He combines years of management experience with a strong equestrian background and cheerful outlook to keep dressage championships nearly drama free.

Top U.S. dressage riders know and appreciate Gil Merrick’s smiling face and positive, can-do attitude. But for most dressage enthusiasts, the assistant executive director of sport programs for the U.S. Equestrian Federation is a complete unknown.

Merrick is the man behind the scenes for the U.S. dressage team, whether at a national or international championship. When the riders receive accolades for a top-notch performance, Merrick is cheering from the sidelines. But without him, those same riders might never make it down centerline.

“Ultimately, the team leader is responsible for all of the logistics of the tour,” said Merrick. “My job is to remove everything, so all the athletes have to do is focus on their competition.”

And that’s just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Merrick’s responsibilities. From young horses and junior riders to high performance athletes, Merrick is involved. His duties include coordinating the work of the different dressage committees and acting as liaison between the USEF, the high performance committees, the national coach and the riders.

He initially signed on with USEF as the managing director for dressage in 2005, but less than six months later his job description had been extended to high performance dressage director. He managed his first team at the 2006 World Equestrian Games. Then in 2009 he was promoted to his current title: assistant executive director of sport programs.

“Gil is a terrific communicator. He’s very good at giving information to people in a concise and accurate way. It makes him a great leader,” said Jim Wolf, his current boss and the executive director of sport programs. “He has a lot of managerial experience and knowledge of the equestrian world. It was very important for me to have someone directly under me in that position working with the sport program team in the Lexington office. He was the obvious choice.”

“Because the dressage team is such a strong team—Maureen Pethick, Jenny Van Wieren and Jennifer Keeler—I was able to accept additional responsibilities. They do such a great job of managing the sport,” said Merrick. “[In my new position,] I keep all of my responsibilities as managing director of dressage. But now I get to get involved with reining, combined driving, vaulting and endurance, parts of the sport I don’t know as much about as I do dressage. I’m really looking forward to it.”

A Solid Foundation

Merrick’s interest in horses began as an 11-year-old in Shaker Heights, Ohio. He attended the Red Raider Camp and dabbled in many disciplines, including dressage, cross-country riding, trail riding and jumping.

“When I was 14, Joe Brooks came to Red Raider Camp, and he was a dressage instructor,” recalled Merrick. “He introduced me to dressage, and I was hooked, although I continued to jump for a while. He was also a big proponent of vaulting, so I started vaulting and did that for six years.”

That childhood association with Brooks had a big impact on Merrick’s life, as it was Brooks who suggested he learn German and go to Germany to further his equestrian education. Merrick attended Hiram College in Hiram, Ohio, and declared a double major in business management and German.

Merrick spent his sophomore year abroad in Germany, where he met Rosemarie Springer, a former member of the German Olympic dressage team.

“She invited me to come and stay at her estate. She had a Trakehner breeding farm at the time. Gerd Reuter was her Bereiter. In the morning you mucked the stalls, groomed the horses and did all the work. Then you bounced around on 3-year-old stallions,” said Merrick. “If you survived all that, then in the afternoon you could have a lesson with Rosemarie Springer on one of her Grand Prix horses. It was a phenomenal opportunity.”

Springer also suggested Merrick take the amateur riders instructor course in Warendorf at the German riding school and the summer dressage program in Verden at the Hanoverian riding and driving school.

“I got a really great education at an early age about the German system of training and how their schools work,” said Merrick.

He continued riding as a hobby after college, but he took a break when he achieved his master’s degree in international marketing and finance in 1983 and moved to New York City. It wasn’t until 1989, when he relocated to Germany to work for Goldwell AG, that he returned to horses.

“I was based in Darmstadt, Germany, and since I was back in Germany, I was able to get back in the saddle and start riding some more,” said Merrick. “That company transferred me to Australia in 1990. That was a life-changing experience for me because I met Major Miguel Tavora, who is a lifetime friend and student of Nuno Oliveira. He encouraged me to buy a 3-year-old Trakehner and to learn from the very beginning how to take a horse from the breaking stage all the way through Grand Prix. I watched him train every day. I consider him to be one of the last true masters of classical equitation. I worked with him for seven years and got a wonderful education.”

Merrick briefly flirted with turning his equestrian passion into a career, and from 2000 to 2002 he ran his own riding academy and horse sales business.

“I didn’t like it. I turned my avocation into my vocation,” said Merrick. “I didn’t want to have to sell horses to pay the rent or to have to teach people who weren’t very committed as students. I’m much happier now. My role is a manager. I get to go to all of these wonderful events and be around the horses and the training. But when I go in the ring to ride or to teach, it’s just for pleasure.”

Merrick joined the USEF after working as the vice president of operations and member services for the National Health Council in Washington, D.C.

“The job was fine, but I was living in a big city and was disconnected from horses,” he said. “I saw that the USEF had advertised for a managing director of dressage sport programs. I felt with two years of management experience of a not-for-profit that I had something to bring that would be interesting. Then, with my horse background and my business background, it seemed to me like a good fit.”

Thrown Off The Deep End

The job Merrick took in October of 2005 was an oversight and coordination role, but all of that changed in June of 2006 when Marilyn Adams, the high performance dressage director, decided to leave for personal reasons. Suddenly, Merrick found himself in charge of taking a team to Aachen, Germany, for the WEG.

“My fear, because I had no education, was that I would make a mistake that would have a negative impact on a horse and rider. I tried to ask a lot of questions, look ahead and not make a mistake,” said Merrick. “Jim Wolf gave me every assurance that he would take me under his wing and show me what’s needed. We had a great group of athletes.”

Merrick did have an ace in his pocket when it came to German travel and communication with Klaus Balkenhol, the Germany-based U.S. coach—he was fluent in the language and comfortable in the country.

“Having learned German in school has served me throughout my entire life,” said Merrick. “So much of our sport internationally occurs in Germany. It’s allowed me to develop a wonderful relationship with the Balkenhol family. I’m comfortable at events like Aachen. It also gives our athletes a level of confidence that the person who is managing the logistics speaks the native language.”

That first trip went off without many glitches, and since then Merrick has worked with teams going to the Pan American Games in Rio de Janeiro and the 2008 Olympic Games in Hong Kong.

“Gil is unflappable, whether it’s officials ranting or raving dressage owners. He’s very calm. People’s tensions get high, and he’s completely unruffleable. He always knows where to put the fainting couch,” said Wolf.

The team leader is responsible for all of the logistics of a tour with the team.

“It starts with partnering with our committees to draft the selection procedures,” explained Merrick. “The first job is to make sure the selection procedures are followed to the letter. From the time the team is named, it’s logistics and administration. I’m in charge of getting the athletes, grooms, their partners, horse owners, veterinarians, farriers, physiotherapists and the horses where they need to be when they need to be there.

“In the case of the Olympics, I left Lexington on June 6 to go out to San Juan Capistrano and hook up with Klaus Balkenhol for the selection trials in California. I didn’t return home until Aug. 26,” Merrick continued.

While he tries to plan for every contingency, some problems can’tbe avoided. Merrick remembered a particularly stressful moment in Rio when the horses arrived at 1 a.m. at the airport.

“We were looking through a metal fence. We could see the horses out in the containers on the tarmac. We were sitting on the other side with the horse van,” he said. “We’re tired, we’ve arrived, and it took four hours for Dr. Rick Mitchell and Tim Dutta to negotiate the release of the horses. When the horses finally got on the truck it was 5:30 in the morning. The sun was coming up. It’s hot, it’s Brazil, and it doesn’t smell like the U.S. You’re very aware that you’re at the event, but you just can’t get to the horses.”

Merrick’s cool head in situations like that is exactly what makes him a good fit for his job.

“It’s high stress when you’re on the road with the team. Gil’s very calm demeanor is helpful,” said Courtney King-Dye. “He’s so patient in every enterprise he takes on. He’s smart, tactical and tactful. He’s done a great job for me and the people I’ve been with. It’s not an easy job to organize a whole team and deal with all of the different personalities. I think we’re pretty lucky.”

“He’s great about keeping everybody as happy as possible and trying to get through the situation and get everybody whatever they need, whether that’s a ride someplace and parking or passes,” agreed Debbie McDonald. “That’s a 24/7 job when you’re on the road with the team. I don’t know anybody who would want that position. I don’t think he gets enough credit. Almost everybody who is on the team thinks it’s all about him.”

Hidden Rewards

Despite the long hours, difficult personalities and demanding time commitments, Merrick experiences a few perks of the job that make it worthwhile.

“You’re standing next to the final warm-up ring before your rider goes in to compete. He or she goes down the chute, and you’re with the group that’s walking up behind them. The excitement mounts as you watch them go, and then you see it culminate in something like Steffen Peters’ freestyle on Ravel [at the Olympic Games]. The job is lots of hours and lots of work, but that’s where the reward comes. It’s a thrill that’s hard to explain,” said Merrick.

And then there are the relationships he’s built.

“I grew up as a dressage rider with Debbie [McDonald], Steffen [Peters], Robert [Dover], Guenter [Seidel] and Hilda [Gurney]—they were my heroes. Now these people are my friends in many cases,” he said. “That’s the best part of the job—when you get to become friends with your heroes.”

And it’s not just the riders.

“Some of my fondest moments from the Olympics were just being in the stables when things were quiet— walking up and standing next to Ravel, Brentina, Neruda and Mythilus. I could look in their eye, have a quiet moment with them and touch them. Just to get to know the horses as their personalities, that’s really special. That’s why I keep doing it.”

This job, which combines his love of horses with his professional experience, has created a compromise Merrick has sought for many years.

“For me, it’s always been career first, and then my own riding and teaching second,” he said. “When you’re working as an international controller at a big company you don’t feel very connected to the horses. Now I’m never disconnected from the sport.”