2010 USPRE Riders Scholarships
United States PRE Association (USPRE) is pleased to announce the 2010 recipients of the USPRE Riders’ Scholarships.
Professional Level ( $ 2000.00 ) – Angela Ridgeway and Faralay II
Amateur Level ( $1500.00 ) – Shelly Clark of Hollister, CA and Caro
YR/JR Level ( $1500.00 ): Rachel Chowanec of Columbia, CT and Embrujado XI.
Earlier this year, USPRE announced a new annual Scholarship program for American riders of Pure Spanish Horses (PRE) in Dressage, and began accepting applications at three levels—Professional, Amateur and JR/YR. Scholarships are awarded for continued training. Criteria for the grants required the applicant to submit copies of tests and a video, along with a resume. All applications were forwarded to USPRE Advisory Board member and High Performance rider Jan Brons who made the selections for this year. Brons, a Bereiter from the Netherlands and the 2009 Reserve National Intermediare I Champion, is himself a recent recipient of the Carol Lavell Advanced Dressage Prize from The Dressage Foundation. From a significant group of applicants, Brons selected the 2010 recipients and offered the following comments on the winning horse and rider pairs.
Angela Ridgeway is a professional trainer from Livemore, California, who has been competing and training PREs for over a decade. Many of her students are also riding PREs. She is currently training the promising young Faralay II, owned by Ketcham Ranch, and plans to use the USPRE Scholarship to continue their training with Steffen Peters. Jan’s comments for her were “Very correct in her riding. Nice horse open to instruction.”
Shelley Clark is a relative new-comer to Dressage and has been riding her 10 year old PRE Caro for three years. She trains regularly with Pam Nelson and Heidi Guian and would like to also participate in upcoming Juan Matute clinics in California. She has competed through Second Level with success and is looking forward to the FEI levels. Comments for Shelly and Caro were “ loved the horse ! ”
Rachel Chowanec, 16, is a student of Lendon Gray and has been training and competing Gray’s Embrujado for the past two years. Together they made the Region 8 Junior Team for the North American Junior and Young Rider Championships, placed Second nationally in Junior Dressage Saddle Seat, and were the Junior Individual Champions in Region 8 Championships in 2010. About Rachel and Embrujado, Brons says “She has a very nice future with a lovely horse! With the help, she already has a good candidate.”
The USPRE Board of Directors would like to congratulate all of our Scholarship recipients and we look forward to their continued progress in 2011.
Applications for the 2011 Scholarships will be accepted through November 15, 2011.