Carol Lavell, a pillar of the 1992 U.S. Olympic bronze medal dressage team, died today, a little more than a week before her 80th birthday.
She and her statuesque flashy bay Hanoverian gelding, Gifted, were the rockstars of American dressage in the early 1990s.
Carol Lavell and Gifted.
A Vermonter who exemplified the New England values of hard work and persistence, she was both opinionated (and often right!) as well as generous with her time and knowledge.
Carol established the Gifted Memorial Fund grants for adult amateurs through the U.S. Dressage Foundation, recognizing the importance of supporting U.S. dressage at all levels across the country.
The Carol Lavell Advanced Dressage Prize, started at The Dressage Foundation in 2005, provides financial assistance for coaching and training to talented, committed, qualified riders with plans to reach and excel at the elite, international standards of high-performance dressage.
Up to two prizes of $25,000 each are available annually to riders who are U.S. citizens over 21 years of age. Recipients are selected on the basis of merit and need.
When she went looking for a dressage prospect in 1984, Carol explained to a German horse dealer, “I want something special that stands out.” He promised he would find it, calling three days later to say he had the horse. She told him, “I’m coming right away to see it. Don’t sell it.” And that was the beginning of a famous partnership.
Carol, who graduated from Vassar College, worked in research with a biochemistry professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She also taught lab research to students at MIT, but left all that to devote herself to dressage and her special horse.
In 1987, three years after Carol started working with Gifted, he was named U.S. Dressage Federation Horse of the Year at Fourth Level and Prix St. Georges. It was the beginning of success after success.
A year later, Gifted was honored as the USDF Horse of the Year at Intermediate I. When Carol brought Gifted out at Grand Prix in 1989, the pair made their debut on the European dressage circuit. Shortly after completing that tour, Gifted won an individual gold medal at the North American Dressage Championships in Canada.
Gifted placed 11th at the World Championships in 1990, and in 1991, he was USDF Horse of the Year at Grand Prix. Carol became the first American to win the Grand Prix at the Hermes International Dressage Show in Goodwood, England.
The highlight of Gifted’s career came at the 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games, where Carol was sixth individually and led the U.S. to a bronze medal, the first Olympic medal in 16 years for the U.S. dressage team. They needed to score 1,524 points in the Grand Prix to bring the bronze home. Gifted’s result was more than 100 points better than that, when he and Carol were marked at 1,629.
Named the 1990 and 1992 U.S. Olympic Committee Female Equestrian Athlete of the Year, Carol also received the U.S. Equestrian Team’s Whitney Stone Cup in 1992 and was the 1992 American Horse Shows Association/Hertz Equestrian of the Year. At the 1994 World Equestrian Games in The Hague, Carol and Gifted finished ninth individually as the U.S. picked up another team bronze.
So many people expressed their feelings about Carol on social media. Sarah Martin Dressage put it beautifully: “I believe there is a Rainbow Bridge for humans, too, and Carol Lavell has crossed it to find Gifted waiting.Two incredible souls who taught me so much.
“Carol was so generous. When I told her I had never ridden piaffe, she put me on Gifted that day. Can you imagine? Her heart was always so genuine, generous and she always had one more thing to teach… I am so honored to have had this woman in my life. Fly high and ride on, Carol!”
Tuny Page told a great story: At the 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games, after the first day of dressage concluded, riders were hanging out in the athletes’ hotel. Trainer Conrad Schumacher walked up to Carol (knowing that she and Gifted needed to do a performance of their lifetime to ensure a bronze medal) and asked the following, “So how does it feel to have the weight of your country and your team on your shoulders?”
In characteristic Carol style, her answer was: “With all due respect, Mr. Schumacher, it feels just fine because the pressure is exactly where it supposed to be!”
Sabine Schut-Kery, who in 2021 insured with Sanceo that the U.S. would get a silver medal at the Tokyo Olympics, posted this sentiment: “Fly high, Carol Lavell, and thank you for what you have done for U.S. dressage in the saddle and after, with your amazing dressage grants that helped so many, including myself with my precious Sanceo.”