Giving thanks for getting together

by Nancy Jaffer | Nov 26, 2020

So much that we enjoyed sadly has fallen by the wayside during the Covid era, but those who found a way to adapt have kept precious customs alive.

The Thanksgiving meet of the Essex Foxhounds for decades has drawn hundreds to watch horses and hounds gather at Ellistan in Peapack. The ritual started when Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and her children would ride out, and it grew even after they no longer were a part of it.

But this year, state Covid restrictions that limit outdoor gatherings to 150 people meant the public could not be invited to the great estate, where they always enjoyed tailgating, seeing old friends and watching the riders depart.

The Essex members were determined to continue the tradition for themselves; they just had to do it in a different way today.

“Some things are just too valuable not to do; it’s just been tradition,” said Jim Gordon, who is the Essex treasurer.

So 27 Essex riders met at the hunt club, then hacked over to the “backyard” of Ellistan for the traditional stirrup cup before starting their ride, not discouraged by mist, occasional drizzle and a bit of rain.

Riders met for a stirrup cup behind Ellistan, rather than in front of the house, where the public usually gathers. (Photo © 2020 by Nancy Jaffer)

Dennis Sargenti is served a stirrup cup. (Photo © 2020 by Nancy Jaffer)

Smiles seemed broader than usual this time around, underlining the meaning of getting together and giving thanks for being able to do it.

Sarah and Hank Slack, owners of Ellistan. (Photo © 2020 by Lawrence J. Nagy)

Essex Joint Master Jazz Johnson Merton and her niece, Rose Biedron. (Photo © 2020 by Lawrence J. Nagy)

The Johnson family always brings a carriage to the meet. (Photo © 2020 by Lawrence J. Nagy)

Smiling in the rain, Essex Joint Master Karen Murphy gives Reagan Price her first ride. (Photo © 2020 by Nancy Jaffer)

Lizzy Chesson, the U.S. Equestrian Federation’s managing director for jumping, looks good in the saddle herself. (Photo © 2020 by Nancy Jaffer)

It will be hard to fill Steve Teichman’s shoes

by Nancy Jaffer | Nov 20, 2020

It obviously was Steve Teichman’s destiny to become the U.S. eventing team’s farrier.

The career path that made him one of the most respected practitioners of his trade around the world began in an unusual way when he was just 13. Steve’s father came up with what he thought was a bright idea to sidetrack his son’s artistic inclinations, since he preferred the teen to focus on eventually getting a “proper” college degree.

“I know this guy who shoes horses in Delaware. Why don’t you go work with him for a summer? Maybe that will satisfy some of your creative instincts,” Dad slyly suggested.

Turns out he was right–except that it backfired.

“This is where the hand of fate gets involved,” Steve recalled with a smile.

“I did that, and there wasn’t any looking back.”  He had found what he was meant to do. Even though Steve went on to get a degree in biology, he was shoeing horses on the side while in college and never stopped.

Steve’s father “wasn’t really happy” with the way his plan turned out, but legions of horse owners, veterinarians and team members over the years have been incredibly grateful that Steve pursued what appears to be his pre-ordained profession, from which he retired this month.

Steve Teichman in a familiar pose with handfuls of shoes by his truck. (Photo © 2020 by Nancy Jaffer)

Jim Wolf, who managed the U.S. eventing teams in the 1990s and into the 21st century, called Steve “just a genius. He’s an artist, an engineer, all those things you need to be a good farrier.

“He’s the whole package and such a great person to have on team trips, such a great influence on everyone about how to be a human being.”

Steve did his utmost to get horses in shape to compete, but he also had the same type of consideration for the horses.

“He could always figure out how to get the horse comfortable,” said Jim, yet at the same time, “If Steve said a horse shouldn’t go (into a competition) then it shouldn’t go.”

Steve’s expertise has been unique.

“What made him so good was in solving a crisis, he was able to see the big picture,” commented Oldwick-based Dr. Brendan Furlong, who served as veterinarian for the eventing team.

“His understanding of micro- and macro-anatomy of the horse’s foot is probably greater than any other person I’ve ever interacted with,” observed Brendan, calling Steve, “an  incredibly clever man.”

Brendan Furlong and Steve Teichman have watched many horses go over the years as they blend their expertise to solve problems. (Photo © 2020 by Nancy Jaffer)

He got to know Steve while treating horses ridden by two-time eventing world champion Bruce Davidson. In the early middle 1990s, Brendan recalled, a lot of U.S. riders were training in the United Kingdom, where the Americans were having problems getting farriers who would do things the way they wanted them done. The answer to that was drafting Steve, who began working with the team in 1997.

Here’s a story that demonstrates Steve’s inventiveness. When the team went to the Open European Championships at Burghley, England, that year, one horse had torn off a shoe on cross-country and as the time came for the horse inspection, the competition’s farrier was nowhere to be found. He had the forge, the steel and everything else that Steve needed to use if he were to fix things (he couldn’t transport his own equipment overseas, so he was reliant on the local man’s truck.) Steve came up with an inventive remedy for the bar shoe he lacked–nailing an ordinary shoe on the foot backwards to provide support for the trot-up. The horse passed the ground jury’s scrutiny, Steve finally got access to the truck and was able to produce a regulation bar shoe so the horse could compete in the show jumping phase.

In the days when he worked in the blacksmith shop at the University of Pennsylvania’s New Bolton Center, Steve thought about pursuing a veterinary career, then decided against it.

“I just felt this industry needed the help so badly, I decided to stay with it,” he said.

Steve gives his next move some thought. (Photo © 2020 by Nancy Jaffer)

And that was the way things went until this week, the last time Steve completed his regular shoeing jobs. Although he still will be involved with some consulting, help the industry out with a few clinics and take on a special case here and there, at the age of 62, he decided it was time to step aside from his farrier business.

“Physically, it’s really hard,” he said.

“I don’t want it to get the best of me. It controls your life. It’s hard to take time off with the quality of horses we do.” In a regular (non-Covid) year, he noted, “by now, you would know where you are every single week until April. It’s pretty grueling.”

Yet he still is thinking of the greater good for those who keep on shoeing horses. He spent three and a half years getting a master’s degree in equine locomotion with Britain’s Royal Veterinary College and just finished a 38-page paper on toe surface modifications and how they affect break-over.

“It was really fun to do. I only wish I was 40 years old when I did it,” he said wistfully, “but when it’s published, it will be good to get it into the hands of farriers. This industry needs that.”

While in the last 30 years he thinks there may have been as many as 35,000 peer-reviewed articles in veterinary journals, he estimated there have been only 10 articles on that order for farriers.

The college sent over professors four times a year to meet with students in space provided by the University of Pennsylvania.

“They started this program because they wanted farriers to research and ask questions if they needed answers; vets look at feet differently than a farrier,” he explained.

As difficult as it was to think of retiring from a regular shoeing schedule, Steve pointed out, “There are a lot of other things I really enjoy doing, too.”

He’s had a parallel career producing art and doing silver and metal work, as well as engraving. A gallery or show is his next ambition, and he plans to have a website.

Some of Steve’s engraved bracelets. (Photo © 2020 by Nancy Jaffer)

Steve got his training for engraving from men who dealt with firearms. He worked on people’s firearms at his house after getting a federal firearms license. But when he moved to Unionville, Pa., firearms weren’t allowed in a residential neighborhood, so that was the end of that.

“What am I going to do with all these skills,” he wondered, then had his answer in short order.

“It was much more profitable to work on a bracelet, and safer,” he realized.

He’s planning on taking some time to go to Florida with his partner, Laura Rowley, who is an animal communicator and intuitive healer. The two don’t work together, but every once in awhile, her insight will help him out. He recalled being on the phone one day with a client whose horse had a lameness problem, when Laura overheard the conversation and told him, “it’s not in his feet, it’s in his back.”

A good friend of Steve’s is Patrick Reilly, New Bolton Center’s chief of farrier services and director of the applied polymer research laboratory, who also got a diploma in equine locomotor research from the Royal College.

He calls Steve, “The hardest working farrier I know. He’s honest about what he can do and what he can’t. He’s happy to talk to you about it. I would consider him very definitely to be a role model.”

Patrick, who moved to Unionville from New Hampshire, recalled a funny incident when his son, Patrick, came home from the first day of first grade and was very disgruntled.

When his father asked what was wrong, he explained, “I got into an argument after I said my father was the best farrier because he works at New Bolton. And this other kid said, `No, my father’s the best farrier.’” That was Marshall, Steve’s son, and there aren’t many places in the U.S. where two elementary school pupils would have a conversation like that!

Steve’s last turn with the team was the 2019 Pan American Games in Peru, where the U.S. eventers qualified for the Olympics.

“A lot of the team’s medals belong to Steve,” said Jim Wolf.

“We wouldn’t have medaled nearly as many times as we did without Steve. We had gold medal horses and riders, but I have to tell you we had a gold medal backup team and he was a star player.”

Lynn Mathews embodies “The Spirit of the Horse

by Nancy Jaffer | Nov 16, 2020

Anyone who has spent time with Lynn Matthews knows she is rarely at a loss for words. The one exception was the moment when the N.J. Department of Agriculture’s equine specialist learned she would be getting the prestigious Spirt of the Horse award at this month’s Rutgers Equine Science Center Evening of Science and Celebration.

Lynn laughed while remembering how ESC Founding Director Karyn Malinowski “had never seen me speechless” until she told the astounded recipient about the award.

“I couldn’t say anything, I was so excited. I’ve never been recognized in my entire career in state government because I always say, `No, no, no, the board chairman should get it,’ or this one or that one,” explained Lynn, who for more than three decades has done several jobs that benefit agriculture in New Jersey, including serving as secretary of both the state Equine Advisory Board and the board of the Horse Park of New Jersey. The award recognizes those whose lives have been impacted by their involvement with horses and who continue to give back to horses and the equine industry

“I’m not one for the limelight,” Lynn explained. “But this was my night and it was virtual and it was absolutely amazing.”

As Karyn noted, “Lynn unselfishly and tirelessly has dedicated her whole life to our industry. Sometimes people go above and beyond in their efforts, and Lynn is one of those people. Her summers and weekends are non-existent because she is working all the time. For that, the Equine Science Center wanted to recognize Lynn with this Spirit of the Horse award.”

Adam Furlong, president of the Horse Park of New Jersey, observed, “I cannot imagine that there are many  people who have expended  more energy and resources for the well-being of the park over the last 30-some years than she has”

For many, Adam noted, “She is practically synonymous with the Horse Park. I know few people in life who have greater passions or care than Lynn does for the Horse Park.”.

Lynn Mathews, left, at the Horse Park of New Jersey, with her niece, Grace Goeke and Tony, a 30-plus pony Lynn took care of for years.

Lynn actually had to get permission to accept the trophy that now sits proudly in the hutch in the dining room at her home, because there are strict rules about state workers accepting gifts.  Lynn was thrilled that her supervisor, Joe Atchison, the director of marketing and development for the department of agriculture, also was on the Zoom call for the ceremony.

State Secretary of Agriculture Douglas Fisher recognized Lynn by saying she, “serves the New Jersey equine community with great passion and commitment. She epitomizes the spirit of helping others, working hard, and getting results. In countless equine endeavors in New Jersey, Lynn has benefited so many people and activities throughout the years.”

Lynn’s first horse show experience was at the Morristown Armory, where the eight-year-old won her class on a pony named King Magic. Interestingly, the blue ribbon was pinned on his bridle by Lt. Col. James Marsh, who would go on to be president of the New Jersey Horse Council and take a leading role in the horse industry. He was someone Lynn would come to know very well.

During her youth in Lancaster, Pa., Lynn rode saddlebreds, winning a wide variety of saddle seat equitation classes and riding in the Good Hands at the National Horse Show in Madison Square Garden.

Lynn Mathews as a teen on her equitation horse, The Rogue.

She had a nice walk-trot mare that she rode to fifth place in a big ladies’ class at Devon. But after that horse bowed a tendon she got involved with Standardbreds. After buying, breaking and training a Standardbred filly, she went to Liberty Bell Park and got a job with Joe Greene. She met her husband, Rob Mathews, because Joe’s farm was buying hay from him. The couple now runs a Christmas tree farm in Chesterfield Township.

She picked up her trainer’s license before becoming involved with officiating, serving as a program director for the New Jersey Sire Stakes. Then 33 years ago, Lynn came on board with the department of agriculture.

That gave her “unbelievable opportunities to share my passion with kids and help them learn to be good horsemen and stable managers. The kids are our future, and if we can’t keep them excited somehow, there’s going to be a lot more big buildings and not as much agriculture.”

Lynn’s other positions with the department of agriculture include coordinating the junior breeder program, serving as the agricultural fair coordinator and being a member of the Animal Emergency Working Group. (Her husband goes with her to help in that regard.)

“He’s just the best partner in the world,” said Lynn. Karyn noted that when emergencies arise, “Lynn is there to help as a loyal supporter of the equine community in the state of New Jersey.”

She’s been a stand-in for director of the Sire Stakes program, since that person retired unexpectedly.  Her load is a bit lighter now, since she just retired as an Emergency Medical Technician as well as a teaching CPR and Red Cross first aid.

Everything she has done has helped make a difference.

“I love giving back,” said Lynn, who earned a degree from Thomas Edison State University. She was quick to acknowledge, “My family and the department have been Incredible support for anything that I want to do for agriculture for horses.”

The other honor presented during the evening was the Gold Medal Horse Farm Award, which went to the 64-acre Centenary University Equestrian Center in Long Valley. Part of the New Jersey Equine Environmental Stewardship Program, the award recognizes outstanding equine farms for their dedication to environmental sustainability and management.