Three riders will be getting valuable team experience on the U.S. squad at the Nations Cup in Wellington, Fla., next month.
Floridians Natalie Dean and Mimi Gochman were selected, along with a Californian, Mavis Spencer. The squad will be filled out by the more seasoned Adrienne Sternlicht, a veteran of the 2018 gold medal World Equestrian Games team, as well as the 2022 world championships.
Mimi Gochman at Devon last year. Photo © 2022 by Nancy Jaffer
The Cup at the Winter Equestrian Festival is always quite the occasion, with rooters from the countries participating giving their teams plenty of vocal support. It does not, however, count as a qualifier for the Nations Cup finals in Barcelona this fall.
That is a Longines fixture, while Rolex is the watch sponsor of choice at the Wellington International showgrounds, where the WEF is held. So it offers a chance for riders to get team mileage in an electric venue where spirits and tension are high.
The Longines Nations Cup for the U.S. will be held this spring in California. It’s important for the U.S. to win there and get a shot for Barcelona, since the country needs a berth in the 2024 Paris Olympics. If the U.S. doesn’t make the cut in Barcelona, there’s only the Pan American Games in Chile later in the fall to secure a place in Paris.