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Tiana Coudray comes 2nd in main event

AUTHOR/ADMINISTRATOR: Joanie Morris

Photo: Stockimageservices.com

Lexington, KY - With three riders in the top 10, the Land Rover U.S. Eventing Team had everything to play for in the show jumping on the final day of the 2011 Fidelity Blenheim Palace International Horse Trials in Woodstock, U.K.

And Tiana Coudray played the game the best for the U.S. throughout the week, adding nothing to her dressage score of 49.4 to finish second on Jaital, Inc.’s, Ringwood Magister, a 10-year-old Irish Sport Horse gelding.

“Today it was pretty much textbook,” said Coudray after the show jumping.

The California native has had a rough spring. After falling at their first CCI4* at the Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event presented by Bridgestone in April, the pair then struggled at the Lumuhlen CIC3*. Coudray made the decision to stick it out in England over the summer and regain the form that saw her win the Jersey Fresh CCI3* with her flashy grey in 2010.

She found it at Blenheim.

“I am so, so pleased,” said Coudray. “It’s extra special because things have been so tough for quite a while. It was a pretty good way to finish off the season.”

Nan Rawlings of Equimage Media has produced a lovely tribute to Tiana, and posted it to Eventing Day.  Thank you Nan for this fond memory and for permission to reproduce it here.

Tiana and King Street, Rolex 2007 ©Nan Rawlins/Equimage

(Back in 2007, during the Rolex Kentucky CCI4*, Tiana Coudray rode an absolutely beautiful dressage test on King Street in the pouring rain. It was one of the defining moments of that year’s competition, at least for this observer.  Just as Tiana and King Street entered the ring, the sky opened up.  At first Tiana appeared a bit flustered. But she soon settled into the moment.  She and King Street were grace and beauty personified under the pressure of an outright deluge.  They pulled it off, scoring 49.3 to land 9th after day one.  

Now Tiana is this year’s deserving recipient of the Lionel Guerrand-Hermes Trophy. Among her successes, Tiana ably represented the USA at Boekelo and we are happy to see her riding so capably into her very promising future.  Below, we offer the official USEF press release and a photographic reminiscence of that graceful dressage test in a downpour. ~ ed)   

Click here to view  Slideshow

USET Foundation Will Award 2011 Lionel Guerrand-Hermes Trophy to Tiana Coudray  

Boekelo 2010 - www.hamperium.com

Author: Rebecca Walton/Phelps Media Group, Inc. Internatio

Gladstone, NJ – The United States Equestrian Team Foundation is pleased to announce that the recipient of the 2011 Lionel Guerrand-Hermes Trophy will be talented eventing rider Tiana Coudray. Each year this award is presented to a Young Rider in one of the Olympic disciplines who exemplifies both sportsmanship and horsemanship. In 2010 Coudray had a banner year, winning the Jersey Fresh CCI*** and the Galway Downs International Horse Trials CIC***, as well as leading the U.S. efforts at the Boekelo CCI*** in Holland. 

“When the USET Foundation told me that I was the winner of this year’s award I went and looked it up,” commented Coudray. “I was pretty honored to look at the other names on the list throughout the years and think of what those people have gone on to do later in their careers.” 

Over the years, Coudray has consistently shown her talent as a young rider. She won Team Gold at the North American Young Riders Championships in both 2004 and 2008, and took home the Individual Silver Medal in 2004. She has won the United States Eventing Association Young Rider of the Year Award an amazing three times in 2005, 2007, and 2009. 

Today, Coudray is successfully competing with Ringwood Magister, a nine-year-old Irish Sport Horse that she trained herself. Coudray noted, “I have had him his whole life and this year was the first time he really put all the pieces together and consistently had fantastic results.” 

Coudray added, “Everyday is a new day and I think that it’s easy to get caught up in what’s gone well, but there are no guarantees for the future. Certainly I am honored to receive the award and the opportunities that I had in 2010, like going to Holland. Hopefully it will help open the door to even more opportunities but I still have to go out and earn good results year after year. “ 

Coudray will be presented with this prestigious award at the USET Foundation Reception on January 28th, in Wellington, Florida. 

Lionel Guerrand-Hermès Trophy Winners 

Patrick Guerrand-Hermès established the Lionel Guerrand-Hermès Memorial Award in 1983 in memory of his son, Lionel, who was tragically killed in an automobile accident in 1981 at the age of 18. Lionel trained with the United States Equestrian Team and was talented enough to be considered an Olympic hopeful. A perpetual trophy designed by Patrick Guerrand-Hermès is inscribed annually with the winner’s name and permanently displayed at the USET Foundation headquarters in Gladstone, New Jersey. Previous winners are: 

1983 – Mark Leone 

1984 – Jeffery Welles 

1985 – Holly Mitten 

1986 – Gregory A Best 

1987 – Susanne Owen 

1988 – Christopher Kappler 

1989 – Mollie Bliss 

1990 – Kim Keenan 

1991 – McLain Ward 

1992 – Abigail Lufkin 

1993 – Mark Combs 

1994 – Gabriella Salick 

1995 – Megan Johnstone 

1996 – Jonathan Elliot 

1997 – Alison Firestone 

1998 – Bruce Davidson Jr. 

1999 – Chad Geeter 

2000 – Elise Haas 

2001 – Marilyn Little 

2002 – Clark Montgomery 

2003 – Will Faudree 

2004 – Kristin Schmolze 

2005 – Brianne Goutal 

2006 – Katie Hamilton 

2007 – Carolyn Kelly 

2008 – Hillary Dobbs 

2009 – Laura Noyes 

2010 – Jennifer Waxman 

The United States Equestrian Team Foundation (www.uset.org) is the non-profit organization that supports the competition, training, coaching, travel and educational needs of America’s elite and developing international, high-performance horses and athletes in partnership with the United States Equestrian Federation. 

For more information on the USET Foundation, please call (908) 234-1251, or visit USET ONLINE at www.uset.org.

From the USEF, by Joanie Morris

photo credit - Richard Payne

The United States Equestrian Federation (USEF) sent four Eventing riders to Holland for the Boekelo CCI3*this weekend and produced a second place team result behind the Germans after a hard fought competition. Tiana Coudray (Ojai, CA) led the U.S. effort with Ringwood Magister. The nine-year-old Irish Sport Horse set the standard with Coudray in the pair’s first overseas competition. They were sixth after the dressage on a score of 46.2, added 7.6 time faults on the challenging cross country course and then jumped a beautiful clear show jumping round to maintain their sixth place position.

 Will Faudree (Hoffman, NC)  was the next highest placed American, a veteran U.S. Team member, Faudree is producing a new international star in Andromaque, a nine-year-old Thoroughbred cross mare owned by Jennifer Mosing. Andromaque was contesting her first CCI3*. They made up some serious ground after the dressage with the fastest cross country round of the day on Saturday and had the very last fence down in the show jumping to move up from 51st after the dressage to 12th in the final standings.
 
The third score to count in the U.S. Team effort was Sinead Halpin (Gladstone, NJ) on Carriag LLC’s Manior de Carneville. The 10-year-old Selle Francais gelding was contesting his second CCI3* and the pair put in a solid effort to finish 21st out of more than 100 starters. Doug Payne (Gladstone, NJ) and Stone Hill Farm’s Running Order had their learning curve increased as they contested their first CCI3* together. Two refusals at the first water on the cross country course kept them out of the placings, but the eight-year-old Thoroughbred gelding showed plenty of promise for the future.

Tiana Coudray and Ringwood Magister, owned by Jatial, Inc.,  had an impressive weekend at Jersey Fresh CCI3* in Allentown, NJ, leading the event from start to finish, adding only a handful of cross-country time penalties and four jumping faults to their dressage score of 36.8.

(From EventingUSA, photo credit StockImageServices.com)

Excerpt from article by Lisa Slade at Chronicle of the Horse

Tiana Coudray rode into show jumping at the Jersey Fresh CCI*** today, May 9, with four rails in hand over Colin Davidson and Draco. She only used one as Ringwood Magister, Coudray’s 9-year-old Irish Sport Horse, put in a four-fault jumping effort for first in the division on 45.6 penalties.

It was “Finian” and Coudray’s third attempt at a CCI***—they withdrew from the Bromont International (Que.) last spring and the Dansko Fair Hill International (Md.) last fall—and Coudray, 21, was ecstatic about finishing one with such good results.

“It’s very exciting,” she said. “I think it’s a little bit of everything we were working towards last year coming together. It’s a bit of reaffirming that taking my time last year and not running him at all those events was the right decision to make. Sometimes I wondered if I was being too protective of him. It was worth it. It did save the horse and gave him the education he needed.”

Coudray, who rides with Bea and Derek di Grazia, and Finian will begin the long journey back to Ojai, Calif., tonight or tomorrow morning. For Coudray, the trip was well worth it for the result.

“We don’t have a spring CCI*** on the West Coast,” Coudray said. “He was ready, and this was the one to do.”

After a beautiful cross-country round, Tiana Coudray and Ringwood Magister secured their victory of the Adequan USEA Gold Cup Series CIC3* division at the Galway Downs International Horse Trials..

Click here to watch video

For more information, check out the following stories from the Eventing USA website.

• Coudray and Ringwood Magister Master Galway CIC***
• Coudray Conquers Two Phases At Galway

Tiana Coudray received the 2009 USEA Young Rider of the Year award at the USEA Annual Meeting and Convention in Reston, VA.  It is Coudray’s third time to receive this award.  She was named USEA Young Rider of the Year in 2005 and again in 2007, setting a precedent as the first person to achieve this title more than once.  Tiana, age 21, now bests her own record.

RevitaVet was the 2009 Sponsor for the YR of the Year.  Tom Neuman of RevitaVet presented the award.  Tiana’s award included a complete RevitaVet Light Therapy System.

Photo by Anthony Trollope