Articles: Horse News
Dressage Legend Jessica Ransehousen Named
2009 USEF Lifetime Achievement Award Recipient
Jessica Ransehousen and Forstrat
Contact:
United States Equestrian Federation, Inc.
4047 Iron Works Parkway
Lexington, KY 40511-8483
Tel: (859) 258-2472
Fax (859) 231-6662
Web site: www.usef.org
NEWS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 31, 2009
Lexington, KYFor more than five decades, the name of Jessica Newberry
Ransehousen has been synonymous with the United States dressage program.
And, after a lifetime spent as a high performance international medalist,
lead dressage coach for the U.S. program, highly-skilled dressage judge and
widely-respected ambassador for the sport of dressage, the United States
Equestrian Federation is proud to announce that living legend Jessica
Ransehousen has been selected to receive the USEFs highest individual honor
the USEF Lifetime Achievement Award and the Jimmy A. Williams Trophy.
From her start as a dressage rider, Ransehousen has known the taste of
success. In 1956 and 1957, she earned the title of the United States
Equestrian Teams National Dressage Champion. But, this was only the
beginning for this multi-talented equestrian.
To close out the 1950s, Ransehousen made her Pan American Games debut and
assisted the U.S. team to a Silver medal in Chicago. The very next year, she
made her Olympic Games debut in Rome, Italy, as a member of the U.S. Olympic
Team. Four years later, she returned to Olympic competition in Tokyo, Japan.
Between decades of high performance competition, Ransehousen spent time
sharing her incredible gifts as an instructor and trainer. Those who name
themselves among her many students include her own daughter, Missy, who has
become a successful event rider and trainer at Blue Hill Farm, the longtime
family operation in Unionville, PA. Among others who have benefitted from
Ransehousens expertise and experience are current Rolex FEI World Cup
Dressage Champion and Olympian Steffen Peters, 1976 Montreal Olympic Team
Bronze medalist Dorothy Morkis, and former Young Rider Gold medalist and
FEI-level trainer and rider Todd Flettrich. She also instructed event
riders, including such U.S. standouts as Phillip Dutton and Darren
Chiacchia.
However, the desire to compete and passion for competition was still present
in Ransehousen, and in 1988, she was selected as a member of the 1988 Seoul
Olympic team, an impressive 24 years after her second Olympic appearance. At
her third and final Olympic appearance, she road Orpheus and secured herself
a place in the Olympic record books and stands among a select group of women
with the longest Olympic competitive careers 28 years.
With success on the international stage and a reputation as one of the
countrys most respected trainers, Ransehousen began tenure with the United
States Equestrian Team as chef dequipe for the U.S. dressage program. This
collaboration would see ever-strengthening showings by the U.S. program at
appearances in the 1992, 1996 and 2000 Olympic Games, the 1990 and 1994 FEI
World Equestrian Games, and at the 1991 and 1995 Pan American Games. Her
teams were awarded the Bronze medal at both the 1996 Atlanta and 2000 Sydney
Olympics.
Ransehousens commitment to her sport was strongly felt on the field of play,
as well as in the board room. In addition to her many years of work as an
FEI I and USEF S judge, she was a member of the USEF High Performance
Dressage Committee, USET Vice-President for Dressage, and former Assistant
Secretary of the former American Horse Shows Association (now USEF). And, in
2001, she was inducted into the United States Dressage Federation (USDF)
Hall of Fame.
The USEF Lifetime Achievement Award and the Jimmy A. Williams Trophy are
given to the horseman or horsewoman whose life experience and
accomplishments exemplify uncommon devotion to the sport of competition with
horses and whose equestrian career and horsemanship have continually
elevated the sports excellence. It is without a doubt that Jessica
Ransehousen more than qualifies for this once-in-a-lifetime honor.
The USEF Lifetime Achievement Award will be formally presented to
Ransehousen during the USEFs 2010 Annual Meeting at the Louisville Downtown
Marriott, January 16, at the Pegasus Awards dinner where she will be honored
by fellow U.S. chef dequipe and living legend, George Morris, as well as
former team member and six-time Olympic dressage rider, Robert Dover.
ENDS
(Attached photo: Jessica Ransehousen and Forstrat in competition in 1960 in
Aachen, Germany. Photo credit: Courtesy Jessica Ransehousen)
The vision of the United States Equestrian Federation is to provide
leadership
for equestrian sport in the United States of America by promoting the
pursuit
of excellence from the grassroots to the Olympic Games, based on a
foundation of fair, safe competition and the welfare
of its human and equine athletes.
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