By SUSAN RAGAN -- Associated Press
 Three years ago, Elise Haas put her priorities in order: Olympics first, Harvard second.

 Now 20, the daughter of Levi-Strauss chairman Robert Haas gets her chance to make the U.S Olympic equestrian-jumping team at the trials beginning Wednesday at Gladstone, N.J.

 "I knew I'd ride for four years straight out of high school," Haas said, "but I applied to Harvard just to gauge my chances and see if they were realistic."

 They were, but her riding and jumping skills have improved to the point where she has a shot at making the U.S. team that will travel to Sydney for the 2000 Olympics.

 Her biggest triumph has been the 1999 Grand Prix of Amsterdam, where she became the first woman and youngest rider to win the event.

 "Elise is a hard worker. She's dedicated. She has a good teacher in Katie Monahan Prudent and she is very competitive," Joe Fargis, the 1984 Olympic gold medal winner in the individual jumping event. "She is developing very quickly."

 Among the jumpers in the family's eight-horse stable is Mr. Blue, a 12-year-old Dutch warmblood who is among the top-rated jumpers in the world, according to Monahan Prudent. Horses that reach world-class jumping status are valued between $500,000 and $2 million.

 "Mr. Blue was a well-known horse before we bought him. He had won several World Cups and Grand Prix already," Prudent said.

 Prudent says all Haas lacks is experience.

 "She had a good education with the same methods that I teach," Prudent said. "She still has to gain a lot of experience to be a great rider, but she is so smart, so eager that she came along much faster than I thought she would."