The jumping community always knew Robert Ridland as a great rider, but now they also see him as the brilliant, strategic mind guiding the U.S. Jumping Team to unprecedented success. Ridland brings several decades of international experience, both as a rider and coach, to the Chef d'Equipe position.

As an athlete, Ridland competed in the Montreal 1976 Olympic Games and won several grand prix competitions throughout his riding career. Ridland has been extensively involved in the governance of the sport, including several terms as a board member of US Equestrian and the United States Equestrian Team Foundation.

Ridland's vast experience as an international course designer helped shaped his analytical approach to the sport. He won the Course Designer of the Year Award twice while building the courses for the U.S. Olympic Trials and numerous international competitions. As an international official, he was the only American to have served as the FEI Technical Delegate for four FEI World Cup Finals. As a television commentator, he worked for many years as the color analyst for ESPN and CBS, as well as two stints for NBC at the Barcelona and Athens Olympic Games.

Since being named the U.S. Jumping Chef d’Equipe/Technical Advisor in 2013, Ridland has led the U.S. team to team bronze medals at the 2014 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games, and team gold at the 2018 World Equestrian Games in Tryon, N.C. Under his guidance the team has medaled at the Toronto 2015 Pan American Games, 2019 Lima Pan American Games, and most recently secured team gold at the Santiago 2023 Pan American Games. The U.S. Jumping Team has earned three consecutive team silver medals in the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games, and 2024 Paris Olympic Games. 

Natalie Dean started riding horses at a young age and quickly decided to focus her career in the jumping ring. She competed at three FEI North American Youth Championships, winning team bronze in 2017, team silver in 2018, and team silver and individual bronze in 2019. Dean and Don's Diamant were members of the U.S. Young Rider Team who earned gold in the 2019 FEI Jumping Nations Cup™ Youth Final CSIOY in Opglabbeek, Belgium.

In 2021, Dean made her debut with the NetJets® U.S. Jumping Team at the Spruce Meadows BMO Nations Cup CSIO5*, riding Chance Ste Hermelle and helping the team to a second-place finish. 

The following year, Dean rode Chance Ste Hermelle in the $150,000 FEI Jumping Nations Cup Wellington CSIO4*, helping the NetJets U.S. Jumping Team to a third-place finish.

In 2023, Dean again competed on the NetJets® U.S. Jumping Team in the $150,000 FEI Jumping Nations Cup Wellington CSIO4*, helping the team to a fifth-place finish while riding Acota M. Dean competed in her first FEI World Cup™ Finals in Omaha, Neb., riding rising star Acota M. Dean continued to build an impressive string of top FEI mounts, earning top finishes around the world.

The 2024 season proved to be a successful year for Dean. She started the year off strong with a win in the $31,020 BrainJuice U25 Grand Prix on Dotcom D'Authuit, followed by a win in the $62,500 FEI Hermès 1.50m CSI4* Grand Prix oboard Oasis van de Bucxtale. With top finishes in many of the major CSI5* Grand Prix classes in Wellington, Dean and Acota M were selected to the U.S. Jumping Team Olympic Short List for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. Dean and Acota M represented the U.S. Jumping Team at CHIO Aachen, where she also notched a top placing with Acota M in the RWE Prize of North Rhine-Westphalia, and rode for the team in the prestigious Mercedes-Benz Nations Cup. She finished the year with a win in the $2000,000 MLSL FEI 5* Team Competiton in Thermal, Calif. 

Lillie Keenan has represented the U.S. in international competitions including as part of Nations Cup teams at Bratislava (SLV) in 2014; Hickstead (GBR), Spruce Meadows (CAN), and the FEI Jumping Nations Cup Final in Barcelona in 2016; Ocala, Dublin (IRE), and Spruce Meadows in 2017; Wellington and Sopot (POL) in 2018; the FEI Jumping Nations Cup Final in Barcelona in 2021; and Rome (ITA), Wellington, Aachen (GER), and the ECCO FEI World Championships (DEN) in 2022. 

Keenan was a standout rider from the start, making headlines for sweeping all three divisions in the 2007 USEF Hunter Pony National Championship at age 10, and then repeated the feat the following year. In 2011, at age 14, she competed against professional athletes and bested the class to take the win in the $100,000 USHJA International Hunter Derby Finals. 

As an equitation rider, Keenan collected many of the sport’s top honors, including the inaugural Equitation Challenge at Old Salem Farm Spring Horse Show and the North American Junior Equitation Championship in 2012, The Excellence in Equitation Championship, the Equitation Classic, the USEF Hunter Seat Medal Finals, and the ASPCA Maclay Finals in 2013. 

Keenan has been a competitive jumper from an early age. She won team gold at the North American Youth Championship in 2012 and 2013 and individual gold in 2013. In 2013, she rode Pumped Up Kicks to a win in the $125,000 Grand Prix at HITS-on-the-Hudson. Her versatility and success led her to earn the title of USEF Junior Equestrian of the Year that year. 

Keenan’s recent top results include a third-place finish in the 2022 CSI5* Paris Grand Prix with Queensland E, as well as a win in the 2021 $37,000 FEI Adequan WEF Challenge Round 1 CSI3* with Argana Van Het Gerendal Z. Keenan won the Martha Jolicoeur Leading Lady Rider Award at the first week of the WEF in 2020.  

Keenan graduated from Harvard University in 2019 with a degree in History of Science. She currently trains with McLain Ward. 

As a junior rider, Spencer Smith competed at the FEI North American Youth Championships in 2012 and 2013 riding Skara Glen’s Voltan H and was the winner of the 2014 Pessoa/U.S. Hunter Seat Medal Finals. He competed as part of the winning U.S. Young Rider Team Nations Cup team riding IV Ever at WEF in 2015 where the pair also won the CSIOY Grand Prix.

Smith had a breakout year in 2018, representing the NetJets U.S. Jumping Team for the first time in the FEI Jumping Nations Cup Rome CSIO5*. That same year he won the first major Grand Prix of his career in the $132,000 Horseware Ireland Grand Prix CSI3* aboard his Selle Français gelding, Theodore Manciais. The pair went on to collect several more top placings in major international competition in 2018 and and 2019, including a win for the Massimo Dutti Trophy at the Global Champions League in Madrid. 

Spencer Smith represented the U.S. at the 2021 FEI Jumping Nations Cup Final CSIO5* in Barcelona, Spain, with Quibelle, where the pair were in impressive form. Later that year, Smith and Theodore Manciais marked another CSI5* win, earning a victory at the GCT/GCL CSI5* competition Samorin, Slovakia.

In 2022, Smith started the year off strong, winning the $140,000 Southern Arches Grand Prix CSI3* at WEF aboard Ayade Hero Z. Smith was selected to the short list for the 2022 FEI Jumping World Championships and represented the NetJets U.S. Jumping Team at CHIO Aachen and the FEI Jumping Nations Cup Ireland CSIO5*.

After taking over the ride on Keeneland in 2024, the pair have become one of the most consistent combinations for the U.S. Jumping Team representing the United States in the 2024 FEI Longines League of Nations St. Gallen CSIO5*, FEI Jumping Nations Cup Dublin CSIO5*, and the FEI Longines League of Nations Jumping Final CSIO5* in Barcelona, Spain. In Dublin, the duo's double clear helped push the U.S. to the top of the podium against an incredibly competitive field. 

Smith’s parents own and operate Ashland Farms, a hunter, jumper, and equitation stable with locations in Lexington, Ky., and Wellington, Fla.