The nominees for the 2024 USEF Horse of the Year and Equestrian of the Year Awards have been announced, and eventers are well-represented with two nominations.
Vying for International Equestrian of the Year is Liz Halliday, whose slew of strong results eventually earned her a berth on the Paris Olympic squad. We continue to keep Liz actively in our thoughts as she continues to fight her way back from a traumatic brain injury sustained in a fall at AECs in August.
Liz’s profile for this award reads as follows:
Elisabeth “Liz” Halliday began riding when she was 8 years old as a member of the United States Pony Club. The California native moved to England in 2000 to work for famed eventer William Fox-Pitt and was based in Europe for many years before bringing her operation to the U.S. with locations in Ocala, Florida, and Lexington, Kentucky, in 2020.
Halliday achieved her first CCI5*-L completion in 2016 at the Kentucky Three-Day Event with Deborah Halliday’s HHS Cooley. She has also brought numerous horses to top-ten finishes at the level, including Ocala Horse Properties, LLC’s Deniro Z, The Monster Partnership’s Cooley Quicksilver, and The Nutcracker Syndicate’s Cooley Nutcracker. Halliday has represented the U.S. Eventing Team in several FEI Nations Cup competitions, including the 2022 CCIO4*-S at Bromont in Canada, where she rode Miks Master C to individual victory and led the U.S. team to secure the win.
In 2023, the pair saw success at CHIO Aachen with a 5th place finish in the CCIO4*-S and they went on to be a part of the silver medal-winning team at the Pan American Games in Santiago, Chile.
Halliday continued her consistency in 2024, marking several top results with both Cooley Nutcracker and Miks Master C, with a top-ten finish coming for Cooley Nutcracker at the Kentucky Three-Day Event CCI5*-L in April, as well as a top-twenty finish at CHIO Aachen CCIO4*-S with Shanroe Cooley in July, contributing to the U.S. Team’s second-place finish. The pair were named as traveling reserves for the 2024 Paris Olympic Games. Halliday and Cooley Nutcracker went on to make their Olympic debut, finishing 19th overall in individual competition.
Also in contention for the eventers, competing for International Horse of the Year, is the Diabolo Group’s Diabolo, who is ridden by Will Coleman. Diabolo has come to be a standout in Will’s program, collecting a win in the Cosequin Lexington CCI4*-S in April en route to being named as Will’s direct reserve for Paris.
Diabolo’s profile for the award reads:
Joining Will Coleman’s string of competition horses in 2023, Diabolo, owned by the Diabolo Group, is familiar with the top of the leaderboard at eventing competitions. The 2012 Holsteiner gelding began his FEI career in Australia with Stuart Tinney, who then passed on the ride to daughter Gemma Tinney. Diabolo competed through the CCI4*-L level in Australia before coming to the U.S. where his success has continued under Coleman’s wing.
With 24 FEI starts, Diabolo has only finished outside of the top ten at two events.
Together, Diabolo and Coleman have had two first-place finishes at the CCI4*-S level in 2024. The pair captured the win at the Lexington CCI4*-S in April on their dressage score of 29.9, being the only combination to go double clear in both the cross country and show jumping phases.
Diabolo was selected to be Coleman’s alternate mount for the Paris Olympic Games where he did not contend, though shortly after went on to win the $60,000 Adequan Advanced Final at the USEA American Eventing Championships in August. Their success this year did not stop there, as Diabolo and Coleman capped off the competition year winning the CCI4*-S at Plantation Field International in September.
There are many noteworthy horses and riders in the running for these awards, so you can learn more about the horse nominees here and the rider nominees here.
Voting will run through 11:59 p.m. ET on December 31, 2024. Click here to cast your vote.
The USEF International and National Equestrians of the Year will be named on Thursday, January 23, 2025, during the Pegasus Awards Dinner at the 2025 US Equestrian Annual Meeting in Lexington, Ky. The International and National Horses of the Year will be named on January 25, 2024, at the SmartPak/USEF Horse of the Year Awards Dinner.
