historical connection
Early Lifetime Achievement Award recipient was a volunteer extraordinaire
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very organization has a naysayer—a Gloomy Gus who mournfully pronounces every challenge insurmountable. If the organization is lucky, Gloomy Gus is countered by a thoughtful, pragmatic problem-solver who can be relied on to come up with innovative solutions to thorny issues. In the USDF and in his groupmember organization (GMO), the California Dressage Society (CDS), for many years that strategic thinker was Peter Lert.
A native of Germany who called California home for eight decades, Lert (1921-2012) was one of those dressage supporters whose contributions to the sport far exceeded his name recognition. Although he was a dressage judge, an American Horse Shows Association (now US Equestrian) Dressage Committee member, a USDF L faculty member, and a sporthorse breeder, among others, he didn’t enjoy widespread “marquee value” outside California—although he was respected by those who worked with him on committees, studied with him, or interacted with him during his many years as a fixture at USDF conventions. Lert was venerated in his home state as a charter CDS member who served multiple terms as CDS president, vice president, and board member. In 2003, the second year the honor was bestowed, Lert received the USDF Lifetime Achievement Award. Here’s why.
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INNOVATOR: Lert as a Region 7 delegate at the 2002 USDF convention
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here dressage in America was concerned, Lert got in on the ground floor. His family emigrated from Germany in 1932, when the boy was just 11. (The move was a rather glamorous one: Lert’s mother, Vicki Baum, was the author of the novel Grand Hotel, and the family came to the Golden State so Baum could work on the film adaptation. The fact that war in Europe was looming provided added incentive.) Lert, the product of famous and well-to-do parents—besides his mother, his father was the conductor Richard Lert—had been introduced to horses and riding in Europe, and he continued his interest in America, beginning at boarding school. He joined the US Army in 1942, during
October 2018 • USDF Connection
World War II, going on to graduate from the US Army Cavalry School at Fort Riley, Kansas, and later teaching horsemanship there. Lert was a career military officer, serving in Europe as an intelligence officer and retiring as a colonel. (Horses and dressage were actually not Lert’s primary professional focus. Like many retired military personnel, he went on to a “second act” career. An alumnus of the University of California, he was a farm advisor in Santa Clara County for the university system’s Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources for 32 years.) Considering the depth of Lert’s involvement in both CDS and USDF, it’s remarkable that this man found the time to do it all. He served CDS in various roles—president, vice president, director, and technical advisor— from 1979 until his death in 2012. On the national level, he was the 19811982 USDF vice president and also served as the USDF Region 7 director from 1986 through 1995. A founding member of the USDF, he attended the annual conventions for nearly three decades, many times bringing his steadying presence and wise observations and suggestions to Board of Governors assemblies as a delegate. Lert played a groundbreaking role in several USDF initiatives. In 1975, he and the late Col. Clarence Edmonds helped to develop a judgetraining program for CDS. The CDS program was a forerunner to the
Honoring American Dressage’s Greats
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earn about the Roemer Foundation/USDF Hall of Fame members, USDF Lifetime Achievement Award recipients, and USDF Member of Distinction honorees at usdf. org/halloffame, where you’ll also find nomination forms and criteria. Nominations are due May 1 of each year.
SUSAN SEXTON/USDF ARCHIVE
American Dressage Legends: Peter Lert
editorial@usdf.org