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Lisa Kursinski

LOS ANGELES – Services will be held Friday for Lisa Kursinski, whose impact as a hunter-jumper trainer and competitor had touched equestrians nationwide. Kursinki, who was 48, died of a rare form of liver cancer on Feb. 24 and an 18-month battle with the disease.

She had trained the last four years out of Farndale Stables in the Los Angeles Equestrian Center in Burbank, where she had been working as a coach with amateurs and young and up-and-coming riders.

Her talent descended from a long line of family members involved with horses. Her great grandfather and grandfather sold horses and mules before the invention of tractors. When her father suggested that the family needed to join a tennis club, her mother said, “If we’re going to join any club, it’s going to be the Flintridge Riding Club,” and so began her journey with horses at age 4 years old.

Lisa, a sibling to Olympic rider Anne Kursinski, paid her dues and learned every aspect of horsemanship from the ground up and continued as a working student in California and on the East Coast. In her junior years, she was Pacific Coast Hunter-Jumper year-end ‘A’Champion Hunt Seat Equitation rider – 14 & under; ‘A’ Champion Junior Working Hunter rider, 14 & under; Champion Hunt Seat Equitation, 15 thru 17, and Champion Junior Working Hunter rider, 15 thru 17. These accomplishments were with her junior horse, Heirloom, who preferred Lisa’s much softer, natural ride to Anne’s more jumper style, according to reports.

Lisa went to college at Westmoreland David Equestrian Institute in Leesburg, Vir., and completed the two-year program in one year. She trained and rode with top professionals including George Morris, Jimmy Williams, Tad Coffin, Jimmy Wofford, and Kamila Dupont.

As an adult, Lisa won the Regional Championship in Three Day Eventing in Las Vegas and the Green Hunter Classic at Spruce Meadows, Calgary, Canada. From 2005 through 2008, she successfully competed on the ‘A’ hunter/jumper circuit in California.

“Lisa was great,” said trainer Mark Farndale, who merged with Lisa in 2009. “She will be truly missed.”

Services will be held at 10 a.m. Friday, March 8, at the All Saints Church in Pasadena.

Family has announced that donations can be made in Lisa’s memory to the American Cancer Society via this link https://www.cancer.org/involved/donate/donateonlinenow/index.

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