Gladstone, New Jersey—February 3, 2004— The first meeting of the Board of Directors of the new U.S. Equestrian Team (USET) Foundation was held at the Annual Meeting in Los Angeles. The following individuals have been designated as officers:

Frank V. Lloyd – Chairman
Dr. Armand Leone, Jr. – President and CEO
Eric Straus – Secretary
Allan Shore, Jr. – Treasurer

The officers and Board emphasized the USET Foundation’s commitment to working closely with US Equestrian Federation and to support equestrian sport. Specifically, the role of the USET Foundation is to support the competition, training, coaching, travel, and educational needs of America’s elite and developing International High Performance horses and athletes in partnership with the US Equestrian Federation.

“Continuing the support of our Olympic and International programs as it has over the previous half-century, the USET Foundation is now in place to provide the necessary financial support to ensure that our country’s high performance horse and athletes are in the strongest possible position to win medals,” Leone said. “With the approach of the 2004 Athens Olympics, the role of the USET Foundation is more important than ever and I am completely confident that our country’s equestrian athletes will continue to receive the level of support they have always received from equestrian fans across this nation.”

The offices of the USET Foundation remain at the historic Gladstone facility, as well as the experienced staff of the International High Performance division of US Equestrian. The Foundation will continue to operate that facility and use it for a variety of equestrian programs.

“As we all recognize, success in international competition is in many ways a function of budget,” said Lloyd. “When we have the necessary funds, we are able to implement all the programs identified by our coaches and discipline committees that lead to Gold Medal results. It makes me so proud that, thanks to the outstanding support of our horse owners, contributors and support staff, we have continued and will continue our long tradition of international success.

“Building on our 2003 success, this coming year promises to be even more exciting,” Lloyd continued. “Highlighting the year, of course, will be the Olympic Games in Athens and our Dressage, Eventing and Jumping teams look stronger than ever. In the non-Olympic disciplines, we are scheduled to compete in World Championships in Four-in-Hand and Singles Driving, Endurance riding and in Vaulting and we are in a strong position to win medals at all of them. Plus, we have the Paralympic Games at Athens, just a few weeks after the Olympics, and coming off last year’s World Championships, we will enter those Games among the favorites.”

Stressing the need for immediate contributions to ensure that all programs planned for 2004 can be fully implemented, Leone urged that people not wait to make contributions and pledges of support for the year. “For those of you with a history of supporting our athletes by contributing to the USET, I urge you to continue to do so by contributing and pledging your support to the USET Foundation,” he said. “The US Equestrian Federation High Performance Division has a great plan in place to help our athletes win medals, but funds are needed now to ensure that this plan can be enacted fully. The USET Foundation is here to continue the USET’s former role of raising the funds that send our country’s athletes and horses abroad and with your support, we will do so with greater success than ever before. So when wondering what you can do to help our sport, I ask that number one on your list be to generously support our horses and athletes through the USET Foundation.”

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