More than four months after the U.S. Equestrian Federation decided not to renew the contract of eventing performance director Erik Duvander, the organization named Bobby Costello as the interim chef d’equipe and team manager for the discipline.
He will serve through the end of September, coordinating the team’s appearance at the world championships in Italy and handling preparations leading up to them.
Bobby competed as an individual in the 2000 Olympics, where he finished eighth. While continuing to teach, he has been active in governance and served as head of the USEF’s Active Athletes and Eventing High Performance committees.
Olympic multi-medalist Phillip Dutton and Bobby applied as a pair to split the technical advisor/chef d’equipe job in 2011. This time around, Phillip had been concerned about the lack of action on a replacement for Erik, and is pleased with the choice of Bobby.
So is Jennie Brannigan, another rider who competes internationally.
“Obviously, as the head selector he’s done a great job,” she said.
USEF never gave a reason why Duvander was dropped. He is still privately training many of the people he worked with on the team since he started the USEF job in the autumn of 2017. The top riders all have their own trainers.