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Hans grew up in the horse-saturated community located in northern Baltimore County. Hans competed in his first three-day event at age 15. Hans started training with eventing guru Jimmy Wofford, and won medals at the 1999 and 2002 North American Young Rider Championships. While attending the University of Virginia, Hans trained with Phillip Dutton, Bonnie Mosser and Stuart Black. He brought two horses up through the ranks to the Advanced level, and operated a successful sale horse business. After graduating from UVa in 2005, Hans and his beloved yellow lab, Gus, moved to Middleburg to train with Stuart and campaign his advanced horse.

Some editing has been done to the report below by eventingetc.

Thomson, GA – February 28, 2006 - The 2006 event season will start to heat up next weekend at the 10th annual Advanced Pine Top when organizer Glenn Wilson and new course designer John Williams reveal their redesigned cross country track. “For the first time, we will be running the course counter-clockwise,” says Wilson. (John Williams, the Course Designer forPine Top, is pictured at the left.)

This reversal of the track will provide a welcome challenge for the field of 170 horse and rider combinations, which includes no less than ten Olympic veterans: Stuart Black (who now rides for the USA; but has been an Olympian for Canada); Bobby Costello (competitor at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia); Phillip Dutton (twice Olympic Team Gold Medalist for Australia); Mara Dean (who rode as an individual at the Atlanta Games in 1996); Nina Fout (who rode on the Team at the 2000 Games in Sydney); Ian Roberts (who represented Canada at the 2004 Games in Athens); Kelli Temple (who represented Canada at the Atlanta Games in 1996); Kim Severson (the reigning Olympic Individual Silver Medalist and member of the Bronze Medal Team at Athens in 2004); John Williams (a member of the Athens 2004 Bronze Medal Olympic Team); and Mike Winter (who rode for Canada in Athens in 2004). These competitors will be using Pine Top in their preparation for selection onto a team for the World Equestrian Games this summer. Several other noteworthy riders including Becky Douglas, Will Faudree, Bonnie Mosser, Jan Byyny-Thompson, and Nathalie Bouckaert-Pollard will be trying to tip the Olympians off their pedastals.

Glenn Wilson was kind enough to offer PhelpsSports.com a sneak peak at the new advanced track. “Although we added about the same number of brand new fences this year, virtually all of the fences have been moved to new locations.” Despite the dramatic changes, Wilson and Williams have managed to maintain the same rider friendly courses that Pine Top regulars have become accustomed to.

Although the tracks remain rider friendly, riders will certainly notice a similarity between this course and the Pine Top courses designed by Williams two weeks ago. There are several corners and narrows placed off of turns, most notably, a large corner placed after the mound in the front field. The water jumps have been designed with horse and rider confidence in mind, and should present no problems for properly prepared combinations. However the new log at the main water complex will probably leave several riders feeling queasy after a first look.

While all the fences are well built, one new fence stands out. Chris Owens, of Tryon, North Carolina, transformed an old hay wagon into a jumpable truck. The attention to detail on the truck is remarkable and looks more like an overgrown hand carved toy than a cross country fence. “In the future we want to put lights and sounds on the truck, but we’ll probably hold off on that until after next weekend,” jokes Wilson. (The truck and fence constructed by Chris Owens is pictured at the right.)

Admission and parking are free at Pine Top Farm, which hosts nearly a half dozen events per year.

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