A Different Kind of Equestrian Royalty

When dressage enthusiasts wish to disparage a horse and rider for performing movements as "tricks" instead of from a foundation of correct basics, they call it "circus riding."

You might not want to use that phrase around Tina Konyot.

Konyot, 50, of Palm City, FL, is the second-ranked member of the 2012 US Olympic dressage squad with her Calecto V. She also happens to descend from an illustrious and celebrated circus family.

Tina Konyot and Calecto V on their way to a career high score and the 2012 USEF National Grand Prix reserve championship (and a berth on the Olympic team). Photo by Jennifer Bryant.

I don't know whether things are different today, but at one time, equestrian circus performers were bona fide elite riders and trainers. Sure, their horses could rear on command and do other "tricks"; but they could also execute FEI-level movements and probably also do some pretty outstanding haute école work.

The Konyot family, of Hungarian origin, is legendary in circus lore. Tina Konyot's great-grandfather Leopold Konyot joined the circus in 1870 as a teen and later married the daughter of a circus owner. Their twelve children--among them Tina's grandfather Arthur Konyot--became circus equestrians and acrobats, especially well known for their bareback riding.

In 1909, the Konyot family immigrated to the US to perform in John Ringling's Barnum & Bailey Circus. They returned to Europe a few years later and founded their own circus, whose success was interrupted by the death of Leopold's wife, Henrietta.

Shortly before the outbreak of World War I, Arthur Konyot married Manya, a Russian ballerina. Their son, Alex (Tina's late father), was born during wartime; and their daughter, Dorita, was born post-war, while the family was performing in circuses in France.

Arthur Konyot was a renowned animal trainer, and his children became outstanding equestrians. Around the time of World War II, Arthur, Manya, Alex, and Dorita Konyot pursued their circus fortunes in America, with much of the family eventually settling in Florida. (The Sarasota area, known as the "home of the American circus," is the winter quarters of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus.)

Tina and her brother Randy are the children of Alex Konyot and his wife, Josephine Berosini, a Czech-born high-wire circus star.

The Konyot family and Josephine Berosini have been inducted into the Circus Ring of Fame.

"More Comfortable in the Saddle Than on a Sofa"


That's how Tina Konyot describes herself, and now that you know her history, it should come as no surprise. She grew up goofing off on horseback, jumping bareback and bridleless, galloping ponies--everything you'd expect from the horse-loving kid of a horse-loving, acrobatic circus family. She enjoys riding her Olympic mount, the fourteen-year-old Danish Warmblood stallion Calecto V, bareback and in a hackamore during their afternoon walks. She thrilled audiences at the 2012 USEF Dressage Festival of Champions when she unleashed Calecto in a full gallop and a "look, Ma, no hands" pose during the victory lap, then calmly pulled him up and walked sedately out of the Brown Arena. Now that's training.

Konyot and Calecto's first major international appearance was two years ago, at the 2010 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games. The horse has improved since the WEG--at Gladstone, they earned a career high score of 80.149 percent in the Grand Prix, besting eventual champions Steffen Peters and Legolas--and he shows a freshness and an enjoyment of his work.

"He is my pet," Konyot says of her horse. "He's my boy. He knows he can play"--and, of course, he also knows when it's time to buckle down and work.

Konyot is especially proud that "I've developed him. No one else has contributed. No one else has sat on him. It's all my own training"--that is, "the Alex Konyot school of training," his daughter says. "Little ways of making weaknesses stronger."

She purchased Calecto at auction in Denmark as an eight-year-old, at that time schooling Prix St. Georges-level work. Other bidders were uninspired by the horse, who would "swing badly in the changes," Konyot says. But she liked his walk and his canter, and "You only buy what you can afford."

A Unique Path

Tina Konyot has charted her own course from her family's legacy to the Olympic stage. Her skill and showmanship are proof that you may be able to take the girl out of the circus, but you can't take the circus out of the girl. She's giving "circus riding" a whole new meaning.

(Source for the Konyot family history: articles on Tina Konyot's website, including the Circus Ring of Fame induction speech.)

And the Team Is...

The 2012 US dressage Olympic selection trials concluded yesterday. So who's going to the London Olympic Games?

The US Equestrian Team Foundation's Maureen Pethick wasn't exactly sure. Neither was US Equestrian Federation PR rep Joanie Morris.

Huh? How can we not know?

Try to decipher the International Equestrian Federation's (FEI) 2012 Olympic dressage procedures and you'll begin to understand why. It's complicated.

There are rules governing who and how many can make the team...whether a nation can send an individual and/or a reserve rider...even the exact hour by which any lineup changes must be announced.  Making things somewhat more confusing this year is the fact that our #1 rider, Steffen Peters, qualified with two horses: Ravel, who earned a "bye" and didn't have to compete at the 2012 USEF Dressage Festival of Champions in Gladstone, NJ; and Legolas 92, who won the Grand Prix championship title and thereby also qualified for London.

The questions began: Can Steffen ride two horses in London? Can someone else ride Ravel or Legolas if Steffen becomes unable to compete? Can the US send a reserve horse? How many horses will we ship to Great Britain?

For answers, I went directly to the one person I knew could straighten me out: Anne Gribbons. Anne, as you may know, is the USEF national dressage technical advisor and high-performance coach. So here's the deal, straight from the horse's mouth, as they say.

First, we begin with what's officially known as the nominated entry--the list of the top finishers at the Olympic selection trials who are qualified for London. Note in the USEF press release announcing the nominated entry that Steffen Peters holds both the #1 and the #3 positions, with Ravel and Legolas 92, respectively.

International Olympic Committee dressage rules for London permit only three horse-rider combinations per team. In addition, each athlete may be paired with only one horse.

Translation: Steffen Peters may ride either Ravel or Legolas, but not both, according to Anne Gribbons.  Ravel is the top horse, so he is the team pick. But because the USEF wants to ensure that Steffen will ride, Legolas will ship to England as a reserve mount for Steffen only--no "catch riding" allowed at the Olympics, Anne explained.

The #2 team slot goes to the #2 finisher in the selection trials: 2012 USEF national Grand Prix reserve champion Tina Konyot on Calecto V. With the #3-ranked horse being Legolas, the third team slot therefore goes to the #4-ranked combination: Jan Ebeling on Rafalca.

Here's where things get interesting. According to Anne Gribbons, the #5-ranked pair, Adrienne Lyle on Wizard, will travel to London with the intention of competing as individuals. However, "Wizard will be a team horse and not compete as an individual should something happen" to a team horse or rider, Anne said.

But wait; there's more. In the press conference following the selection-trials conclusion, Anne stated that the USEF's intention is to ship "five or six" horses to England. So who's #6?

That would be the horse next in line in the ranking succession whose rider and owner grants permission for the horse to travel to England strictly to wait in the wings as a reserve horse. If Wizard gets "called up" for team duty, horse #6 could then compete as an individual.

Will Todd Flettrich and Otto travel to England with the US team? We'll know today, according to Anne Gribbons. Photo by Jennifer Bryant.

As it stands according to the selection-trials results, "Otto would be the sixth horse," Anne said, referring to Todd Flettrich's mount. But agreeing to travel in this reserve position is not obligatory, and so "the rider and owner have to have a chat and decide" what to do, she explained. Todd and Otto's owner, Margaret Duprey of Cherry Knoll Farm, West Grove, PA, have until today to tell the USEF yes or no (although I suspect Anne already knows what the answer will be).

Should they decline, then the USEF will extend the invitation to the next-ranked pair (Heather Blitz on Paragon), and so on down the line. One way or another, the lineup will be finalized by day's end today, Anne said.

Regardless of how many horses we ship to England, only four will actually wind up at the 2012 Olympic equestrian venue, Greenwich Park, Anne said. The US contingent will spend the last two weeks of July at a rented farm situated about 90 minutes from the venue, she said. Come time to ship to Greenwich Park, assuming Ravel, Calecto V, Rafalca, and Wizard are sound and healthy, those four horses will head to the Olympics, and Legolas and Otto will remain behind.

For a detailed look at Greenwich Park and the upcoming Olympic dressage competition, see my Olympic preview in the July/August issue of USDF Connection, the member magazine of the United States Dressage Federation. (Not a member? Here's how to join.)

In my next post, I'll continue my interview with Anne Gribbons, who discusses the Olympic travel timetable and the American dressage riders' chances in London.

Wizard Is Magical at Olympic Selection-Trials Finale

Wizard and Adrienne Lyle trotting to third place in today's Olympic Grand Prix Special at the 2012 USEF Dressage Festival of Champions. Photo by Jennifer Bryant.

I saw Wizard for the first time at the 2011 Adequan/USDF National Dressage Symposium in San Diego. The thirteen-year-old Oldenburg gelding, owned by Peggy Thomas and River Grove Farm in Hailey, ID, displayed international-quality presence, movement, and suppleness. Equally impressive was his beautifully classical rider, Adrienne Lyle, of Ketchum, ID. It was hard to believe that this protege of Olympian Debbie McDonald was only 27 years old.

This morning, in the final leg of competition in the 2012 United States Equestrian Federation National Grand Prix Championship and 2012 London Olympic Games dressage selection trials, Lyle and Wizard pulled out the stops for an expressive Olympic Grand Prix Special test. Judges Hilda Gurney, Linda Zang, Jane Weatherwax, Janet Foy, and Lois Yukins rewarded their efforts with a score of 74.889 percent.

Met by huge cheers from Lyle's and Wizard's fans and by a beaming Debbie McDonald, the pair's effort was enough to put them in third place, behind GP Special winners Steffen Peters and Legolas (77.956 percent) and second-place finishers Tina Konyot and Calecto V (77.889).

Wizard's test was a highlight, but several other pairs had struggles today. Nature called Jan Ebeling's mount, Rafalca, at precisely the wrong time; and the fifteen-year-old Oldenburg mare flubbed her line of fifteen one-tempi changes as a result. (Happily, the remainder of their solid, flowing test was good enough for fourth place with 73.844 percent.)

Solid performance from Rafalca and Jan Ebeling put them in fourth today and third overall in the 2012 Olympic selection trials. Photo by Jennifer Bryant.

Fandango (Guenter Seidel) and Robin Hood (Susan Blinks) also had some trouble with the tempis. Legolas flubbed a change in the twos, and Otto (Todd Flettrich) showed better piaffe-passage than yesterday but had a couple of breaks in gait that looked like overeagerness. The result was that, unlike in yesterday's Grand Prix, nobody broke the 80-percent mark.

The Olympic selection-trials process comprised back-to-back weekends of competition at United States Equestrian Team Foundation headquarters in Gladstone, NJ. Competitors rode the FEI Grand Prix and the Olympic Grand Prix Special each weekend, with each test counting 25 percent. Steffen Peters' "big horse," Ravel, has a bye and didn't compete. That left the top four at Gladstone as Peters/Legolas, Konyot/Calecto V, Ebeling/Rafalca, and Lyle/Wizard.

Legolas checks out his national-championship trophy, held by owner Akiko Yamazaki. At left are FEI 5* judge Axel Steiner and Yamazaki's daughter. Photo by Jennifer Bryant.

Although the official US Olympic dressage "nominated entry" hasn't happened yet, the USEF is hoping to ship "five or six" horses to London, according to USEF national dressage technical advisor and high-performance coach Anne Gribbons. If our dressage team of three ends up being Ravel, Calecto V, and Rafalca (with Legolas going as a backup mount for Peters and Wizard and Lyle traveling as the reserve combination), it will mean that Peters will be the only Olympic veteran in London.

National dressage technical Anne Gribbons (left) with top GP Special finishers Jan Ebeling, Tina Konyot, Steffen Peters, and Adrienne Lyle. Photo by Jennifer Bryant.

Most athletes will tell you that making an Olympic team for the first time is an unforgettable thrill.

"Since I attended my very first Olympic Games, in 1976, I have wanted to make the team," said Konyot, 50, of Palm City, FL.

Like many other accomplished Grand Prix-level riders, Konyot has years of experience and many wins under her belt. But a rider needs the right horse, and finding or training the right horse is no easy feat, not to mention the feat of keeping him sound. Since Konyot began competing her Danish Warmblood stallion, now 14, in 2007, she and Calecto V have developed a strong bond. The pair represented the US at the 2010 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games, and Konyot is a cool customer who says she's good under pressure.

And pressure they will have: As I reported in yesterday's post, FEI 5* judge Axel Steiner predicts that teams at the London Games will need to earn scores in the mid-80s to put themselves in medal position. We'll need not only outstanding performances but something approaching a teamful of career-best tests to put ourselves in that lofty league.

Doin' the Colbert Bump

The crowd at the 2012 US Equestrian Federation Dressage Festival of Champions in Gladstone, NJ, was reveling in the "Colbert Bump."

Good sport: Jan Ebeling does his Stephen Colbert imitation of Jan Ebeling. Photo by Jennifer Bryant.

That would be the "Dressage: Sport of the Summer!" feature by Comedy Central's Stephen Colbert, highlighting presidential candidate Mitt Romney's ties to our sport via wife Ann's co-ownership of Olympic contender Rafalca. (Did you miss it? Watch it and read my blog post here.)

Everybody at Gladstone, including Rafalca's rider, Jan Ebeling, is enjoying dressage's newfound status as household name. The excitement seemed to bubble over in the form of markedly higher scores in today's FEI Grand Prix, the first test in this second and final weekend of Olympic selection-trials competition.

After playing "always a bridesmaid" to Steffen Peters both at the 2010 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games and last weekend at Gladstone, today Tina Konyot was finally a bride. Aboard her Danish Warmblood stallion, Calecto V, Tina achieved a career high GP score of 80.149 percent to beat Steffen on Legolas (78.660).

Tina Konyot and Calecto V pirouette their way to Grand Prix victory. Photo by Jennifer Bryant.

Calecto showed tremendous adjustability, power, and suppleness. Steffen Peters praised the stallion's superior canter work as helping to give him the edge over the inexperienced Legolas today.

With a solid and steady performance marred only by a mistake in the one-tempis ("It was my mistake," Jan Ebeling said), Rafalca also achieved a career best GP score, 75.255 percent, to put them in third place today.

The exciting new combination of Adrienne Lyle and Wizard put in a dynamic test that showcased the horse's incredible reach and uphill movement to finish fourth with 73.298 percent. WEG veterans Todd Flettich and Otto had a few bobbles, including an uncharacteristic reluctance to piaffe, putting them in fifth place with 73.106 percent.

FEI 5* judge Axel Steiner, who was today's expert commentator, said of the competitors afterward: "Everybody started peaking at the right time. Several people really pushed up their scores from last week to this week." He pointed out that Tina Konyot started out her test with an average of 92 percent, having earned two marks of 10 within the first five movements.

Tina Konyot lets Calecto V go in their Grand Prix victory gallop. Photo by Jennifer Bryant.

With just one more test--tomorrow's Olympic Grand Prix Special--remaining in the quest to make the US Olympic dressage team, Steffen Peters on Legolas currently stand in first place, followed by Tina Konyot, Jan Ebeling, Todd Flettrich, Adrienne Lyle, and Heather Blitz. (I'm not counting Steffen on Ravel, who already hold the #1 team slot through a bye.)

"I think the final decision is going to be tomorrow," said Axel Steiner. "It's very tight." It sure is: Less than one-tenths of a percentage point currently separates Legolas from Calecto V.

Steiner offered a reality check in the midst of pre-Olympic euphoria. Even with our top riders hitting the 80-percent mark, nations such as Germany, the Netherlands, and Great Britain are hitting even higher octaves.

"Denmark had an over-80-percent ride just last week," he said. "The Swedes are coming on strong too."

So what are the Americans' Olympic dressage medal chances? Steiner said it's realistic to hope for "a strong showing as a team, maybe sneak some people in in the individual [competition]. Are we in the top three right now? Probably not.

"Eighty percent won't be enough," Steiner continued. Especially in the individual competition, winning scores should be in the mid- to high 80s, he said.

"We can expect big scores," Steiner said.

Stay tuned for tomorrow's Olympic Grand Prix Special, which begins at 8:30 a.m. Live-stream the competition via the USEF Network.