McDonald served as US Equestrian’s Dressage Development Coach before taking on the Technical Advisor role. She has spent over a decade advancing athlete-and-horse combinations through the U.S. dressage pipeline. Her success has proved contagious as a personal coach having guided three of her athletes and their horses to the Olympics, including 2012 London participants Adrienne Lyle and Wizard and Rio 2016 team bronze medalists Laura Graves and Verdades and Kasey Perry-Glass and Gorklintgaards Dublet. As an athlete, McDonald heavily contributed to U.S. Dressage’s early accomplishments due to her impressive achievements with the chestnut Hanoverian mare Brentina. Their string of accolades included a 1999 Pan American Games team and individual gold medal, an Athens 2004 Olympic team bronze medal, a WEG 2002 team silver and 2006 team bronze medal, and was the first American to win a FEI World Cup Dressage Final in 2003.

Ashley Holzer was a staple in the Canadian dressage community for nearly four decades. Her accolades as part of Team Canada include four trips to the Olympic Games (London 2012, Beijing 2008, Athens 2004, and Seoul 1988, where she won her team bronze medal) and as a three-time Canadian WEG competitor (Lexington, Ky., 2010; Aachen, Germany, 2006; and Jerez de la Frontera, Spain, 2002).

In 2017, Holzer officially declared she would ride for the U.S. Dressage Team. With Havanna 145, she was part of the gold medal-winning team at the FEI Dressage Nations Cup™ USA CDIO3* in Wellington, Fla. She repeated the feat the following year, assisting the team to a gold medal at the 2019 FEI Dressage Nations Cup USA CDIO3* with Valentine.

In early 2022, Holzer earned wins with Valentine in the FEI Grand Prix at Palm Beach Dressage Derby and in the CDI3* FEI Grand Prix and Grand Prix Special  at AGDF 11. She traveled to Leipzig, Germany, for the FEI Dressage World Cup™ Final with Havanna 145, where they finished in the top 10 in both the FEI Short Grand Prix and the Grand Prix Freestyle to Music. With Valentine, Holzer was part of the silver medal-winning team at the 2022 FEI Dressage Nations Cup The Netherlands in Rotterdam, where they finished third individually in the Grand Prix and fifth in the Grand Prix Freestyle.

Danish-born Charlotte Jorst began taking riding lessons at the age of 35, which is highly unusual for a rider of her level. It was not until after selling Skagen, her family-owned watch company, to Fossil that Jorst seriously focused on her riding career.

Jorst quickly cemented herself as one of the leading dressage adult amateurs. In 2013, she picked up numerous prestigious placings, including the Markel/USEF Western Young Horse Selection Trials Championship, the Markel/USEF Six-Year-Old National Championship with Kastel’s Vitalis, and the Markel/USEF Developing Prix St. Georges Championship with Kastel’s Adventure. She and Kastel’s Vitalis were the U.S. representatives at the 2013 FEI World Breeding Dressage Championships for Young Horses. In 2015, Jorst competed in her first Nations Cup at CDIO5* Rotterdam. She and Kastel's Nintendo placed third in the Grand Prix Special, helping the U.S. earn a team bronze medal.

In 2016, Jorst and Kastel’s Nintendo competed at the 2016 FEI Dressage World Cup Finals. Two years later, the pair achieved another milestone by winning the USEF Grand Prix Dressage National Championship at the 2018 U.S. Dressage Festival of Champions.

Jorst was part of the gold-medal winning team at the 2019 FEI Dressage Nations Cup USA with Kastel’s Nintendo. In the fall of 2020, the pair won four CDI-W classes at the Desert International Horse Park. In 2021, Jorst and Kastel’s Nintendo won the CDI3* Grand Prix and Grand Prix Freestyle during week 12 of the Adequan® Global Dressage Festival. 

In the midst of her training, Jorst was diagnosed with skin cancer twice. Not wanting to risk a third diagnosis, Jorst created a UV-protective clothing line, Kastel Denmark. The business is so popular that she conducts business on the road around her competition schedule. Jorst likes to balance her riding time and involvement with Kastel Denmark by spending time with her daughters, Camilla and Christine.