Gil Merrick, an experienced dressage rider and trainer with more than 25 years\’ experience in corporate management, began his new position as the U.S. Equestrian Federation\’s director of dressage sport programs on Oct. 11. Merrick, 48, will work at the USEF\’s Lexington, Ky., office.

Merrick will be responsible for coordinating all of the USEF\’s national and international dressage activities. Marilyn Adams, who manages the USEF\’s dressage high-performance program at the Gladstone, N.J., office, and Jennifer Keeler, who manages the national programs in Lexington, will report to him. Merrick will report to Jim Wolf, the executive director of sport programs.

Merrick grew up in northeast Ohio, first competing in hunters, jumpers and eventing, and “I was very active in vaulting,” he said. As a teenager he worked with dressage trainers Ingeborg Swensen and Joe Brooks, and while attending Hiram College (double-majoring in business and German), he spent a summer in Germany and trained with Rosemarie Springer.

After college, he spent 20 years in the financial departments of two German-owned firms, and in 2000 “I decided to turn my avocation into a vocation” by opening a training stable in Menlo Park, Calif. But he decided he preferred riding for himself and returned to the corporate world for two years before applying for the USEF position.

“I\’m in the phase now where I\’m really still orienting myself to all the programs and organizations we deal with,” said Merrick. “And I certainly want to hear from the dressage community about what we can do.”