Horses Our Horses come to the Noble Horse Royal Riding Hall from around the world. Their unique talents and diverse backgrounds provide you with an unforgettable performance. A Few of our Stars Gitano, a rare black Spanish Andalusian stallion from Spain is specially trained to do "airs" above ground. Hercules is a pure white Lusitano stallion who is a former bull fighting horse from Mexico. Arab, a rare black Egyptian Arabian, is a high school horse who is trained for fourth level dressage work. Additional stars of our show are specially trained horses who work in tandem with our Russian Cossack riders. These horses are specifically trained to assist the Cossack Riders with their vaulting acts and other amazing riding tricks. Horse Care Noble Horse provides care for more than seventy horses. Our horses begin working at the age five and then retire by the age of twenty-two. Many of our young and retired horses live at our farm in Triumph, Illinois. The show horses train and perform in the riding hall for five days and return to the farm for rest and relaxation. Our draft horses work in the City of Chicago providing carriage rides for part of the week and are rotated between the farm and Chicago to ensure adequate time off to rest. To provide the best care possible, Noble Horse has a veterinarian on call twenty-four hours a day and maintains clean and spacious stalls for its horses. Trainers and Performers Dan Sampson is the owner and president of Noble Horse Theatre. He is the creator and the producer of the Noble Horse equestrian productions as well as the director and head trainer for all of the performers. Mr. Sampson's life-long horse experience began with working on his family’s farm raising horses and participating in rodeos. He was a founding member of the Marine Corps Mounted Guard Unit from 1974 through 1976. After the Marines, he became a licensed farrier. He started the Noble Horse CarriageCompany in the late 70’s, providing handsome cab rides throughout Chicago. In 1999, Mr. Sampson designed and supervised the renovation of his historic stables, adapting the century-old riding hall into an extraordinary horse theatre. Laura Steffee is the head trainer at Noble Horse. Ms. Steffee received a B.S. in Equestrian Studies in 1975 from Salem College and has trained with many European masters specializing in dressage. Baron Julius VonUhl is a national of Hungry who has been training in the United States for forty years and specializes in training high school horses. Omar Chintbekov is a native of Russia and used to perform with the Moscow Circus. He now leads our Russian Cossack riders.