Good Things Come in Threes for Liz Halliday-Sharp

With six horses to compete at the Hagyard MidSouth Three-Day Event and Team Challenge, Liz Halliday-Sharp had precious little time to think of anything besides the competition. Then she heard two bits of exciting news: the United States Equestrian Team announced that Liz would be the 2020 recipient of the USET Jacqueline B. Mars National Competition and Training Grant, and the United States Eventing Association (USEA) appointed Liz team captain for the upcoming Adequan® USEF Futures Team Challenge–West Coast.

Undaunted by the news, Liz added to her list of CCI wins for the year, piloting Cooley Stormwater to the top spot of the CCI3*-L division. “Seven-year-old Cooley Stormwater just went and won his first CCI3*-L at the Kentucky Horse Park, adding just 0.4 time faults cross-country to his dressage score,” she said in a Facebook post. “He truly fought for me from start to finish, and I am so very proud of how far he has come! This is so exciting for his owners and all of us who have known him from the time I found the green four-year-old at Cooley Farm in Ireland three years ago. To say I am proud is an understatement!”

Liz also finished seventh in the CCI3*-L with Cooley Be Cool, fourth and seventh in the CCI3*-S with Cooley Quicksilver and Flash Cooley, respectively, fifth in the CCI2*-L with Maryville Sir Henry, and fourth in Open Preliminary A with Cooley HHS Calmaria.

Liz’s success in 2019 earned her a spot on the USEF Eventing High Performance Pre-Elite Training List, opening up opportunities like the USET Jacqueline B. Mars National Competition and Training Grant and the USEF Futures Team Challenge. “Each year, the Jacqueline B. Mars Grant is awarded to eventing riders who have been identified and recommended by the USEF Eventing Selectors, with an impressive record and the potential to represent the United States in future international competition,” said the USEA in a news release announcing the grant.

Liz will use the $10,000 grant to offset travel expenses to attend the USEF Futures Team Challenge-West Coast with Cooley Quicksilver, which will be held at the CCI4*-L at the Galway Downs International Three-Day Event in Temecula, California.

“I think next year we’ll start to think about five-star competition for [Cooley Quicksilver],” Liz told the USEA. “I very much hope he’ll be considered for the Olympic Games, and that’s part of our reasoning for going to Galway.”

Liz relies on Bio-Bloom™ PS, EO-3™, EquiShure®, Nano-Q10™, Restore® SR, RiteTrac®, and Synovate HA® to give her horses targeted nutritional support for optimal performance. “KER Targeted Nutrition products are a huge part of our feeding regimen,” she said. “The products never let me or the horses down! Their supplements make an immediate difference and the science behind them is incredible. It is important to work with a company that cares just as much about their products as I do about my horses. I have been using them for years and cannot recommend them enough.”