Vera Kessels, a much admired dressage trainer, rider and effective clinician, died March 22 of ovarian cancer.
A native of the Netherlands with ties to the horse-dealing Hendrix family, she moved to the U.S. in 1995 with her Dutchbred horse, Dotato. They started showing a year later and continued through Dressage at Devon in 1998. Other mounts with which she had success included Urbanus and Jane Suwalsky’s Whitman.
Vera Kessels, who always shared her sunny smile. Photo © by Nancy Jaffer)
Vera married U.S. dressage rider Michael Barisone, who began showing Dotato in 1999, and the two ran the Hathorne Hill training stable in Long Valley, N.J. The couple later divorced.
She was a respected teacher. As trainerEliza Puttkamer Banks put it in a tribute on social media, “I owe where I am right now and the confidence I have, to Vera. One of the most outstanding supporters of our sport from the center of the ring, always keeping correct training and understanding of the horses as sport. We have lost one of our shining lights.”