“Dressage is like neurosurgery,” said Dr. Nancy Ellen Binter, MD, after accepting the GK Elite Sport Adult Amateur Achievement Award for the opening week of the 2018 Global Dressage Festival at the Equestrian Village at Palm Beach International Equestrian Center in Wellington, Florida.
A practicing neurosurgeon for more than three decades in Burlington, Vermont, before opening her own consulting service, the dressage level Intermediate I competitor said, “All the preparation, intellectual ability, and athletic and technical talent are exactly the same," said Binter.
Sharing her prestigious award with her husband of 32 years, retired neuroradiologist Dr. Rakowitz, she added, “It’s all in the medical family here! I am a neurosurgeon and ride horses as my hobby, which keeps me sane. He is videographer and ‘Captain of the Sugar!’”
Before moving to Florida, the couple’s dedication to one another and the sport saw them “trucking and trailering” to such renowned Northeast dressage shows as Devon, Pennsylvania, with Dr. Binter’s 11 year-old Zangesheide gelding Arend Z (by Oldenburg show jumping champion Air Jordan out of a mare by the great KWPN - and Holstein-registered Dutch Warmblood, Hemmingway). The Zangesheide is an elite Belgian show jumper breed produced by crossing only the finest of European performance sport horses.
Dr. Binter, who trains with U.S. Olympic dressage rider Michael Barisone and his wife, Dutch Grand Prix rider Vera Kessels-Barisone, credited her beautiful bay horse for their award-winning achievement at one of the largest and most acclaimed international and national dressage circuits in the world: “Arend Z has a wonderful brain, and an unbelievable engine.”
The GK Elite Sport Adult Amateur Achievement Award was presented Katie Riley on behalf of GK Horses president, Nicoletta Ghribi and GK Horses sport partner, Pan American Games Dressage Team Gold medalist, Dr. Cesar Parra.
“Dr. Binter and Arend Z epitomize adult amateur achievement: dedication, commitment, joy and harmony,” said Riley during the presentation ceremony.
Cesar Parra state that "with Performance Farm we really try to emphasize the importance of supporting the adult amateur. I'm very fortunate to have a sponsor, GK Elite Sport, who shares that vision and follows this idea."
GK Horses operates exceptional horse and rider training facilities in Wellington and Whitehouse Station, New Jersey, and is proud to recognize outstanding dressage horse-and-rider combinations throughout the Global Dressage Festival 12-week series, January 11-March 27. Learn more the GK equestrian team and horses at www.gk-horses.com.
Text by Johnny Robb
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