Awards Galore! Friday and Saturday nights at the meeting were devoted to awarding the prestigious USEF International and National Horses of the Year (HOTY) and USEF Equestrian of the Year honors. There were also winners of HOTY in each discipline and many affiliate breed awards, as well as equestrian of the year candidates from each discipline and several special awards for young athletes and lifetime achievement. High- lights from this year’s awards were (you can find a full list of winners on the USEF web site) include: Cortes‘C’, named the top show jumper at the 2014 Alltech
FEI World Equestrian Games in Normandy after producing four clear rounds with four different riders in the finals, was the very deserving winner of the USEF International Horse of the Year. Cortes‘C’ is a 12-year-old Belgian Warmblood geld- ing by Randel Z, out of Orichdee van de Tombeele by Darco, bred by Bart Clement of Belgium, owned by American Abigail Wexner and ridden by Beezie Madden. “He’s a horse I’ve believed in from the very beginning. I’m so glad he got his year to shine,” says Beezie. Beezie Madden, Cazenovia, New York, not to be outdone
by her famous equine partner, took home her fourth USEF Equestrian of the Year title on the basis of her very consistent year and her bronze medal at the Alltech Games. She also won the title in 2005, 2006 and 2013.
Para equestrian Sydney Collier, Ann Arbor, Michigan, won the Ruth O’Keefe Meredith Memorial Trophy as 2014 Junior Equestrian of the Year for her honor, courage, dedication and sportsmanship. Sydney, then age 16, was the youngest equestrian at the Alltech World Equestrian Games in 2014. A lifelong horse lover, she rode as an able-bodied eques-
trian early in her career, but suffered a stroke at age eleven as a result of a rare, congenital birth defect called Wyburn- Mason Syndrome. The stroke, and several operations, have left her physically weakened, blind in one eye and without the use of her left arm. Sydney was inspired to continue riding after attending the 2010 Alltech Games. She hoped to qualify for the 2014 Games on her own horse, only to have him be injured just a few months before the qualifiers. She tried two horses loaned to her just a few months before going to France. Ultimately she competed the Hessian gelding Willi Wesley (Wolkenstein–Kokoschka, owned by Victoria Dugan) at the games. Sydney was also awarded the FEI’s “Against All Odds” award at their meeting in Baku, Azerbaijan, in December 2014. Her service dog Journey, a white Standard Poodle, accompanies her everywhere and was the first-ever creden- tialed service dog at a World Equestrian Games and the first service dog to enter the country of Azerbaijan.
LEFT: Cortes‘C’, a Belgian Warmblood gelding owned by Abigail Wexner and ridden by Beezie Madden, was the winner of the 2015 USEF International Horse of the Year Award. He was named the best jumper at the 2014 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games in Normandy after producing four clear rounds with four different riders in the finals. MIDDLE: Beezie Madden, Cazenovia, New York, accepts a handshake from Alltech’s president and founder, Dr. Pearse Lyons, during the 2014 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games in Normandy, France. Capping off a brilliant year, Beezie won her fourth USEF Equestrian of the Year Award at the 2015 USEF Annual Meeting in Kentucky in January. RIGHT: The youngest equestrian ever to compete in a World Equestrian Games, riding when she was only 16 years old, Sydney Collier of Ann Arbor, Michigan, rode Victoria Dugan’s Hessian gelding Willi Wesley at the Alltech Games in Normandy, France, last summer. She was awarded the Ruth O’Keefe Meredith Memorial Trophy as 2014 Junior Equestrian of the Year during the 2015 USEF Annual Meeting.
84 March/April 2015
Kim MacMillan/MacMillan Photography
Photos, left & center, by Allen MacMillan/MacMillan Photography
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