Deryol Andrews Named 2004 Dressage Canada Owner of the Year
(l-r) Deryol Andrews, Leslie Reid & Mark, Anne Welch and Stephen Clarke. Photo ©TetleyPhoto.com |
Andrews was recognized at a special presentation made during the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair Friday November 11 in Toronto Ontario. The award was doubly sweet as Andrew’s horse, the impressive 10-year-old Dutch Warmblood Mark, had just won the Canadian League World Cup Finals and Dressage Canada Grand Prix Freestyle Championships with rider Leslie Reid.
Deryol Andrews is best described as a self-made, entrepreneur businessman. He is currently owner and CEO of a portfolio of companies, including Colco International Ltd., a manufacturing company with factories around the world. Another company, and sponsor of Leslie Reid and Mark, is perhaps his favourite company: St John's Fishing Lodge, a 238 foot ferryboat completely renovated and transformed into a full service floating Fishing Lodge, based in the Camano Sound approximately 350 miles north of Vancouver, B.C.
Andrews became involved with dressage when he purchased Mark as a 3-year-old for his wife Marie, from DG Bar Ranch in California who imported Mark from Holland where he was bred. Leslie Reid was coaching Marie Andrews at the time, and assisted them in purchasing Mark. It quickly became apparent that Mark was top quality with potential to advance to FEI International competition. Mark was then given to Leslie Reid to train exclusively and develop to Grand Prix by 10 years of age. Deryol Andrews sponsored the pair throughout this time with St. John's Fishing Lodge for 6 years. St. John's Fishing Lodge hosted fundraisers to send Mark to Germany to train with Leslie for 6 months as a 6-year-old in order to help keep Mark on track for his Grand Prix training. When it comes to dressage training, Deryol admits; "I am a bit like a fish out of water". It is his trust and respect for Leslie Reid through the years which has now proven to be the right decision to develop Mark successfully to Grand Prix Level.
Reid and Mark were 2003 Pan Am Individual Gold and Team Silver Medalists in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. The pair then made the transition to Grand Prix in 2004 with fantastic success earning several scores over 70% which resulted in them earning a bye onto Canada's Olympic Dressage Team and riding in Athens. After a short break, they then went on to win the Canadian League World Cup Finals held during the Royal Winter Agricultural Winter Fair in Toronto, Ontario by making a clean sweep of both the Grand Prix and Grand Prix Freestyle classes. Not only did this crown them Dressage Canada Grand Prix Freestyle Champions but also made them Canada's representatives to the World Cup Finals being held in Las Vegas April 2005. Leslie Reid and Mark finished the year 2004 as the highest ranked Canadian rider in the FEI International World Rider Rankings.
Read a full profile on Deryol Andrews in the latest issue of Dressage Canada “Collections” magazine.
The winner of the 2003 award was Karen Soupcoff.
Dressage Canada, as a committee of Equine Canada, is the National governing body for Dressage in Canada. Dressage Canada's objective is to foster the growth of Dressage and the pursuit of excellence in the sport at the local, national and international levels. Dressage Canada provides support and guidance to both amateur and professional through the following programs: coaching education and programs, officials education and programs, rules & qualifying criteria, sport development, publications & awards. For more information about Dressage Canada email info@dressagecanada.org, or visit us online at www.dressagecanada.org