Courtney King-Dye
Dressage

Courtney King-Dye is based at Sunnyfield Farm in Bedford, New York. In 2000, King was named to the USET Olympic Long List and in 2004 she was named to the USEF High Performance Developing Riders List. King is a United States Dressage Federation (USDF) Gold Medalist and a USDF Certified Instructor through Fourth Level. King is a 2004 graduate of Columbia University in New York and holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Literature.

A native of Michigan, King has been riding since she was nine years old. At age 15, she became a working student for two-time Olympian Lendon Gray at Sunnyfield Farm. She competed in the 1998 North American Young Riders Championships and by 1999, with a string of horses to show for clients, King became a force to be reckoned with in the competition ring. Renowned dressage announcer Brian O’Connor dubbed King as “the Tiger Woods of dressage” in recognition of her extraordinary number of wins.

King’s dressage education includes six years as Assistant Trainer to Lendon Gray, six months with Conrad Schumacher in Germany, and clinics with Henk van Bergen and U.S Olympians Michael Poulin, and Debbie McDonald. In 2007 King spent one month in California training with U.S Olympian Steffen Peters and will spend two months in Germany training with U.S Dressage Team Coach Klaus Balkenhol.

King’s show record includes a long history of championships and honors, including many USDF Regional Championships and Reserve Championships from Training Level through Grand Prix, USDF Horse of the Year Awards and Year-End Championships from the New England Dressage Association (NEDA). King is known for her ability to show horses at nearly every level of dressage at the same show and come away with the lion’s share of blue ribbons. In 2007 at "Dressage at Devon" Pennsylvania, King entered 11 classes on five horses ranging from 4th level to Grand Prix, finishing first 5 times, second 4 times and third 2 times, and also earned the FEI High Score of the show with a 71.25%. In one banner year, King qualified seven horses for the USDF Regional Championships from Training level to Grand Prix and was Champion and/or Reserve at every level except Second, which was not entered.

In April 2007 King and Idocus represented the USA for the first time at the World Cup in Las Vegas finishing in 6th place competing against 30 of the best riders in the world. Later in August they competed in the USEF National Grand Prix Championships, Gladstone, NJ finishing in second place.

In April 2008, King and Idocus qualified and competed in the World Cup in The Netherlands.

In August 2008, King represented the USA at the Olympic Games in Hong Kong on Harmony's Mythilus.

King’s elegance in the saddle has also made her a primary candidate as a Demonstration Rider for such prestigious clinicians as Anky van Grunsven, Steffen Peters, and Hubertus Schmidt, as well as for Pony Clubs and Adult Amateur groups. In 1998, King was regularly featured in Practical Horsemen magazine as the Demonstration Rider for "how to" articles with Lendon Gray. In 1999, King was the Demonstration Rider for “Developing the International Horse and Rider” at the National Symposium with Conrad Schumacher; the resulting video series is still widely distributed. King has also performed as an Exhibition Rider for notable events including Lendon Gray’s Annual Youth Dressage Festival in Saugerties, New York, the Ox Ridge CDI in Darien, Connecticut, and the 2006 USEF National Grand Prix Freestyle Championships/U.S. League Finals in Wellington, Florida.

Website: www.courtneykingdressage.com