Lauren Sprieser Recipient of $15,000 Carol Lavell Developing Dressage Prize

Dressage

U.S.A

American Grand Prix rider Lauren Sprieser has become the recipient of the first ever $15,000 Carol Lavell Developing Dressage Prize, awarded by The Dressage Foundation.

The purpose of this $15,000 grant is to provide financial assistance for the training and competition of horse and rider teams competing at small tour or USEF 7-Year-Old Test.

Sprieser and C Cadeau

Lauren Sprieser (VA) and the nine-year-old Danish Warmblood gelding, C. Cadeau, owned by the Elvis Syndicate LLC, have had a successful year in the show ring. In August, the pair were reserve champions in the U.S. Intermediaire I Championship. Lauren is a USDF gold, silver, and bronze medalist with distinction. With this grant, Lauren will train with Olympian Ali Brock in Florida.

Lauren said, “It is an unreal privilege to ride a horse like Cadeau and I’m beyond thrilled to have won this Prize. I worked for Carol as a young professional, and I know she’d be proud of what a soft, compassionate rider Cadeau is helping me become."

Nine Times

Sprieser applied for the Carol Lavell Prize nine times.

"I worked for Carol as a kid, and she remained a powerful force for good in my life until the end," Sprieser explained. "One of the many amazing things she did for me was kick my ass - with so, so much love, but still definitely kicking my ass - and give me some desperately-needed lessons in humility. She also regaled me often with tales of how anyone good had to keep fighting like hell to get their moment in the sun, and that no one gets anything handed to them. She was an amazing human being I am so grateful to have known.

Lauren got a hand-written post script from Lavell on her first rejection letter.

"I keep it in the center drawer of my desk at the barn, and keep a photo of it on my phone, for whenever I need a reminder that, as she wrote, high performance "means never give up - never give in," she said. "So I didn't. Even when I was delusional about the quality of the horses I was sitting on. Even when I was so overly-confident in my own abilities. Even when I wasn't nearly good enough, and didn't know enough to seek out people who'd tell me. That ego that needed more than one dousing in the ice bucket of reality did, funnily enough, keep me from staying down long. Pollyanna-esque naivete kept me coming back again, and again, and again."

Sprieser continues, "and I got better. I learned. I worked my way up to better horses, and took the lessons gratefully learned on their forebears into their educations, teaching them to be better still. I started making my own luck, and finding my own support. I have now literally written the book on horse syndication (all 19 pages of it, don't be too impressed), and have used those methods to get access to even more amazing horses. And in waltzed Cadeau, who has inspired me every day to be worthy of him. And finally, nine tries later, I've passed muster."

Carol Lavell Dressage Prizes

The Dressage Foundation awards two "Carol Lavell Dressage Prizes" annually.

The one Sprieser won is a brand new created $15,000 Carol Lavell Developing Dressage Prize established in 2024 to help support a pipeline of international-level riders and horses in the United States.

The bigger one donated by Carol Lavell is the $25,000 Carol Lavell Advanced Dressage Prize, which provides financial assistance for coaching and training to talented, committed, proven horse and rider combinations with plans to reach and excel at the elite, international standards of high-performance dressage. Horse and rider combinations should be competing at U-25, Intermediate 2, and/or Grand Prix. Up to two Prizes may be awarded annually.