Adequan Global Dressage Festival facilities manager and FEI steward Jimmy Mandala and his wife Anne Cizadlo, an FEI rider and assistant trainer at Romance Farm, recently received the Global Dressage Visionary Award, presented by sponsor Carol Cohen Hodess.
“Jimmy is a fixture at the show grounds, and we don’t know what we would have done without him,” Cohen Hodess said. “These grounds and everything operational here, we owe it all to Jimmy.”
Cohen Hodess also praised Cizadlo for her devotion to a variety of worthwhile causes, as well as her role as right-hand woman to Robert Dover, a six-time Olympic athlete and the chef d’equipe of the U.S. Dressage Team.
“You are the rock behind the man,” Cohen Hodess said. “You have done incredible things with the Equestrian Aid Foundation, with Dressage4Kids and with Robert’s clinics. You have been there guiding these kids, helping these kids, and making sure their parents are helping these kids, too!”
Cohen Hodess added that Cizadlo works on American Equestrians Got Talent, a fundraiser that Dover created for high-performance equestrian programs.
Cohen Hodess, a longtime Wellington resident and a Keller Williams real estate agent, debuted her Global Dressage Visionary Award in 2016.
Cohen Hodess is also a sponsor of the season-long 2017 American Equestrians Got Talent, and supports the 2017 Adequan Global Dressage Festival leadline class held Feb. 24. The class allows young riders the opportunity to ride in the festival arena just like the Grand Prix competitors.
As a part of the Wellington dressage community herself, Cohen Hodess knows that the sport is expanding because of the hard work of people like Mandala and Cizadlo. “We appreciate you, we need you, and we are so pleased that you’re around,” Cohen Hodess said.
ABOVE: Carol Cohen Hodess (center) presents the Global Dressage Visionary Award to Jimmy Mandala and Annie Cizadlo.
