​

​

Domenico Lomuto
 

For over 20 years, Domenico Lomuto has demonstrated a passion for marketing communications, advertising, visual arts, and horses through his many endeavors with companies and agencies around the world. Born in Rome on September 5, 1971, Domenico graduated from the French Lycée Chateaubriand High School there. He later earned a Master’s degree in Communication Sciences and Visual Arts from the European Institute of Design in Milan.
 

In 1998, he won the Francis Gamichon award for Best Young European Advertising Photographer in Paris and was off to work for two years at Ogilvy & Mather Advertising Agency in New York. Never one to limit himself and after years in the industry, he later founded Cromo, a marketing and promotional company. Between 2014 and 2016 the company expanded to offices in Rome and Milan, as well as international offices in Hong Kong and Guangzhou with over 100 employees. Cromo boasted many well-known Italian and worldwide B2B brands including Barilla, Walt Disney, Nintendo, Eni, Sony PlayStation, Telecom Italia, and Sky Television.
 

Following his passion for horses, Domenico founded Slide or Die LLC in Texas in 2013. What started as a small horse breeding company turned into an organization which led to the success of horses including Centenario Wimpy, Chexmaster, and the most famous, Inferno Sixty-Six (today one of the hottest young stallions in the reining industry worldwide). Combining his passions for marketing communication and horses, Domenico was in charge of the management for the candidature of Italy and specifically of Elementa to host the World Equestrian Games in 2022.


Elisa Wallace

 

Elisa Wallace is a 5 star three-day event rider, YouTuber, and advocate for American Mustang adoption, off the track thoroughbreds, rider safety, and women in sport. She was listed as an alternate for the 2016 US Olympic team, and continues to work toward achieving her life-long dream of representing the USA in international competition. Elisa is passionate about her work with American mustangs, aimed at demonstrating the potential of this misunderstood breed by developing one up to the Advanced level in the sport of three-day eventing.

​

Jeff Petska

 

Jeff Petska has served as Chef de Equipe for Team U.S.A Reining since the inaugural year in 2002 at the FEI World Equestrian Games to present. In that time span, Team USA has won gold at 5 World Equestrian Games, as well as numerous medals at World Championships and Nations Cups. Also, he has served as Chef with Team Gold in the Junior World Championships and Bronze in Young riders. 

He has been involved in training, as well as, breeding top performance Quarter Horses for over 35 years and has worked for some of the top breeders in the business including the famous Pitzer Ranch in Ericson, Nebraska  where they run over 400 broodmares. Also, he has worked for the Rose Ranch/ Carol Rose in Gainesville,TX. This experience and exposure to top breeding and bloodlines, as well as, the influence of some of the greatest horsemen of our time;  has helped to shape his breeding program, as well as, training philosophy. 
 

Jeff currently operates Petska Performance Horses and Whitesboro Equine Therapy with his wife, Lisa, in Whitesboro, TX. Where they breed, train and manage over 50 head of horses. 

Jeff is also an NRHA and AQHA approved judge and has judged every major NRHA and  AQHA event including the AQHA World Show, Youth World, Select World, NRHA futurity,Congress and NRBC.
 

Karen O'Connor
 

Karen Lende O’Connor has competed in five Olympic Games, three World Equestrian Games, and two Pan American Games. In 1993, O’Connor was the number one ranked lady rider in the world and she has been named U.S. Female Equestrian Athlete of the Year 10 times.

O’Connor began competing internationally in the late 1970s and began riding with the U.S. Equestrian Team in 1986 at the World Championships in Gawler, Australia, where she rode Lutin V. In the 1980s she won multiple CCI3* events and rode for the U.S. in the 1988 Olympics in Seoul, South Korea.

During the 1990s, O’Connor and her USEA's Eventing Hall of Fame partner Biko were mainstays of the U.S. team, riding to multiple top-10 finishes at major international events including the Badminton Horse Trials and Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event. O’Connor rode Biko at the 1994 World Equestrian Games and the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia, where they were part of the silver medal team. O’Connor went on to ride Prince Panache at the 1998 World Equestrian Games, where the U.S. team won the bronze medal. Shortly after that, the pair won the 1999 Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event. At the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, Australia, O’Connor and Prince Panache were members of the bronze medal team.
 

In the early 2000s, O’Connor found international success with her mount Joker’s Wild, winning the individual silver medal at the 2003 Pan American Games, and with Upstage, whom she competed with at the 2006 World Equestrian Games in Aachen, Germany. O’Connor also found success aboard the 14.1 hand Sport Pony Theodore O’Connor, finishing third at the 2007 Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event and sixth there again in 2008. At the 2007 Pan American Games, O’Connor and Teddy won individual gold and team gold. O’Connor piloted Mandiba through the 2008 Olympics in Hong Kong, China and then together represented the U.S. at the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games in Lexington, Kentucky in 2010.

In 2011, O’Connor triumphed in many events with her mounts Veronica and Mr. Medicott. She finished ninth at the 2012 Olympics in London, England with Mr. Medicott, where O’Connor was the highest-ranking U.S. rider at the Games that year. O’Connor was also noted as the oldest Olympian to represent the U.S. in any sport at the London Games, paying tribute to her lifetime fitness programs and dedication to the sport.
 

Laine Ashker

​

Laine started riding when she was two and owned her first pony at age three in Shingle Springs, CA. Before she was out of grammar school, she became a member of US Pony Club where she achieved C1 rating and competing up to training level at area competitions. By age thirteen, Laine knew she wanted to be a professional so the family moved to Virginia in order to be closer to the Eventing Mecca. 

 

She has since represented the United States in the Junior Olympics where she was awarded the Silver Medal twice and the Bronze Medal three times. She was also part of the test event in Hong Kong in 2007 on her horse, Anthony Patch.

 

Anthony Patch is an off the track Thoroughbred, bred and trained by Tom Swales of Tee-N-Jay Farm in New Jersey. Laine purchased "Al" from Lauren and Paul Tjaden as a four year old, lightly raced project while in college. Fast forward twelve years, Laine and Al have become a formidable pair in the sport of eventing. Together they have competed at Rolex CCI**** four times with their best placing in 2010 when they took home an 8th place ribbon in additional to the highest placed owner and rider award. Most recently, Laine and Al were reserve Advanced National Champions at the AECs in 2012 and 2014 and were National Advanced Champions when they brought home the win at the AECs in 2013 held in Tyler, Texas.

 

Laine takes pride in bringing up her horses herself, along with help from her mother, and longtime coach of fifteen years, Buck Davidson. She has brought three horses to the **** level, all that she started straight off of the racetrack. In additional to competing at the top levels in eventing, Laine competes at the FEI level in dressage (Intermediate 1 currently) on Santiago del Escarvido, an Andulusian gelding owned by Ann Wilson who Laine has had the opportunity to bring up the levels.

 

Laine’s other accomplishments include being on the Dean’s List at the University of Virginia, completing the Business Class Accelerated Program at the Robins School of Business at the University of Richmond, and singing the national anthem with her mother at a number of professional sporting events. Laine has also co-founded Brushfire Media with her father and a fellow Business Class Accelerated Program graduate.

 

Laine has recently gotten involved in the "mudder" races as part of her fitness program and is looking forward to doing more! Additionally, Laine has earned her USDF Gold Medal for her Grand Prix performances

​

Vicki Castegren
 

Vicky discovered her passion for horses at summer camp in Vermont when she was 9 years old. It would be years of riding and equine education that would bring her to realize her dreams of owning and operating a horse farm. 

 

After graduating college in 1999, Vicky founded Winterhaven Stables, LLC as a sport and sales barn. In 2009 the operation transformed into Hyperion Stud and with that came a whole new mission. That new mission included a deeper focus on the breeding aspect of the industry along with the development of young horses. 

 

In sport, Vicky has raised and developed horses that have competed at the top level of sport, World Championships, Nations Cups and Olympic Games. In breeding, Hyperion Stud’s operation has produced Champion and Premium foals, States Premium and Elite mares, and approved stallions. To this day Vicky is the only US breeder to have a stallion approved by the Zangersheide Studbook in Belgium. In 2019, her stallion Urthago (v.Uriko/Casall/My Lord Carthago) was approved buy the Holsteiner Verband in Germany.  This puts her as one of the very few American breeders to achieve this distinction in the history of the studbook. 

 

In the last ten years Vicky has developed Hyperion Stud into one of the top breeding operations in the U.S. With a growing global operation, Vicky hopes that the quality of her breeding operation will continue to grow and inspire the next generation of breeders to be a part of the foundation of equestrian sport.