Three years in a row the Californian Nicole Perry was part of the Region 7 Young Riders' team at the North American Young Riders' Championships. Small mistakes in her tests kept her from winning an individual medal, but 1998 has been a turning point in her life. With her Thoroughbred Masterpiece she rode a NAYRC to dream of. Scores like 63.74% and 65.05% gave her the opportunity to be awarded with the silver individual medal and the gold team medal. Why did it work this year?

At age 7 Nicole Perry started riding dressage, although her parents are western riders and are training performance Quarter Horses. Mommy Perry has always been helping out Nicole but Robert Dover gave her a big push in the back. By riding in his clinics and taking private lessons with him, Nicole moved forward a lot. Even though they disagree on several training points, the combination Dover-Perry seems to be working. Nicole also participated in several Conrad Schumacher clinics and one day she hopes to go to his barn in Germany.

Nicole is still doing some western gaits classes and she prefers reining as western discipline, but she still says that she feels more conforatble with dressage: "By doing dressage you create a better relationship with your horse. Animals teach you to put your priorities straight and that's an important aspect of life."

Besides eating, drinking and breathing horses, Nicole has a passion for oceanography and she likes flying airplanes with her uncle.

Next year will be Nicole's last year as a Young Rider and her "joie de vivre" makes her mentally very strong and thus she can be considered as a serious competitor for the gold medal.