Lowell Boomer
1911-2011

 

Riding his pony as a child, Lowell later frequently visited the U.S. Cavalry School at Ft. Riley, Kansas to watch Col. Hiram Tuttle and Col. Isaac Kitts school their horses, and then went home to emulate them. After establishing his Great Plains Equestrian Center just outside Lincoln, Lowell went on to ride and compete in horse shows, to fox hunt, organize horse trials , and to teach and train riders in jumping, eventing, and dressage.
 
Lowell Boomer has been honored throughout his lifetime with prestigious equestrian awards. He is the first inductee into the USDF Hall of Fame, the founder of the Nebraska Dressage Association, the recipient of the Braley Gray Award, and the United States Equestrian Federation’s sterling silver cowboy hat emblematic of USEF’s Lifetime Achievement Award. The Chronicle of the Horse named him “one of the 50 most influential horsemen of the twentieth century.”

Lowell Boomer and Nebraska Hayseed

Throughout the summer of 1972, a feeling was growing that the United States needed an organization to promote dressage. Col. Donald W. Thackeray said, “We need an organization to take the ball and run.” But there was considerable disagreement as to who the ball carrier should be, and the thorny problem of where to locate it since people from both coasts thought it should be on their terrain.
 
Lowell Boomer, who owned an equestrian center and a printing company in Lincoln, Nebraska, volunteered to help, and offered Lincoln as a “Center of the Nation” geographic site. Eighty one people convened in Lincoln on February 17-19, 1973, and formed the United States Dressage Federation (USDF).  Lowell Boomer was named the Executive Secretary, and would remain for twelve years in that post followed by four more years as President, before completely stepping down.

In 1989, Lowell Boomer formed The Dressage Foundation in Lincoln, NE, to “cultivate and provide financial support for the advancement of dressage.”

From Lowell Boomer’s vision has come two premier Dressage organizations, structured and operating as separate entities, one focused on education (USDF), the other on funding (The Dressage Foundation). Lowell has left a rich legacy for our sport.

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