Photo courtesy of Tracy Cron.
Mountain Brook High School students Ellie Strickland and Randi Cron recently qualified for the United States Dressage Federation finals.
They competed the first weekend in October in Ocala, Florida at the Florida Horse Park in their regional competition. Their Region, Region 3 includes all of Florida, Georgia, Alabama, South Carolina and Tennessee.
Ellie, riding D Diamond MR, aka "Lil D" (German Oldenburger warmblood), competed against 20 of the best junior riders of the region in 1st level and won her division. She also placed 2nd in her 2nd level division.
Randi, riding Expert ACB (Dutch Warmblood), placed third in her 3rd and 4th level divisions.
Ellie has qualified for the finals in both divisions because of her placement and her scores (73.056 and 69.702), which in dressage are very good scores. Randi qualified for Nationals in 4th level as a wild card due to her score of 66.38. She also will be able to compete at 3rd level as well.
These two young women have been friends since kindergarten and have been riding horses for almost as long. They started at a small barn riding their rescue ponies and competing in schooling shows (unrecognized shows) in combined training (jumping and dressage) and hunter/jumper shows.
Their first trainer was Jenna Stauder and she taught them the basics of riding horses and gave them the foundation to propel them to where they are today. As they progressed they decided dressage was where they wanted their focus to be.
They met many different people along the way and developed many long lasting friendships with others that love horses. One of their good friends, Emmanuelle Lamontagne, a recent National Merit Finalist has also been riding with Ellie and Randi from the very beginning. Janice and Pat Ballard own Full Circle Horse Park, the barn where their horses are boarded. These two young women have an incredibly supportive extended barn family at Full Circle. Missy Cox and Lee Whatley even decorated the girls' barn lockers after they found out about their achievements.
Dressage requires many hours of practicing and training. Their trainer, Cathy Zappe, originally from South Africa, travels from Huntsville twice a month to train them.They also travel to Huntsville to train with their horses on Zappe's property on weekends and during the summer. Zappa, a Grand Prix rider, has the skill, expertise and experience which enabled Ellie and Randi to refine their dressage skills, enabling them to rise to the national level.
Strickland and Cron are at Full Circle Horse Park five days a week training their horses as this sport takes an incredible amount of time, energy, planning and motivation.
They do all of this and maintain their exceptional GPA's, taking upper level classes at Mountain Brook High School.
Strickland and Cron will compete in The United States Dressage Federation Finals at the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington November 11-12 along with the best junior riders from across the United States.
There are very few junior riders competing so it is quite an achievement for them to reach the national level.
--Submitted by Tracy Cron.
