Hotmail Bought by Amateur Rider for Catherine Haddad-Staller to Compete for USA Olympic Team Slot
10 years ago StraightArrow Comments Off on Hotmail Bought by Amateur Rider for Catherine Haddad-Staller to Compete for USA Olympic Team Slot
By KENNETH J. BRADDICK
WELLINGTON, Florida, Feb. 7, 2015–Mane Stream Hotmail has been bought by an amateur rider for Catherine Haddad-Staller to continue to ride with the goals of the World Cup Final in Las Vegas year and a place on the American team for the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.
The 13-year-old Oldenburg gelding has been bought by Rowan O’Riley, of the Boston area college community of Wellesley, Massachusetts, a mother of three grown children and an avid supporter of American dressage programs.
“This is a serious investment and a serious commitment,” Rowan, 54 years old, told dressage-news.com. “I’m delighted to be in partnership with Catherine. She sits on numerous dressage committees in Europe and the United States with the goal of advancing the interests of dressage. I’m happy to support that.”
The purchase by Rowan keeps the horse for the United States whose dressage programs have been on a sharp upward move since the appointments of what has become a coaching team for elite combinations of Robert Dover as chef d’equipe and Debbie McDonald as developing horse coach and the creation of the Global Dressage Festival in Wellington. Earler this week, Charlotte Jorst of Reno, Nevada competing at the top levels in Wellington, disclosed her purchase of the Danish horse Akeem Foldager.
“I’ve been watching her progress in Europe and success with several top horses when the opportunity came to support her through Hotmail. Catherine is absolutely the best rider for him.”
Catherine, 50, trained and competed in Germany for 20 years and on Maximus JSS was reserve for the U.S. team for the World Equestrian Games in Aachen, Germany in 2006 and on Winyamaro for the 2010 WEG in Kentucky. She also competed at the 2007 World Cup Final in Las Vegas and at Leipzig, Germany in 2011.
She found Hotmail in Denmark in 2012 and brought him back to United States when she moved to Califon, New Jersey and Wellington, Florida after marrying the veterinarian Greg Staller.
Catherine who has been able to pursue her dressage goals since being without a sponsor since 2009 by selling her top horses, decided to put Hotmail on the market last fall. She received interest from both Europe and the United States.
Because she wanted to keep the horse for the United States, she called Rowan who replied positively.
Rowan’s interest in riding was rekindled when her eldest daughter underwent equine therapy for ceberal palsy.
She decided to keep the prefix Mane Stream for Hotmail as a signal of her support for the therapy assisted program in New Jersey for which Catherine named the horse.
Hotmail will stay with Catherine in both New Jersey and Florida where, Rowan said, she has recently bought a house to participate in and support the growing Global circuit.
With the support of Rowan and coaching from Debbie McDonald and Denmark’s Morten Thomsen along with her farrier and veterinarian husband she feels she has “real power under my seat.”
Catherine has competed on U.S. teams at Nations Cups in Europe and Wellington and wants to ride on U.S. teams in Europe this summer.
