By Nancy Jaffer
August 9, 2018
Over the decades, the farm on Schooley’s Mountain has had its ups and downs.
But now the 64 acres, dotted with pastures and a variety of buildings in varying states of repair, belong to an optimistic new owner.
A bucolic view of Snowbird with a hayfield in the foreground. (Photo courtesy Frank Carrajat)
“We’re fixing it, said Frank Carrajat, a self-described “local farmer” (his email says it all: imafarmer22@gmail.com) who grows hay and has a vision for the facility that once was a big part of the New Jersey horse show scene, while offering more hunter/jumper competitions than any other venue in the state
In a tribute to the past, Frank is calling the place Snowbird.
“Everyone knows the name,” he said. Snowbird was indeed a prominent farm during its heyday in the 1980s and 1990s, when it was the New Jersey Horse Shows Association Show of the Year for 1993.
An old banner from Snowbird’s glory days. (Photo by Nancy Jaffer)
At one time, well-known trainers such as Bill Cooney, George Morris and Karen Healey were familiar sights at the showgrounds in Morris County’s Washington Township. By 2009, though, the farm had fallen on hard times after owner Vicki Siegel became sick and the shows were transferred to another organizer off the premises.
The Snowbird acreage went downhill from there, rented without supervision when Vicki moved into a long-term care facility. In 2015, the property was purchased by a Chester real estate entrepreneur who renamed it GG farms and started work on renovating the stables and indoor ring. A few years later it went on the market again, and Frank snapped it up. He went into high gear at the beginning of June as much-needed work on the property got under way.
It’s a project he’s pursing with his wife, Erin, a vet tech at EquiHeart Veterinary Services in Califon, and their daughters Charlotte, 12, a member of the Somerset Hills Pony Club who is involved in 4-H, and Annabelle, 5, who likes to ride a mini-horse. Son Grayson, 6, more interested in mechanical farm equipment than horses, is along for the ride.
The Carrajat family: Frank and his wife, Erin, with daughters Charlotte and Annabelle, and son Grayson. (Photo courtesy of Frank Carrajat)
The Carrajats are renovating stables and working on the indoor ring, taking out “18 inches of I don’t know what to call it,” said Frank, and installing new footing, removing particle board around the perimeter and replacing it with tongue-in-groove wood.
New gates are being put on the pastures—“the day we closed, the pastures hadn’t been cut since last summer,” Frank said–and stables are being refurbished as well. The family is looking for a trainer or two who wants to base at the farm. Meanwhile, Erin, who has a bachelor’s degree in animal science, is running a small boarding operation and Frank suggested Snowbird could also be a destination for retired horses.
Frank grew up in Long Valley, where he did some showing and participated in 4-H. In 2001, he moved to Mendham, managing Middle Valley Farms there. He ships hay up and down the east coast, returning from a run to Ocala earlier this week.
The farm that became Snowbird had a proud history. Bought in the 1940s by Dora Hardy Hamilton, it was known as Highfields, a top pony breeding facility. It later became the New Jersey Training Center, where Leslie Burr Howard worked for awhile, before the Siegel family bought it.
The Carrajats are ready to write the next chapter.
“We’ve been careful who we bring in,” said Frank. “We don’t want drama.” His concept is a “friendly, family-like environment” in a place where “everyone is enjoying their horses…in a fun and safe way.”
