Sue Blinks of Mt. Kisco, NY was named the United States Equestrian Team (USET) Athlete of the Month for May 2000 following her winning performance and overall record during the 2000 Dressage Olympic Selection Trials
held May 13 &14, and May 20 & 21 at Walter and Mary Anne McPhail's Horse Park at Equestrian Estates in Loxahatchee, FL.
Riding, Flim Flam owned by Fritz Kundrun and Dressage Sponsor Corporation, Blinks won the State Line Tack/USET Dressage Championship, Presented by Rio Suite Hotel and Casino, finishing the four rounds, which served as the USET Dressage Olympic Trials, with a score of 70.844. Blinks placed ahead of Reserve Champion Guenter Seidel of Del Mar, CA and Foltaire owned by Dick and Jane Brown who finished the selection trials with a four-round score of 70.045.
Blinks, along with Guenter Seidel, Kathleen Raine, Christine Traurig and Robert Dover, all qualified as part of the USET's five-rider squad which will travel to Europe for two competitions before going to Sydney for the 2000 Olympic Games. Blinks, a 1997 USET Training and Competition grant recipient, earned a Team Gold Medal at the 1997 CDIO Hickstead in England and rode Flim Flam to a first place finish in the Grand Prix Special. After graduating from the University of Massachusetts, she trained with Walter Christenson in Germany. Blinks then moved to New York and worked briefly with Robert Dover. She also trained with Mr. Schulten-Baumer for two years in Germany. Blinks is an American Horse Shows Association dressage judge. She teaches and trains out of the Kundrun Farm in Mount Kisco, NY.
Image copyrighted: Mary Phelps