New York, NY – October 21, 2004 – The Olympic sport of dressage will be featured on Opening Day, November 3, at The Metropolitan National Horse Show in New York City. The evening session of the show kicks off with Dressage Night and The Continental Cup, in which four teams of two riders each will dazzle the audience in a Musical Freestyle competition at the highest levels of dressage – Grand Prix and Intermediaire I.

An invitation-only competition, the riders were selected and paired by two-time Olympian Lendon Gray of Bedford, NY. “Most of the riders have international showing experience, including the Olympics and Pan American Games, but I also chose young riders who are Olympic hopefuls and veterans who have talented new horses ready to be their next stars,” said Ms. Gray. “This is a wonderful opportunity to showcase the beauty and joy that is the Olympic sport of dressage.”

The Metropolitan National Horse Show at Pier 94 and the Show Piers on the Hudson will present five days and five nights of competition from November 3-7, with more than 80 hunter and jumper events and a total purse of $310,000. Dressage Night on November 3 begins at 7:00 PM. Following The Continental Cup, show jumpers will compete in the $25,000 Open Jumper class. Tickets can be reserved by calling 866-NHS-SHOW or on the web at www.nhs.org

The riders competing in The Continental Cup include Dorothy Morkis, Silke Rembacz, Courtney King, Gabriel Armando, Paige Finnegan, Cynthia Payne, and Jessica Rizzi. These riders are ranked as some of the top competitors in dressage. Dorothy Morkis of Massachusetts earned a Team Bronze Medal at the 1976 Montreal Olympics; Silke Rembacz of New Jersey and Courtney King of New York were two of only 12 riders in the U.S. who qualified to compete in the national Intermediaire Championships at the Festival of Champions in California in June 2004; Gabriel Armando of Argentina represented his country at the 2003 Pan Am Games; Paige Finnegan of Massachusetts recently topped the leaderboards at the prestigious New England Dressage Association Fall Festival; Cynthia Payne received acclaim for her performances this year at the renowned Dressage at Devon; and Jessica Rizzi of New York has a long list of show career highlights including the North American Young Riders Championships.

In addition to The Continental Cup competition, Dressage Night will include two exhibitions. An educational demonstration of dressage movements will precede The Continental Cup and a Pas de Deux will be performed prior to the awards ceremony.

“Before the competition, we’ll have several of the Continental Cup riders in the ring demonstrating the upper level movements such as piaffe, passage, and half pass so that when the competition starts, the audience will have a greater understanding of what they’re watching and a better appreciation of what the judges are looking for,” explained Ms. Gray, who will narrate the demonstration.

In The Continental Cup, each horse and rider will perform a choreographed ride to music, which will be scored by a panel of two judges – Margaret Freeman of New York, and Heather Mason of New Jersey. “The judges will be looking for correct technique in the performances, and they will also assess the choice of music and the difficulty of the choreography,” explained Ms. Gray. The team with the highest combined score wins.

The Freestyle requires that certain movements be performed but the riders choose their own music and sequence of movements. “The audience will see eight completely different musical rides performed at the most advanced levels of dressage,” noted Ms. Gray.

Following The Continental Cup competition, while the scores are being tallied, two young riders on ponies will exhibit a Pas de Deux. Performing to music, the riders and their ponies will execute the same pattern simultaneously in mirror image. The Pas de Deux performers are Isabelle Leibler riding Get The Picture and Rachel Chowanek aboard Hakunamatata.

“With the caliber of riders and horses we have entered in the competition and the exhibitions, this promises to be a very unique and entertaining evening,” said Ms. Gray, who headed up Dressage Night at the 2003 Metropolitan National Horse Show as well. “It’s wonderful for our sport that they have included dressage at The Metropolitan National Horse Show for two consecutive years.”

Tickets to The Metropolitan National Horse Show are available in a range of prices and packages. To find out about more about premium ticket packages and passes, please phone the National Horse Show Infoline at (866) NHS-SHOW or visit www.nhs.org

For further information on the Metropolitan National Horse Show, contact the National Horse Show Association of America, Ltd., PO Box 386, Greenvale, NY 11548. E-mail: NationalHS@aol.com; Phone: (516) 484-1865; Fax: (516) 484-1982. Or on the web, visit: www.nhs.org