Lendon Gray
{{short description|American dressage champion and author}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Lendon Gray
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| birth_name = Lendon Fentress Gray
| birth_place = Old Town, Maine
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| nationality = American
| other_names =
| occupation = dressage rider, riding instructor, author
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Lendon Fentress Gray (born April 13, 1949), is an American dressage champion,{{cite web|title=Dressage Scores for Lendon F Gray|url=http://www.centerlinescores.com/Rider/Details/404|website=Centreline Scores|accessdate=13 April 2015}} author, and former rider of Seldom Seen.
Gray was born in Old Town, Maine, and began riding horses and competing at a young age, originally in the Western and hunt seat schools of equitation. She competed to national level at Pony Club rallies. She attended The Foxhollow School for Girls and then Sweet Briar College, where she trained in the forward seat riding system under Paul D. Cronin.{{cite web|title=About Lendon Gray|url=http://www.dressage4kids.org/about-dressage4kids/about-lendon-gray/|website=Dressage4Kids|accessdate=12 April 2015|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20150412084144/http://www.dressage4kids.org/about-dressage4kids/about-lendon-gray/|archivedate=12 April 2015}}{{self-published inline|date=April 2015}}
Olympics
In 1975, Gray began riding Seldom Seen, a {{convert|14.2|hands|cm|abbr=on|lk=in|0}} Thoroughbred/Connemara cross. The pair competed in FEI dressage tests to Grand Prix level between 1977 and 1987. On Seldom Seen and four other horses, Gray won five gold medals at U.S. Olympic Festivals.{{cite web|last1=Rotterdam|first1=Silke|title=Seldom Seen, a Connemara Crossbred Going All the Way|url=http://www.eurodressage.com/equestrian/2012/03/29/seldom-seen-connemara-crossbred-going-all-way|website=Eurodressage|accessdate=12 April 2015}} Gray qualified for the 1980 U.S. Olympic team but did not compete due to the U.S. Olympic Committee's boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow, Russia. She was one of 461 athletes to receive a Congressional Gold Medal instead.{{cite book|last1=Caroccioli|first1=Tom|last2=Caroccioli|first2=Jerry|title=Boycott: Stolen Dreams of the 1980 Moscow Olympic Games|publisher=New Chapter Press|location=Highland Park, IL|isbn=978-0942257403|pages=243–253}}
Dressage
Gray represented the United States at the Dressage World Championships in 1978, and at the 1991 Dressage World Cup in Paris. In 1980, Gray rode Beppo, a Holsteiner gelding, for the American team at the Alternate Olympics dressage event at Goodwood House, in West Sussex, England.{{cite web|last1=Sanchez|first1=Kelly|title=Olympic Dressage History, Part 1|url=http://dressagetoday.com/article/olympic-dressage-history-part-1|website=Dressage Today|accessdate=12 April 2015}}{{cite web|last1=Rottermann|first1=Silke|title=An Affair to Remember: the 1980 Olympic Games - Three Perspectives|url=http://www.eurodressage.com/equestrian/2015/02/16/affair-remember-1980-olympic-games-three-perspectives|website=Eurodressage|accessdate=12 April 2015}} In 1988, she competed in dressage on Later On with the United States Equestrian Team in the 1988 Olympics in Seoul.{{cite web|title=Lendon Gray|url=https://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/athletes/gr/lendon-gray-1.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200418081251/https://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/athletes/gr/lendon-gray-1.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=18 April 2020|website=SR/Olympic Sports|accessdate=12 April 2015}}{{cite web|title=Olympic Games Equestrian Team Members Riding for the USA|url=https://www.uset.org/olympicteams.pdf|website=USET|accessdate=12 April 2015}}
Gray is a United States Dressage Federation instructor and clinician, as well as one of the founders of the non-profit Emerging Dressage Athlete Program for young riders.{{cite web|title=About Dressage4Kids|url=http://www.dressage4kids.org/about-dressage4kids/|website=Dressage4Kids|accessdate=12 April 2015|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20150412112843/http://www.dressage4kids.org/about-dressage4kids/|archivedate=12 April 2015}}{{cite web|title=Emerging Dressage Athlete Program|url=http://dressagedaily.com/features/section/emerging-dressage-athlete-program|website=Dressage Daily|accessdate=12 April 2015}}{{cite web|last1=Whitfield|first1=Pam|title=Doing nothing well: an interview with Lendon Gray|url=http://anrc.org/information-center/articles/doing-nothing-well-an-interview-with-lendon-gray/|website=American National Riding Commission|accessdate=12 April 2015}} She was inducted to the USDF Hall of Fame in 2011.{{cite web|title=Lendon Gray Announced as 2011 Roemer Foundation/USDF Hall of Fame Inductee|url=http://usdf.org/press/news/view-news.asp?news=544|website=United States Dressage Federation|publisher=USDF|accessdate=12 April 2015}}{{cite web|last1=Savitt|first1=Roger|title=Spotlight on Bedford's Sunnyfield Farm|url=http://www.bedfordridinglanes.com/spotlight_sunnyfield_farm.html|website=Bedford Riding Lanes Association|accessdate=12 April 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150412112702/http://www.bedfordridinglanes.com/spotlight_sunnyfield_farm.html|archive-date=12 April 2015|url-status=dead}}
Publications
- Gray, Lendon Lessons with Lendon: 25 Progressive Dressage Lessons Take You from Basic "Whoa and Go" to Your First Competition (Popular Training Series from Practical Horseman). Knight Equestrian Books, 2003.{{cite web|title=Lessons With Lendon|url=http://knightbooks.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=knightbooks&Product_Code=4039&Category_Code=|website=Knight Equestrian Books|accessdate=12 April 2015}}{{dead link|date=December 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}
References
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Category:American dressage riders
Category:American female equestrians
Category:Olympic equestrians for the United States
Category:Congressional Gold Medal recipients
Category:Equestrians at the 1988 Summer Olympics