Melody Blittersdorf

Born: September 1, 1960
Hometown: Cambridge, Vermont

Melody Blittersdorf’s quest to represent the U.S. in international endurance competition began with her love of the Arabian horse. She has been involved in distance riding for 26 years, and focusing on endurance for nine years. Her first 50-mile ride was on Samid Ar Ras, who she bought as a 3-year-old.

Melody Blittersdorf. (Photo by ©GenieSS, Inc. Provided by Melody Blittersdorf.)

Blittersdorf competed “Sam” for 15 seasons and he taught her a huge amount about the sport. Sam is now 27 years old and Blittersdorf still cares for him every day.

In December 2003, Blittersdorf purchased the Arabian gelding Synthetic has a three-year-old. In addition, she also bought his half-brother Empiric.

In January 2008, Blittersdorf and Synthetic began their pursuit of gaining qualification for the 2010 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games. On four separate occasions they traveled the 3,000-mile round trip journey from Vermont to Florida. Because of their home base in northern Vermont gaining fitness steadily for both horse and rider can be difficult and often necessitates southbound travel. During these trips Synthetic demonstrated a great deal of heart.

All of their hard work throughout the years has paid off. They won the 120 km Fun-in-the-Sun Endurance Festival CEI2* in March 2010. In addition, they received the Best Conditioned Award.

Synthetic and Blittersdorf train in Cambridge, VT, where Blittersdorf lives with her husband Jeff, five horses and two dogs.