A graduate of Duke University, Mari Monda Zdunic is a top dressage competitor having earned USDF gold, silver, and bronze medals. Olympic Sports Festival silver, bronze and team medals, along with numerous USDF top ten horse of the year honors from the United States Dressage Federation from Training through Grand Prix levels, open and all breed awards. Mari competed in the Olympic Trials in 1980, Gladstone, NJ; and the 1981 World Championship Trials. She is equally admired for her spectacular exhibition rides which have thrilled spectators from coast to coast. An associate of Mr. Chuck Grant for fourteen years, Mari is continuing his fine work since his death in 1990, as owner and trainer of Shine-A-Bit Farm. Mari has been key in the promotion of nontraditional dressage mounts. She has trained and shown the first North American Arabian, Connemara, Appaloosa, and Paint Grand Prix dressage horses. Mari has also been deeply involved in the advocation of the American Quarter Horse in competitive dressage and for high school exhibitions. Mari and her horse, Shine-A-Bit III (AQHA) have performed exhibitions at the Washington International Horse Show, as well as at the Quarter Horse Congress, and was honored Grand Prix horse of the year for the United States Dressage Federations all breeds quarter horse awards in 1988. Mari also trained Royal Inspiration to a three time American Buckskin, Amateur Championship. Another familiar mount for Mari has been Prussian Dudley, a Saddlebred/Trakhaner cross gelding who really enjoyed his time in the spotlight. Always the consummate professional, Mari takes pride in students who ride and train, the end goal being to make your horse go “skipping down the road!”

After “1988” she has taken a Quarter Horse Super Horse from training level to Grand Prix -- this is another Mari Monda first. The Lark Ascending, the first Quarter Horse Super Horse to also show Grand Prix. In 2008 she is Performance Horse Registry, USDF, Horse of the Year at Grand Prix Freestyle. Shine-A-Bit Tracer. He is a Percheron/TB cross.

Mari spends April through November on a cattle ranch in western South Dakota with her dressage horses. December through March she winters in Brighton, Michigan.