US Olympic eventing rider Liz Halliday was named USEF 2024 International Equestrian of the Year during the 2024 Pegasus Award Dinner at the USEF Annual Meeting in Lexington, Kentucky on January 23rd 2025.
In late 2024, Liz sustained a serious head injury competing in the American Eventing Championships at the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington, KY and is currently continuing her rehabilitation and recovery at the Shirley Ryan AbilityLab in Chicago. Her family asked Erin Sudikas, an emergency room nurse at the University of Kentucky, who was a volunteer at the American Eventing Championships, to accept the William C. Steinkraus Trophy, which is presented to an equestrian competing in the Olympic disciplines of dressage, eventing, or show jumping, on her behalf.
It is a fitting award for the well-known California-born rider, who moved to England in 2000 to work for William Fox-Pitt and then based her operation in the UK and Europe before returning to the USA to base at Blue Fox Farm in Lexington, Kentucky.
Taking part at her first CCI5*-L in 2016 at the Kentucky Three Day Event, Liz went on to successfully compete with many horses at all levels, including a Nations Cup win at Bromont in 2022 riding Miks Master C and a team silver medal at the 2023 Pan American Games in Santiago, Chile.
Several top results in 2024 with both Cooley Nutcracker and Miks Master C resulted in Liz and Cooley Nutcracker being named as travelling reserves for the 2024 Paris Olympic Games and eventually making their Olympic debut, finishing 19th overall in individual competition.
