Among the highlights of the United States Equestrian Federation’s annual meeting is the Pegasus Awards dinner, where some of the top competitors and supporters of equestrian sports are recognized for their contributions. This week, the USEF announced the winners of two of the top honors.
Having grown up on her family’s sport horse breeding and training farm, Lizzy Traband has been riding and working with horses for nearly all of her 18 years. Traband trains and competes hunters, jumpers and dressage horses. Additionally, she is a successful competitor in the para-dressage arena; Traband was born with only one hand.
In addition to her competitive results, Traband has also been a clinician and bridleless performer from a very young age, performing a bridleless jumping routine every day at the 2010 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games with her horse Schoenrosa when she was just 12.
Traband is also an entrepreneur, having started her own training and horsemanship business called Taiji Horsemanship in 2009. More recently, she created EPN Global which will release a stable management app and a platform for marketing sport horses in 2017.
Read more about Traband here.
Larry Langer has been involved in the horse world for 66 years, starting with the day he took his first ride at age 8. Over the years, he has had a huge impact on the equestrian world across the country, particularly in the hunter/jumper world.
Langer is an FEI official and competition manager and runs Langer Equestrian Group. His organization produces 32 hunter/jumper shows in California and Colorado. Langer himself is credited with broadening the hunter/jumper circuit in the state of California by producing the first shows outside of the state-financed fairground shows. Langer has helped expand the sport to new participants by developing several riding schools.
Currently, Langer is a member of the USEF Board of Directors and is secretary of the United States Hunter Jumper Association board of directors.
Read more about Langer here.
The USEF Annual Meeting will take place in Lexington, Kentucky, January 11-14. Click here to find out more.
Leslie Potter is a writer and photographer based in Lexington, Kentucky. www.lesliepotterphoto.com
Leslie Potter is a graduate of William Woods University where she earned a Bachelor of Science in Equestrian Science with a concentration in saddle seat riding and a minor in Journalism/Mass Communications. She is currently a writer and photographer in Lexington, Ky. Potter worked as a barn manager and riding instructor and was a freelance reporter and photographer for the Horsemen's Yankee Pedlar and Saddle Horse Report before moving to Lexington to join Horse Illustrated as Web Editor from 2008 to 2019. Her current equestrian pursuits include being a grown-up lesson kid at an eventing barn and trail riding with her senior Morgan gelding, Snoopy.
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