Dressage Canada and Desi Dillingham, in her role as Special Advisor, announced on Oct. 8 the appointment of the very popular and internationally experienced Victoria Winter, as the Chef d’Equipe to lead the Canadian Dressage Team heading for the World Equestrian Games in Normandy. Winter is the first member to be appointed as part of the “Team of Experts” to help Canadian dressage riders reach their personal best scores in their world class campaign.
“Victoria is well respected, popular with the riders and has the perfect background to fill this role,” stated Dillingham. Her international experience started when she groomed for Cindy Ishoy and Dynasty from 1986 to 1988 during their finest hours at the international level ending with the Olympic team bronze medal at the 1988 Seoul Olympics. As a rider, Winter won individual and team bronze at the 1995 Pan American Games in Argentina and represented Canada as a member of the Canadian dressage team at the World Equestrian Games in Rome (1998) and Kentucky (2010).
In addition to this very impressive background, Victoria was chef d’equipe of Canada’s dressage team for the 2003 Pan American Games in the Dominican Republic, where Canada won individual gold and team silver.
Winter is a partner with the Toronto based Law Firm, Beard Winter LLB and a member of the Board of Directors of the 2015 Pan American Games which will be held in Toronto, Canada. She has a 7-year-old daughter and her husband Curt Harnett, is a four-time Olympian in track cycling where he won silver and two bronze medals for Canada.
“I am honored to take on the role of chef d’equipe for the Canadian Dressage Team for the 2014 WEG and look forward to working with our athletes to help them achieve their best ever performances and success for Canada” said Winter.
On Sept. 12, Equine Canada Equine Canada is pleased to announce that Desi Dillingham, MBE, Special Advisor (Dressage), has graciously agreed to spearhead building and leading a team of experts to design and implement programs for Canada’s current and future international dressage stars.
After an in-depth review and interview process to fill the role of Technical Advisor / Chef d’Equipe for dressage, it was decided not to proceed with filling the role at this time, and that the best course of action for the future of dressage, is to draw upon Canada’s own immense pool of expertise and diverse resources. The goal is to create a team that will work collectively to design and implement world-class programs supporting the efforts put forth by Canadian athletes in their quest to represent their country at the highest levels of competition.
We are grateful to those candidates who put forward their applications for consideration for the role of Technical Advisor / Chef d’Equipe and wish to express our thanks for their commitment to our athletes and the development of the sport in Canada.
“Equine Canada is excited to have Desi working with dressage in this new expanded role,” said Christine Peters, Manager of Dressage at Equine Canada. “The next 11 months leading up to the World Equestrian Games will be extremely busy and having Desi and her vast experience to draw on will help Canada continue to raise the bar and once again be competitive on the world stage. Realizing these goals will take extraordinary effort and commitment from everyone involved. By building on the current momentum in collaboration with our athletes, owners and industry experts we can pull together a strong team to design programs which will identify, support and develop not only our current stars but also next generation athletes.”
Dillingham will work in collaboration with the Dressage Canada High Performance Committee, Youth High Performance Committee, and the fundraising groups, to identify individual experts to assume specific roles within the new team. Her depth of knowledge and experience in the sport, and her expansive connections with the international equestrian industry will be of immense benefit and instrumental in forming an innovative team.
