Fiona Baan

Fiona Fulton was born in Scotland, the daughter of James F. Fulton and Edith Agnes Chandler.[1] She became an accomplished horsewoman in the Cotswolds.[2]

Baan worked in the hotel industry as a young woman, and traveled internationally in that work. In 1966 became secretary with the United States Equestrian Team, based in New Jersey.[3][4] She competed in local horse shows in the 1960s and 1970s.[5]

Baan managed and directed the dressage and driving programs of the United States Equestrian Team from 1976 into 1994.[3][6][7] She prepared the athletes and horses for national and international events, including six Summer Olympic Games. At the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, the American team she directed won a bronze medal in dressage.[2] She judged and organized competitions and training programs at the national and international levels.[8][9] She also taught dressage clinics.[10] Although ill, she continued working at the USET until the last weeks before her death in 1994.[11]

Fulton married Laszlo (Leslie Baan) in 1963, in New Jersey; they had a daughter, Natalie. Baan died in 1994, at the age of 55, from cancer, at her home in Chester, New Jersey.[2] One obituary called her "the grand dame of dressage."[11] The Fiona Baan “Pursuit of Excellence” Memorial Trophy is given annually at the FEI North American Junior and Young Rider Championships.[12] In 2008, she was posthumously inducted into the Roemer Foundation/USDF Hall of Fame.[7][13]