By Nancy Jaffer
Sept. 25, 2018
Two New Jersey horsemen carried a little extra baggage in the form of gold medals on their flights home yesterday from the FEI World Equestrian Games at the Tryon International Equestrian Center.
The realization of a lifetime dream came 40 years after Jimmy Fairclough of Newton started training for his first world four-in-hand driving championship. Devin Ryan of Long Valley had a shorter time frame in his efforts to make the show jumping team that won the top prize at the WEG, but his journey with a serious concentration on the top of the sport took more than 16 years of trying to make it, in addition to how long he spent learning his craft after starting out on a $50 horse.
On his plane leaving North Carolina, the passengers were told a gold medalist was among them, and Devin got applause after making a brief speech.
“Ten years ago, I said at some point I want to represent the U.S. on some level, even at a Nations’ Cup level,” Devin commented when I caught up with him following the team awards ceremony at the WEG.
“It’s been a whirlwind coming here and being able to make it to the WEG, a major championship, and win a gold medal. That’s setting a high peak, so I guess the only thing after this will be an Olympics,” he said with a smile.
The U.S. team, center, on the medals podium: Coach Robert Ridland, McLain Ward, Adrienne Sternlicht, Laura Kraut and Devin Ryan. ((Photo©2018 by Nancy Jaffer))
Devin, 36, emerged on the global radar when he was the surprise second-place finisher last spring at the Longines FEI Show Jumping World Cup Finals in Paris, which was won by veteran Beezie Madden. Coach Robert Ridland made a bold move when he put Devin on the team as the pathfinder, and made Beezie the alternate, but it paid off when the squad earned the top prize and a berth for the U.S. at the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo to boot.
After three rounds of jumping at the WEG, the U.S. and Sweden were tied on 20.59 penalties. As Robert noted, the odds were long that two nations would have the same score to the hundredth of a point, but once it happened, a jump-off was the next step.
Devin, McLain Ward and Laura Kraut all were fault-free in the tie breaker, as were three of the Swedes, but the total time taken on course by the Americans was 2.03 seconds less than their rivals, giving them the gold.
This was Devin’s first team championship, and he found “expectations are high; they expect more out of you, you expect more out of yourself. I would think it never gets easier.” The team experience involved having every member of the squad, including the fourth member, Adrienne Sternlicht, living in the same house.
Devin and Eddie Blue. (Photo©2018 by Nancy Jaffer)
While Devin knows fans often are awed by the sport’s big names, he advised, “don’t be shy, because they’re no different than us. Everyone was doing their job, and that’s why we got our medal.”
He didn’t take his first riding lesson until age 13, then joined Pony Club and dealt with problem horses. A lesson with George Morris on one of those mounts started him on the path that would take him to the top. He worked with George for four years, then rode with dealer Alan Waldman in the Netherlands. He returned to New Jersey to open River Run farm and pursue his goal: Riding for the U.S.
Devin got Eddie as a four-year-old and developed the Dutchbred by Zirocco Blue himself. At age 9, the horse owned by LL Show Jumpers was among the youngest entries in the 124-horse field, where Devin finished 16th.
By bringing Eddie through the levels, he formed a stronger bond with him than he would have buying a ready-made jumper, which he couldn’t afford to do anyway.
“Look at the top riders and the horses with which they have been most successful,” he once told me, citing such Olympic gold medalists as McLain with Sapphire or Great Britain’s Nick Skelton with Big Star.
“They usually started with those horses as 5- or 6-year olds, when they’re young enough that they’re not set in their ways.”
Next up for Devin is trying to qualify for the 2019 World Cup finals.
It bothers him that there’s an impression that making it to the top level of show jumping requires a huge amount of cash.
“You don’t have to be uber-wealthy to get there,” said Devin, who didn’t come from big money.
“There’s so much talk that it’s not possible to get there,” he continued, noting hard work is the way to make it, even for those short of funds. He advises parents whose children are aspiring riders, “tell your kid to put the cellphone down and go to work.”
Fairclough’s marathon—where he had the disadvantage of being first on course–and cones scores contributed to the U.S. win, even though he had a control problem in the final segment after one of his horse’s nosebands broke. It had to be fixed with a zip tie when the teams were called back to the arena for the presentation.
Jimmy Fairclough in the cones segment. (Photo©2018 by Nancy Jaffer)
Jimmy stood proudly on the podium with teammates Misdee Wrigley-Miller and his former student, Chester Weber, who also earned individual silver for the second time in a row. He was particularly pleased to be accepting the medal with Chester.
“At one point in life, we kind of parted ways a little bit, but we always still worked on teams together, no matter what,” he said. “Over time, it’s worked out and so it’s great. He’s worked very hard at it, so it’s nice.”
Thoughts on the podium were with people who worked hard to improve American driving but had passed away. One was Finn Caspersen, who brought the 1993 World Pair Championships to Gladstone and really put driving on the map in the U.S.
On the gold medal podium: U.S. teammaters Cheter Weber, Misdee Wrigley-Miller, Jimmy Fairclough. (Photo©2018 by Nancy Jaffer)
“Finn would have been ecstatic,” said Jimmy. He also mentioned Ed Young, the four-in-hand chef d’equipe, who died a year ago. “He would have been ecstatic too.”
As Chester noted, Ed “was the force around U.S. Equestrian’s program and led the way for a number of years, and today, when the reality was there that we won team gold, to me personally, for me and this team medal, that’s for Ed Young.”
Jimmy Fairclough was out first on the marathon course and really went for it. (Photo©2018 by Nancy Jaffer)
At age 60, Jimmy isn’t sure what his next move regarding driving will be.
“I’m going to semi-retire,” he believes, noting without a sponsor, it’s hard to compete at the top level, especially since he owns his horses and pays their expenses. He thinks he’ll still compete in this country, but he’s no longer looking ahead to the next world championships, which would be in 2020.
“It’s been 40 years. It’s a lot of work to keep horses in the kind of training for that period of time. Five shoulder surgeries later and everything else, it’s a lot.”
The very next move is easy, though. He’ll be putting this gold medal next to the team gold he won at the 1991 World Pairs Championship. Those are nice punctuation points for a lifetime passion.
