U.S. nets gold at Pan Am Games
Jeff Tully
Kristina Harrison-Naness had a distincte advantage over the other
competitors in the dressage equestrian event at the 2003 Pan American
Games.
Tucked into the pocket of her riding jacket was a silver dollar
given to her for luck by her 6-year-old daughter, Rison.
Rison received two silver dollars recently by the tooth fairy, and
she decided to give one to her mother to help her at the Games in
Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.
With her good-luck charm in place, Harrison-Naness rode well and
helped the United States Equestrian Team win a gold medal in the Prix
St. Georges Dressage Team competition Thursday.
“I think the good-luck charm really helped me,” the 32-year-old
Harrison-Naness said. “The silver dollar has a 1971 date on it, the
year I was born. It is something that I always carry with me now in
competition.
“Before I went to the Games, Rison took her two silver dollars and
rubbed them together for luck. So I took one to the competition and
she kept the other one.”
Harrison-Naness said the support of her family -- especially her
husband Howard -- has helped her succeed in a sport that is both
expensive and time-consuming.
“I even had my 86-year-old grandmother and her 81-year-old sister
come to [Santo Domingo] to see me compete,” she said. “That was very
special.
“The whole experience is just a dream come true to me.”
Dressage is an ancient sport that made its Olympic debut at the
1912 Stockholm Games. Along with the talent and ability of the rider,
much of dressage is focused on the horse.
In competition, a rider will put the horse through a series of
moves and those moves are scored by a panel of judges. The
competitors are given a score based on percentage.
The U.S. successfully defended its title from the 1999 Games by
narrowly defeating Canada for the top finish in the event. The
Americans placed first with a combined score of 206.550, the
Canadians had 206.300 and Mexico won the bronze medal with 194.850.
The U.S. bested nine other nations, the largest equestrian
contingent in the history of the Pan Am Games, for the top honor.
The squad consisted of Jan Ebeling of Moorpark riding Feleciano,
Pierre St. Jacques of Boscawen, N.H. on Lucky Tiger, Carol Lavell of
Loxahatchee, Fla. on Much Ado and Harrison-Naness aboard Kantor.
The Dressage team competition took place over two days, but it all
came down to the last rider on the final day. The fourth U.S. rider
-- Ebeling -- impressed the judges and scored a 70.400%, forcing
Leslie Reid of Canada, riding Mark, to have to come up with a big
effort.
As the anchor rider, Reid came through with the best effort of the
Games, as she scored 72.150%. However, the score was just short of
pushing Canada over the top for the gold.
At the conclusion of the event, the Americans and Canadians waited
for the results to be tabulated, wondering which team had earned the
gold medal.
The top 25 riders moved onto the next round of competition, the
Intermediaire I test, which took place on Friday. All four of the
U.S. rider-horse combinations qualified for the individual event.
On Sunday, the top 15 moved on to the final test, the
Intermediaire Freestyle, which determined the individual medals.
Harrison-Naness didn’t finish among the top 10.
Although the Americans did well, the U.S. horse-rider combinations
finished out of medal contention.
Reid won the gold medal for Canada with a score of 222.100.
Bernadette Pujals of Mexico and Vincent moved up from the third spot
with an outstanding test to win the silver medal with 213.400. The
bronze went to the hometown favorite, Yvonne Losos de Muniz of the
Dominican Republic, riding Inatana Las Marismas, who scored 212.000.
The top U.S. finisher was Ebeling, who rode Feleciano to a
fifth-place finish with a 206.750 score. St. Jacques took sixth with
203.700 and Lavell moved up from 10 to finish sixth with 202.900.
Harrison-Naness earned a spot on the U.S. team by putting together
a championship performance in June in Gladstone, N.J. She was the
overall winner at the Federation Equestre Internationale Prix St.
Georges at the Bayer/United States Equestrian Team Festival of
Champions.
A resident of the Rancho District, Harrison-Naness -- who is a
private riding instructor -- trains at the Los Angeles Equestrian
Center in Burbank and works for Angele Farms.