Meet Our Olympic Riders

As the Olympic Games begin we would like to congratulate all of the Olympic riders on their outstanding achievement. RevitaVet is one of the proud sponsors of some of these Olympic riders, and we thought you might enjoy learning more about them and the sport that they love.

Eventing is considered to be the triathlon of the equine world. It is made up of three different disciplines: dressage, cross country and stadium jumping.

The cross country portion of the sport is by far the most exhilarating as horse and rider must gallop up and down hills, through water and over jumps and obstacles on a mile long course, as well as take jumps over massive fences into water, all the while testing the superb athleticism of both the horse and rider as well as the deep bond of trust that they must share in order to compete successfully.

Eventing became part of the Olympic Games in 1912. At that time, it was only open to male military officers. Civilians began to be allowed to compete at the games in 1924 and women in 1952; however, in reality women did not begin competing until 1964.

Now meet our sponsored riders:

Hawley Bennet-Awad was chosen to represent Canada along with her mount Gin & Juice. The announcement was happily received via telephone and brought up a lot of emotion, as the journey has been long with many ups and downs. This is the second time that she will be representing Canada in the Olympics. Her last trip was Athens in 2004.

She currently operates her own training facility out of Temecula California, and had to leave to go to Virginia on July 1st for training camp; from there the Canadian team went to London England for the games on July 9th. The Olympic Games take place from July 27th through August 12th.

Hawley has had her share of international success in eventing. She helped her Canadian team win the silver medal at the 2010 World Equestrian Games, along with silver at the 2011 Pan American Games.

She is grateful to her mom, her husband, family, friends, grooms and sponsors because it takes a great team of people to get an equestrian rider to the top.

Rebecca Howard is a native of south central British Columbia where she grew up eventing. She was very actively involved in Young Rider and Pony Club, where she acquired her “A” level. She became a working student and a groom for some top riders along the way. Eventing shows were plentiful along with clinics and camps at that time in Canada. After much success on the eventing circuit, in 2001, she and her eventing friend, Hawley Bennett, packed up their horse trailer and drove thousands of miles in pursuit of their Olympic dreams.

After moving to the states, Rebecca worked for six years in Middleburg, Virginia with David and Karen O’Connor, and many other top trainers.

Rebecca is ranked 19th on the USEA 2009 Rider Leader Board, and was the leading foreign rider at the Fairhill International in both the CCI two-star and CCI three-star. In 2010 she was also selected to ride for the Canadian WEG team.

As a founding member of the Pro Riders Organization, Rebecca is also involved with efforts aimed at improved competition standards, safety promotion, and attracting new fans, sponsors and participants to the sport of eventing.

Rebecca, the oldest of three daughters, is also a certified Equine Canada coach. She is the director at the Fork Stables in North Carolina. The working student program that she has developed has helped many young Canadian riders reach the international level of showing.
She will be riding a horse named Riddle Master at the Olympic Games.

Santa Barbara native, Tiana Coudray was added to the short list in early July for the Olympic Games. She is only 23 years old, but has traveled all over the United States competing in eventing shows since she graduated from high school in Ojai where she attended school after moving from Santa Barbara. She has been training in England for the last year. She is riding a horse with incredible suspension and animated movement named Ringwood Magister.

Phillip Dutton was born in New South Wales in 1963. His family had horses on their sheep and wheat farm, and Phillip involved himself in pony club rallies and horse trials from an early age. He continued riding while attending college where he studied Agriculture.

In 1996 he moved to the United States to get ready to compete in the Olympics in Atlanta Georgia. He was, at that time, a member of the Gold Medal Three-Day Eventing Team from Australia. He continued to compete for Australia in three Olympics and four World Championships. By 2007, he had gained his American citizenship and became eligible to ride for the U.S., which he represented in the Pan American Games in Rio de Janeiro. Here, he was part of the Gold Medal winning team, and was the Individual Silver Medalist. In 2008, he was on the U.S. team at the Bejing Olympics in Hong Kong. He has won the USEA Leading Rider of the Year title in 1998 and 2000 through 2010. He spends much of his time coaching adult amateurs, some of the USET short list riders, and was the coach for the US Area II Young Riders in 2001 and 2002. He is a member of many organizations that help to promote the safety and enjoyment of eventing. Phillip is riding Jim and Arden Wildasin's Mystery Whisper in the games this year.

Nina Ligon is lucky enough to have dual citizenship in both the U.S. and Thailand. She also has the distinct honor of representing Thailand in the 2012 Olympic Games. In 2007, while just 16 years old she competed in the Southeast Asian Games. She and her mount, Pacific Storm, won both the Team Gold and the Individual Gold medals for Thailand. Not only was she the youngest person, but also the first woman to receive this prestigious award. She also captured the title of Rider of the Year in 2007. For this she received a royal medal from the king of Thailand. Included in her accolades is the 2010 USEA Young Rider of the Year award that she acquired here in the U.S.

Nina began riding at the age of five, and soon thereafter became a “B” ponyclubber. She rides and shows a number of mounts throughout the eventing season. She studies with Kim Severson, a veteran eventer, who has competed and won three Rolex Kentucky four-star events, and was a US Olympic Silver Medalist.
Always the high achiever, Nina is enrolled in Stanford University.

Before coming to the states, Boyd Martin was a successful event rider in Australia where he won the 2003 Adelaide CCI four-star on his mount True Blue Toozac.

He came to the United States in 2007 in pursuit of a dream. He wanted to compete on the international level in three-day eventing. He worked as the assistant trainer to Phillip Dutton, the Olympic Gold Medalist, and then began making a name for himself and striking out on his own. In the year 2009, he began riding for the United States in the 2010 Alltech/FEI World Equestrain Games located in Lexington Kentucky.

He competes almost every Saturday and Sunday, sometimes riding as many as thirteen horses per event. He is also a very successful coach and clinician. His amazing feats include being fourth over all at the 2007 Fair Hill CCI three-star, winning the 2008 Canadian Bromont CCI two-star and in 2009 he won the CIC three-star at Jersey Fresh and the CCI three-star at Fair Hill. Not only that, but in only his second year living in the U.S. he was ranked number two on the US Eventing Association Rider of the Year Leaderboard. Also in 2009, He and Neville, a horse that he rescued from slaughter and later from a blazing barn fire, were named to the revised 2010 USEF Eventing High Performance Training “A” list.
He is riding Otis Barbotiere in the 2012 games.