The Elevate Event Team was born in the winter of 2015 on a sunny afternoon around a picnic table at Missy Ransehousen’s Blue Hill Farm in Ocala, Florida. The Team would allow Kentucky Performance Products to participate in the eventing world in a whole new way as an owner, with all the hopes and dreams of making it to the top of the sport.
Playing a key role in the Elevate Event Team plan is longtime Kentucky Performance Products-sponsored rider Megan Lynn and her coach Missy Ransehousen. “Megan is a natural with horses, Karen Isberg, Kentucky Performance Products owner, said. “She is a talented rider and a fearless competitor, but she and Missy always put the horse first, which is what I like most about working with them. We are just thrilled to have them as part of the team.”
Megan Lynn is a native of Versailles, Kentucky, where she resides on the family farm. She has been around horses since the day she was born and started eventing at age 12. Megan has a special talent for working with off-the-track Thoroughbreds. She has developed her own OTTB, Hoosier Daddy (Hoosier), to the two-star level with hopes of moving him up in the near future. Megan’s other OTTB, Have At It Playboy (Zekers), moved up to Training this year.
Along with training and competing her own horses, Megan rides outside horses, coaches students and holds down a job as an ophthalmic technician. Megan spends the winter in Florida with Missy Ransehousen. When her schedule allows, she trains with Missy and her mom, Jessica Ransehousen, at Blue Hill Farm in Pennsylvania.
The first order of business for the new Elevate Event Team was to find a horse. During a buying trip to Denmark with Sycamore Station’s Babsi Neidhardt-Clark and Martha Thomas, Megan was introduced to “Leo,” and the connection was immediate. Standing 17.2 hands, the fancy Danish warmblood gelding was bold and confident, and holy moly could he jump!
Everyone liked Leo — a lot — but he had never as much as seen a cross-country fence. It was a risk, but one that all involved felt worth taking, so Leo found himself on a plane headed for America. After a short stay at Blue Hill Farm in Pennsylvania, where Megan trains throughout the year with Missy and Jessica Ransehousen, Leo and Megan headed home to Kentucky.
“Leo has been a rock star ever since he arrived,” Megan said. The first time she schooled Leo cross country, he jumped everything: up and down off the bank, in and out of the water, and over the ditch. If he was unsure, he would just jump bigger as if to say, “No worries, Mom. I won’t let it get us.” He loved it. Megan loved him, and a partnership was born.
In mid-July, Megan and The Natural E, aka Leo, competed in their first horse trials, Champagne Run at the Kentucky Horse Park. They finished third in the Open Novice division with a lovely dressage test and clean rounds in both cross country and stadium. “We are so excited to be involved in the eventing community at this level,” Karen said of the Elevate Event Team’s first foray into ownership. “We can’t wait to see just how far this talented pair can go.”
Stayed tuned for more stories and updates from this exciting new team!