North Florida. When the family moved to Middleburg, Virginia a few years later, Rick knew he had hit the jackpot and landed in horse country! He enrolled in horse camp and immediately took to the excitement of eventing. He evented through Preliminary Level, but one of his very first trainers, Sheri Rock encouraged him to focus on dressage and soon Rick developed an all-consuming love of the sport of dressage.

Dressage drew Rick back to Florida and he spent almost 2 years learning more about the subtleties of the sport at the Brinkman’s Valhalla Farm in Wellborn. At Valhalla, Rick benefited from riding a variety of horses and participating in a number of clinics with Herwig Radnetter, among others.

Rick’s next major dressage influence was coach, Linda Oliver, who Rick trained with during his teen years in Virginia. Linda guided Rick through the Junior Young Riders program. She helped achieve success with top placings in the Juniors at Devon. Once Rick was exposed to dressage competition at this level he wanted to follow the winter migration south and cut his teeth at the Winter Equestrian Festival. And it was love at first bite. The Blue Book (Florida Dressage Omnibus) became his bible. He took in every show and watched top riders do their thing. He showed a number of his own horses and made the transition from Young Rider’s into competing with the nation’s top ranked riders.