Lendon Gray Receives US Equestrian Lifetime Achievement Award
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Dec. 13, 2024
Lendon Gray, an Olympian with a love for ponies and founder of the North American youth development program Dressage4Kids, has received the United States Equestrian 2024 Lifetime Achievement Award.
For virtually all of her 75 years, Lendon has been dedicated to equestrianism, growing up in Old Town, Maine to earn her Pony Club A rating at 16 and educated at Sweet Briar College and Stanford University.
At the age of 27 she focused on dressage. Among her most famous mounts was development of the 14.2 hand/147cm Thoroughbred/Connemara pony Seldom Seen to Grand Prix.
Lendon was selected for the American team for the 1980 Olympics but the U.S. was among nations that boycotted the Moscow Games and competed at alternate Olympics in Britain.
With Later On, she competed on the U.S. team at the 1988 Olympics in Seoul.
A decade later, she founded the Youth Dressage Festival as the first of a long list of achievements that has focused on dressage education and programming and become Dressage4Kids.
The program has grown to provide educational programs and professional development for instructors and other adults in the industry in addition to the youth-focused training and mentoring opportunities. Through its scholarship program, it provides financial assistance for youth and amateur riders as well as new professionals to access training, competition, and educational resources.
“Gray’s selfless sharing of her knowledge and enthusiasm for the sport of dressage and good horsemanship has created a ripple effect that has raised the bar for equestrianism across the country,” the federation said in naming the 2024 Lifetime Achievement Award to Lendon who lives in Bedford, New York.
