Clinicians
Sue Blinks | Kathy Connelly | George Williams | Jan Ebeling
Sue Blinks
Sue Blinks, qualified for the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia by winning the State Line Tack/USET Dressage Championship in Loxahatchee, FL. Blinks and Flim Flam combined for one of their best rides at the Olympic Games in Sydney to help the U.S. earn its third consecutive Olympic team Bronze Medal.
Blinks was a member of the USET's Silver Medal World Championship team at the 2002 World Equestrian Games, she was a member of the fourth place USET squad at the 1998 World Equestrian Games in Rome, Italy and also rode Flim Flam to an individual twelfth place finish. Later in that year she was named USOC Female Equestrian Athlete of the Year. In 2002, Blinks and Flim Flam finished third in the USET Grand Prix Championship at the Bayer/USET Festival of Champions.
A 1997 USET Training and Competition grant recipient, Blinks earned a Team Gold Medal at the 1997 CDIO at Hickstead, England and rode Flim Flam to a first place finish in the Grand Prix Special. She finished second in the USET Grand Prix Championships aboard Flim Flam and third aboard Delano. She earned high honors with second and third place finishes in the Grand Prix, Grand Prix Special and Grand Prix Freestyle at the 1997 Bayer/USET Festival of Champions. Blinks rode to numerous victories on the 1997 Florida dressage circuit. She won the Grand Prix and Special at Wellington, and the Grand Prix qualifier and Freestyle at the Winter Equestrian Festival Dressage Classic in Florida. She also won the Grand Prix and Intermediate II at the Gold Coast Opener and the Special at the Florida Dressage Classic.
Blinks won the 1996 Grand Prix Special at the CDI-W New England Dressage Association aboard Flim Flam. At the Royal Dressage Festival in New York, she was victorious in the USET Grand Prix Special qualifier and the Intermediate II. In 1989, Blinks was long-listed for the North American Championships.
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Kathy Connelly
Kathy Connelly is an international rider, trainer and coach. She has won national titles at all FEI levels, including the U. S. Grand Prix Championship and U.S. World Cup Championship. She represented the United States at the World Cup in Gothenburg, Sweden, and was a member of the Grand Prix bronze medal team at the North American Championships. Kathy trained extensively in Europe with the late Herbert Rehbein and also with Ernst Bachinger of the Spanish Riding School in Vienna, Austria.
Kathy has trained and coached horses and riders to national and FEI level titles in the United States and has also coached successfully abroad. Her students include the 1995 U. S. Young Rider Champion, the Individual Silver Medalist at the 1999 Pan American Games, and the 2003 Canadian World Cup Champion. She coached the silver medal-winning U. S. Young Rider Team in Australia in 2003, where she also served as chef d'equipe. Kathy was the featured clinician at the 2004 USDF National Level Trainers Conference.
Kathy serves the dressage community through her membership on the United States Equestrian Federation's High Performance Dressage Committee, the USEF Dressage Committee, the USEF Licensed Officials Committee, and by chairing the USEF subcommittee for Test Writing. She also co-chaired the United States Dressage Federation's Certified Instructor Program Evaluation Committee.
Kathy has published numerous articles about dressage, is co-author of the book Dressage Insights: Excerpts from Experts, and serves on the advisory board of Dressage Today.
Kathy is a USEF "S" judge and a popular clinician. She trains at Apple Valley Farm in Harvard, MA during the spring, summer, and fall, and in the winter in Wellington, FL.
Kathy has partnered with Toine Hoefs of the Netherlands for eight years. Together they find horses for clients from foals to international Grand Prix horses throughout the United States and Europe. They have matched horses for many successful national and international riders.
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George Williams
George Williams traveled to Germany at the age of 17 to study with Egon Von Neindorff. After winning two AHSA& USDF National titles, Williams followed his mentor, Karl Mikolka, to Tempel Farms in 1981. In 2001, he began his partnership with the charismatic and popular black Westfalen mare, Rocher, owned by Chuck and Joann Smith of Gypsy Woods Farm in Richwood, Ohio. In 2003, Williams and Rocher achieved fifth place in the World Cup in Sweden, USDF Grand Prix and Grand Prix Freestyle Horse of the Year Awards, as well as being named Dressage Horse of the Year by The Chronicle of the Horse. After an injury forced withdrawal from the 2004 Olympic Selection Trials, Rocher returned to competition in 2005 earning the title of the 2005 USET/Collecting Gaits National Grand Prix Champion, as well as a team bronze at the CHIO Aachen. However, the crowning moment of 2005 was winning the Grand Prix and the Grand Prix Freestyle at Dressage at Devon for an unprecedented third time. Williams has coached many Young Riders to Medal finishes and was also instrumental in developing the USDF Guide to Dressage book and the USDF booklet on arena footing, Underfoot.
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Jan Ebeling
Jan Ebeling has been training young riders in preparation for the North American Young riders Championships since 1999. His most recent success was in 2007 when one of his students was a member of the Gold Medal Yong Rider Team.
Before coming to the United States, Jan Ebeling worked as an apprentice under late German master Herbert Rehbein earning his Bereiter, the German license to train horses. In 1984, he moved to the United States to work alongside U.S Olympian Robert Dover.
In 1998 Jan began riding as a United States citizen. That year aboard Gucci, at the Bayer/USET Festival of Champions in Gladstone, NJ, Jan was Reserve Champion at the Intermediate I.
In 2000, aboard Ricardo, Jan won the Intermediate I Championship in Gladstone. In 2002, he earned Reserve Championship honors in the championships aboard the grey gelding Liberte, owned by Ann Romney.
In 2003, Jan placed third on Feleciano and fourth on Liberte at the Intermediate I Championship in Gladstone NJ. At the 2003 Pan American Games in Santo Domingo, Jan was the highest ranking rider on the US Gold team. He finished 5th overall individually with the stallion, Feleciano.
In 2006, Rafalca, a 1997 Oldenburg mare, was purchased for Jan to ride and compete. Jan placed third in the Intermediate Championships at Gladstone. In 2007, Jan made his debut in the Grand Prix arena during the World Cup held in Las Vegas where he demonstrated the Grand Prix test for a full house. After a standing ovation, Jan realized that Rafalca had the talent to become an international Grand Prix horse. Along with Rafalca, Jan is riding and training two other very talented small tour horses, Louis Ferdinand and Sandrina. They will be traveling with him to Europe for training and competition this fall, in preparation for the 2008 selection trials and Olympics.
In 2006 Jan was a very well received clinician for five of the USDF Adult Clinics.
Jan and his wife, Amy own and operate their own training and sales facility, The Acres, in Moorpark, CA.
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