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Meet
the USET’s 2003 Pan American Games Dressage Squad
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Gladstone,
NJ—July 2, 2003—The squad of four riders plus one alternate
who will represent the United States in dressage at the 2003 Pan
American Games in Santo Domingo, the Dominican Republic, August
2-17, includes some new names.
The
squad that emerged from the Cosequin USET Selection Trials at
the Bayer/USET Festival of Champions Presented by State Line Tack
at the U.S Olympic Training Center in Gladstone, NJ, includes:
Kristina Harrison-Naness of Burbank, CA; 1992 Olympic Team Bronze
Medalist Carol Lavell of Loxahatchee, FL; Jan Ebeling of Moorpark,
CA; and Pierre St. Jacques of Boscawen, NH. Susan Dutta of Wellington,
FL was named as alternate.
Following
is a brief introduction to the United States’ 2003 Pan American
Games dressage squad:
Kristina
Harrison-Naness
Kristina Harrison-Naness of Burbank, CA had the biggest win of
her career at the 2003 Bayer/USET Festival of Champions Presented
by State Line Tack, where she topped the field of thirteen horse-and-rider
combinations to win the USET Intermediaire I Championship. With
a score of 69.950% Harrison-Naness and Kantor topped the field
to win the Championship, which also served as the Cosequin/USET
Selection Trials for the 2003 Pan American Games in Santo Domingo.
On her way to the Championship in Gladstone, Harrison-Naness won
the Prix St. Georges as well as the Freestyle.
Earlier
in 2003, Harrison-Naness and Kantor won the selection trial at
the Mid-Winter Dressage in Los Angeles, CA. This pair also place
6th in the Prix St. Georges and 5th in the Intermediaire at the
Del Mar National.
Harrison-Naness
has been riding since the age of six, when she got her first pony.
Her love of horses continued as she got older and she began showing
in the Junior Hunter division as well as equitation classes. In
1987, she qualified to ride in the ASPCA Maclay Finals.
In 1992, she discovered dressage and rode her former hunter Gilligan
in dressage classes progressing to the advanced young rider level.
In 1999, she purchased Kantor from Carol Plough and continued
her dressage education.
Harrison-Naness operates a training stable, Angele Farms, at the
Los Angeles Equestrian Center and continues to train with Plough.
She and her husband, Howard, have a six-year-old daughter, Rison.
Carol
Lavell
After some time out of the spotlight, 1992 Olympic Team Bronze
Medalist, Carol Lavell of Loxahatchee, FL, has come back to into
the limelight with a new horse, Much Ado. Lavell piloted Much
Ado to a second place finish in the 2003 USET Intermediaire I
Championship.
Earlier in 2003, Lavell and Much Ado took Championship honors
at the Heidelberg Cup in Orlando, FL with a score of 71.75%. Lavell
took the blue ribbon in both the Prix St. Georges and the Intermediaire
I en route to the Championship. Aboard Much Ado, Lavell also took
first place honors in the Open Prix St. Georges at the first weekend
of the Palm Beach Dressage Derby Series.
Earlier in her illustrious career, Lavell and her horse Gifted
were known as the most recognized United States dressage pair
both at home and abroad. Along with her Olympic medal in 1992,
Lavell earned a team Bronze Medal at the 1994 Dressage World Championships
in Holland. Lavell is also a Pan American Games Silver Medalist
and the 1991 and 1992 USET National Dressage Champion. In 1992,
she was also named the U.S Olympic Committee Female Equestrian
Athlete of the Year.
Aboard Gifted, Lavell gave strong performances in her quest for
a spot of the 1992 Olympic Team. She had numerous first place
finishes including the USET Grand Prix Qualifier in Wellington,
FL and the Grand Prix at the Palm Beach Dressage Derby. She also
won the Freestyle at both competitions.
In 1995, Lavell won the Grand Prix and Freestyle at the U.S League
Final for the FEI Volvo World Cup in Maryland. She also won the
Grand Prix and Freestyle at Dressage at Devon and the USET qualifier
at the Los Angeles Mid Winter Dressage Show.
In 1991, she won the World Cup U.S League Final, and Gifted was
named USDR Horse of the Year. In 1990, Lavell was the highest
placed American rider (13th overall) at the World Dressage Championship
in Stockholm, Sweden.
Jan
Ebeling
Jan
Ebeling has been a major U.S. force since the USET Intermediaire
I Championship in 1998, when he began riding as a United States
citizen. That year aboard Gucci, Ebeling finished as Reserve Champion
at the Intermediaire I Championship held in Gladstone, NJ as part
of the Bayer/USET Festival of Champions.
In 2000, Ebeling found his way back to the winner’s circle
in Gladstone. This time aboard Ricardo, Ebeling topped the field
of the nation’s top Intermediaire I horse-and-rider combinations
to win the Intermediaire I Championship. In 2002, he earned Reserve
Championship honors aboard the grey gelding Liberte, owned by
Ann Romney, in the Championship.
No stranger to the winner’s circle at the Intermediaire I
Championship, Ebeling achieved success again in 2003 at the Festival
where he posted third and fourth place finishes aboard Feleciano
and Liberte respectively. Ebeling’s 2003 finishes in Gladstone
earned him the right to represent the United States at the 2003
Pan American Games in Santo Domingo, the Dominican Republic.
Before
coming to the United States in 1984, Ebeling worked as an apprentice
under late German master Herbert Rehbein and earned his berreiter,
a German license to train horses. In 1984, he moved to the United
States to work along with U.S Olympian Robert Dover while Dover
was preparing for the ’84 Olympics.
Today,
Ebeling and his wife, Amy own and operate their own training and
sales facility, The Acres, in Moorpark, CA.
Pierre
St. Jacques
Montreal,
Canada native, Pierre St Jacques finished fifth aboard Lucky Tiger
in the USET Intermediaire I Championship, which served as the
Selection Trial for the 2003 Pan American Games. Originally placing
14th on the qualifying list, St. Jacques was pulled up from the
reserve list when one of the top 12 horse-and-rider combinations
could not compete. After becoming a citizen of the United States
in 1999, St. Jacques seized the opportunity to ride at the Championships
and earned the right to ride as a member of the United States
Equestrian Team for the first time.
Qualifying
for the Pan American Games team is an even more impressive feat
since this year marks Lucky Tiger’s first year competing
at the Prix St. Georges level. After finishing undefeated at the
Fourth Level in the 2001-2002 show season, St. Jacques and “Tiger,”
as he is known around the barn, earned Reserve Championship honors
at the Heidelberg Cup in Orlando, FL. The pair then went on to
win the Reserve Championship ribbon at “Tiger’s”
first CDI competition, the Port Jervis, CDI, in Port Jervis, NY.
What
makes qualifying for the 2003 Pan American Games squad even more
special for St. Jacques is that he will have the opportunity to
ride on a team with his first dressage instructor and long-time
friend, Carol Lavell. Since the first time he walked through her
door asking for help with his dressage horse over twenty years
ago, Lavell has become St. Jacques’ trainer, “second
mom” and has played matchmaker, as she introduced him to
his wife, USET dressage rider Pam Goodrich.
In
his early years as a working student for Goodrich, St. Jacques
competed her former Grand Prix horse, Semper Bene at the Grand
Prix level. He also competed the stallion, Landson de Beaupre
along with riding most every horse that came through the barn
to be bought and sold.
Today, St. Jacques and Goodrich own and operate their farm, Foster
Meadow, in Boscawen, NH. In his time away from horses, St. Jacques
also enjoys skiing.
Susan
Dutta
Susan Dutta is based in Wellington, FL, but has traveled all over
the world to pursue her passion, dressage. Dutta made her Grand
Prix debut in 1995 riding Maple Magnum, a former U.S. Equestrian
Team mount for rider Ann Guptill. Since then, Dutta has ridden
several top Grand Prix horses and has been named to the USET Active
Riders Short List with Guadalquivir DC, Xandarius Fernando, Gumshoes
DC, West Side Lady DC, and Chalston DC.
Aboard
Guadalquivir DC, Susan earned numerous Grand Prix victories beginning
in 1998 when she went to Germany to train with dressage master
Rudolph Zeilinger. Partnered with the impressive warmblood, she
won the Open Grand Prix Freestyle at the 2000 Bayer/USET Festival
of Champions.
In
2001, Dutta had the privilege of qualifying two young Grand Prix
horses, Gumshoes DC and Xandarius Fernando, for the USET Grand
Prix Championships in Gladstone, NJ. Riding in the Championships
while she was six months pregnant, Dutta turned in solid performances
aboard both mounts.
In
2002, Dutta was short listed with Gumshoes DC for the World Equestrian
Games. That same year, she rode West Side Lady DC to victory in
the USET Intermediaire 1 Championship at the Bayer/USET Festival
of Champions in Gladstone, NJ. Dutta and West Side Lady DC then
went on to earn two Gold Medals at the Coupe de Americas in Blainville,
Canada. Aboard Gumshoes DC, Dutta also helped the U.S win a Team
Bronze for the Grand Prix Championships in Canada.
In
2003, Dutta had the distinct privilege of qualifying three horses
for the USET Championship, two horses for the Grand Prix tour
and West Side Lady DC for the small tour. Earlier in 2003, aboard
West Side Lady DC Dutta won the USET Qualifier at Dressage in
the Sandhills in Pinehurst, NC and the USET Grand Prix and USET
Grand Prix Special with Gumshoes DC. Dutta was back in the winner’s
circle weeks later at CDI-W Raleigh in Raleigh, NC having won
the USET Qualifier for Prix St. Georges and Intermediaire I with
West Side Lady DC. She also won the Grand Prix Special with Gumshoes
DC.
In
May 2003, Dutta and Red Romance DC qualified to represent the
United States at the World Breeding Championship in Verden, Germany.
She was named as alternate on the squad to compete at the 2003
Pan American Games after she finished sixth aboard West Side Lady
in the 2003 USET Intermediaire I Championship, which also served
as the Pam American Games Selection Trial, at the Bayer/USET Festival
of Champions.
Dutta
is trained by Dennis H. Callin of Raleigh, NC.
The United States Equestrian Team is a non-profit organization
that selects, trains, equips and finances equestrians of the highest
possible standard to represent our country in major international
competition, including the Olympic Games and the World Championships.
To accomplish this, the USET seeks out and nurtures the development
of talented athletes - riders, drivers and horses - and provides
the support and guidance they need to help them attain their fullest
potential. For more information on the USET, please call (908)
234-1251, or visit USET ONLINE at www.uset.org
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