Ricardo Villa

Trainer, Olympic Qualifier

Ricardo Villa of VM Show Jumpers has had an impressive career in international show jumping. The two-time national champion relocated with his family from their home in Bogota, Colombia to the United States in 2015. Villa has competed in Grand Prix classes all over the world as an individual and as a member of the Colombian team. With the Colombian Equestrian team, he won a Gold Medal at the Central American Games in El Salvador 2002, A Bronze Medal at the Central American Games in Bogota 2006 and a Silver Medal at the Central American Games in Mexico in 2014. He also competed at the Pan Am Games in Rio de Janeiro in 2007. You can read more about Ricardo in these issues of Fedecuestre Issue 4 and see all the Fedecuestre Issues that Ricardo is featured in.

Ricardo has trained many successful horses over the years but his greatest by far was the legendary VDL Bubalu. The Dutch stallion began his career with Ricardo. During Ricardo and Bubalu’s time together they won the National Championship of Colombia in 2008. Ricardo and Bubalu also placed 4th at the Grand Prix in Lexington, Kentucky and 5th at HITS Saugerties. Bubalu eventually returned to the Netherlands and went on to great success with Jur Vrieling and the Dutch team. Bubalu was Silver Medalist at the London Olympics and Gold Medalist at the World Equestrian Games in Caen, France with the Dutch team.

Ricardo’s training facility in Campobello, SC features a 230 x 140 ft outdoor ring with world class GGT footing. Full service and training board is available. Ship-in lessons are welcome. Ricardo has a keen ability to evaluate and improve horses and riders. He works with riders of varying levels of experience who compete in various disciplines – hunter-jumpers, eventing and dressage.

Liliana Montoya

DVM

Liliana Montoya, DVM has over 20 years of international experience in the equine breeding industry. She ran her own company in Bogota, Colombia where she conducted an average of 3 embryo flushes per week with a 90% embryo recovery rate and 80% pregnancy rate. She also performed daily semen collections and inseminations with fresh and frozen semen year around.

Dr. Liliana Montoya graduated from the Universidad de Ciencias Aplicadas y Ambientales (UDCA) in Bogota, Colombia in 1999. She did an internship at Troytown Equine Hospital in Kildare Town, Ireland. Upon graduating, Dr. Montoya started up her own equine veterinary breeding practice in Bogota, Colombia which she successfully ran for 10 years. Dr. Montoya also has experience working at several large breeding farms throughout Europe. She has worked at VDL Stud in Beers in Holland, where she set up and trained staff to conduct their own ET program for two breeding seasons. In addition, she worked and trained in the stallion station at VDL Stud. She also spent three breeding seasons working at Gestuet Lewitz, in Germany which breeds 900 mares per year, 400 of which are done through the Embryo Transfer. In 2017 she was able to fulfill her desire to learn acupuncture at the Chi University located in Reddick, Florida.