Challenge of the Americas offers its last hurrah

For a quarter-century, Challenge of the Americas has presented incredibly creative dressage as entertainment benefiting a good cause.

But on Friday, it is offering its last glittering performance in Wellington, Fla., after raising more than $3 million for breast cancer research over the decades.

Why stop when everyone appreciates what it offers?

“You know when you know; it’s time,” explained founder Mary Ross, who is at the heart of an attraction that has engaged hundreds in a labor of love and charity.

“I have literally enjoyed every minute of it. I’ve made a lot of good friends and we raised a lot of money for breast cancer.”

However, she pointed out, “I’m not getting any younger and it’s quite a large event.”

Mary added with a smile, “I have a good core of people who help me out, and they’re not getting any younger.”

The concept premiered in 2002 with three horses at a Palm Beach Dressage Derby luncheon.

“It was in memory of my mother, Jean Cruse, who died of breast cancer,” Mary said.

“I think she would have loved it. She didn’t ride, but she loved the horses.”

And her presence is still felt.

“She’s in charge of the weather. So far, she’s done a great job, so I think she’s liking it.”

Remembering how COTA began, Mary got the idea after seeing a pas de trois on TV.

“People said, `You’ll never get the riders, because it’s their busy season. They won’t have the time.’ ”

But the skeptics were wrong.

As Mary noted, “The first people I asked said yes.”

They were Betsy Steiner, who went on to take part every year; Patrick Burssens and Linda Alicki.

“Terry Gallo came on as the choreographer. Other people came and said, `We want to ride.’

“It grew. It was the riders who made it grow. It was the community wanting to get behind the breast cancer research. Everybody knows somebody who had breast cancer. so the support was there for it and off we went. Wellington is about the only place you could pull this off, you have so many Grand Prix riders and their horses in one location.”

The performance will be held Friday March 6 at the Global Dressage Festival showgrounds off South Shore in Wellington. General Admission tickets are available at the gate night of the event. Doors open at 5:45 p.m. The charge if $30 for adults, with children 12 and under free.

Ruth Poulsen was at that initial luncheon, and played a role in COTA’s growth.

While “it has become the event of the season, it’s a huge amount of logistics and the time it takes for Mary. I totally understand it coming to an end,” Ruth commented.

“I’m sad to see it end, because it’s a very important fundraiser for me. My mom had breast cancer. I have been honored and humbled to do it and I know Mary feels the same.”

There have been “whispers” that COTA may not be gone forever.

“Maybe something else will come, and change is sometimes good,” mused Ruth, a professional trainer who has been the coach/choreographer and music editor for Team Winged Foot.

“I think the horse community has been amazingly supportive. Inside and outside the horse community, I don’t know anybody who hasn’t been touched by breast cancer in some way, either their family or themselves.”

The benefits of COTA have gone beyond its fundraising achievements.

“It’s a rare opportunity to have so many dressage riders working together,” Ruth pointed out.

“I have made some of my very best friends over these years with my different teams, and getting to know people who are my colleagues I might not have gotten to know so well.”

She pointed out that although time is gladly given, sacrifice is involved in being part of the COTA effort.

“It’s hundreds of hours worth of work during your biggest season. During December-March, I don’t have any spare time.”

Those who get involved with organizing teams have to figure out who can ride with each other and who can sustain the pattern.

“You’re basically doing a freestyle for six horses at a time,” said Ruth, noting that dressage otherwise is an individual sport. Outside of COTA, horses only work with other horses in an arena during warm-ups.

While the end of the tradition is sad, “It just feels like it’s the time. We want to have a real blowout this year.”

Tigger Montague, meanwhile, “would like to see it go on in a new way. It’s the one thing that really brings the dressage community together in Wellington. That part is so important, because we get so tied up in our own little worlds.”

If it does continue at some point, she observed, “it is time to kind of change the format. We’re having a hard time getting riders now because they’ve already done it. It not only takes a lot of time, it takes a different skill set you have to develop to ride in a quadrille. You have to think differently as a rider, you can’t just think about your (own) horse.”

Then there’s “the timing, the music; there are a lot of factors. It’s a very hard thing to do well.”

Tigger, who has been making musical freestyles since 1990, majored in theater arts and film during college, an appropriate background for dramatic equestrian presentations.

She sees the COTA experience as “an expanded version of a Kur, working together as a team and not letting personalities get in the way.”

Her role is multi-faceted, including being a coach, choreographer and overseeing the music. Biostar, Tigger’s company, has been a sponsor for one of the quadrilles that she coaches.

One year, she did a quadrille inspired by the Broadway show, “Hamilton.” The show’s facebook group posted the last 30 seconds of the quadrille on line and got 99,000 likes.

Another quadrille called, “Time: Past, Present and Future,” had riders create a choreographic clock, with a pony as the second hand.

“Dressage isn’t only for the big warmbloods. We need to be a sport that’s inclusive. Galvinizing the community is a very powerful thing, because the vibration is so positive and uplifiting.”

With the help of trainer Kelly Soleau, she even has included a quadrille that involves jumping.

“It brings the jumper crowd in,” she noted.

Terry Gallo noted that expansion of the rider base for the event speaks to the importance of the movement. So many people are willing to volunteer their time to make this happen.

“Quadrille is a very unique thing. Everyone is used to seeing individual freestyles. When you’re on a team, it’s very reminiscent of what you might see in the Spanish Riding School.

“It’s a new way of looking at the sport, very entertaining. You don’t have the same restrictions you would in a standard freestyle. We can use any music we want; there’s costuming, so the entertainment value is very high, which is a big draw as well.”

Also part of the appeal is the fact that it’s a way to help.

“We don’t often get the opportunity to volunteer for something this worthy. To have the opportunity to give back, both for the sport and the cause, has personally been very important to me.”

As the world has gone from analog to digital during COTA’s span, she noted, “My team has been with me for over two decades…that is huge dedication. I will personally miss the creativity involved. Mary and I have grown friendships from this that are very deep.”

COTA has been honored with the naming of The Play for P.I.N.K. Challenge of the Americas Award by the Breast Cancer Research Foundation in conjunction with Play for P.I.N.K. The grants have been presented to Dr. Benita Katzenellenbogen from the University of Illinois, whose groundbreaking research focuses on metastasis, treatment and tumor biology.

Play for P.I.N.K. (Prevention, Immediate diagnosis, New technology, Knowledge), or PFP, is a 501(c)(3) grassroots organization dedicated to raising funds for breast cancer research through sporting and lifestyle events.