by Nancy Jaffer | Feb 11, 2021
Greg Tryon wrote a beautiful piece about the passing this week of Poggio II, the favorite horse of his late wife, Olympic and world championships eventing medalist Amy Tryon. She bought the former pack horse, a rugged thoroughbred, after spotting a classified ad about him, Pogi was a valiant and reliable mount when Amy and the team needed him. Like his rider, he never gave up.
Here is what Greg had to say:
The Old Man’s heart beats no more
On February 9th at 21:30 Amy got an early birthday present, her beloved Poggio.
The Old Man’s heart beats no more.
I met him for the first time nearly a quarter of a century ago. “See my new horse!” Calling the orange and grey, half clipped, long-haired caterpillar a horse was in my eyes a bit optimistic. Knowing what her intentions for the horse once known as Chester’s Time to Fly in the racing world were, calling him a horse was way out of the box thinking, even for Amy. You thought he was a bit unorthodox later in life, wow, you should have seen him that first day.
Poggio II, yes, there was a Poggio in the world prior. Whether he was called Poggio, Pogi, or just plain P, he left an indelible mark in your heart. There were no bad days with P, he was eager each and every day, and he usually let you know about it from the get-go.
He did not like to be last, oh how the other riders didn’t enjoy going on gallops with the effervescent P bounding by their horses’ side as they prepared for some event around the world. P thought it was a game, “please, can we go again?!?”.
The Old Man’s heart beats no more
Oh, the places Poggio showed us. Traveling across the US and Canada. From the west coast to small towns in Pennsylvania and the rest of the Eastern seaboard. A passport that would take us on journeys through England, Ireland, Scotland, Spain, Greece, Germany and China. All to return home to small towns in Washington State to live a life with his miniature donkeys.
Amy and Poggio II at Kentucky 2004. (Photo © 2004 by Nancy Jaffer)
The Old Man’s heart beats no more
He astonished people left and right. That’s the horse that jumped double clear? He’s so, so, so… downhill? He’s so short. He doesn’t have a trot, or other gaits for that matter. You’re riding him in a hackamore?!? Please have him stand still… Please make him stop cribbing, he’s teaching my horse bad behavior…
I prefer to remember the time an international show jumper walked up and offered a “blank check” for him in those early days. During Pogi’s first trip to Ocala, the rider apparently sat and watched P jump into and out of his paddock all day long, just for the sheer joy of jumping.
The Old Man’s heart beats no more
But as I hear from people around the world, some known, and most unknown, the power of Poggio was his ability to bring people together, for his personality reminded all of the beauty of horses, our “Why”. Horses are expensive, we get hurt, they get hurt, they break our hearts, but I can see why some child gets lost in the world of the horse from a very early age.
Pogi and Amy at the 2008 Olympics. (Photo © 2008 by Nancy Jaffer)
When I received the call on Friday, “hey, Pogi isn’t feeling so hot, all should be good, just wanted to let you know…” It caused me to be mindful of the old man’s age. It caused me also to think how lucky I have been to know him, and to meet all the amazing people he has introduced me to. From every starred event, to Pan Am’s, to World Games, to Olympics, to neighbors back yards, Poggio was a statesman operating far above his station in life.
The phone call yesterday came with much emotion on the other end. A decision needs to be made, or nature will make it for us. There are the details, the what ifs, but in your heart you know the first responsibility is to be as faithful and loyal a friend as he. I assure you as I sit here typing, I am unable to stop the tears that stream down my cheeks.
The Old Man’s heart beats no more
Sitting in his stall that last evening, surrounded by some of those who have loved and taken care of him over the years, was both tough and peaceful. There were tears, and there was laughter. I promised him his forelock would never have to be braided again, no dreaded dressage a
s the courses would only be x-country and show jumps. I noted of course, he could jump them in whatever particular order he chose, as he was wont to do anyways. Most importantly, Mom would be waiting for him with open arms and an endless supply of Mrs. Pasture’s cookies.
Amy and Pogi in the horse inspection at Kentucky, 2005. (Photo © 2005 by Nancy Jaffer)
The Old Man’s heart beats no more
I have left out so many of his accomplishments, and I have deliberately left out the names of so, so many people that have cared for and loved Poggio. He has become the linking point amongst a great many of us. He is neither the end all or be all… and as one person wrote: “Another chapter of life closes, but he leaves behind for us so many memories and connections he made happen”. Let us celebrate that about Poggio the Second.
Last night, I kissed his ear one final time whispering my thank you’s and telling him what a good boy he was.
The Old Man’s Heart Beats FOREVER More!
by Nancy Jaffer | Feb 2, 2021
Like so many other conferences, the Rutgers Equine Science Center’s annual horse management seminar is going virtual, with a two-hour session Feb.15 from 6:30-8:30 p.m.
Nutrition is the focus that evening, when “Fiber and its Importance in Horses” is first on the agenda with Burt Staniar of Pennsylvania State University. It’s followed by “Forage/Pasture Practical Research you can use” presented by Krishona Martinson from the University of Minnesota. The evening wraps up with an Ask the Experts panel.
Registration is free, but it is advised that those participating watch the program as it is presented, since there will be a delay in posting archived webinars to encourage a more engaged live audience.
To register, go to https://go.rutgers.edu/td5xpzd
by Nancy Jaffer | Jan 27, 2021
Ignore stories predicting cancellation (for the second time) of the Tokyo Olympics this summer due to the pandemic.
That’s the advice of Thomas Bach, president of the International Olympic Committee, saying “we will not add fuel to this type of speculation.” In the past, insisting the Games will happen; he has been firm about stating that there is no Plan B, even though a poll showed that 80 percent of the Japanese people want to see the Olympics cancelled or postponed.
During a press conference last week following a meeting of the IOC executive board, Bach pointed out that more than 7,000 athletic events have taken place over the autumn and winter, with 175,000 people tested and only a 0.18 percent positive rate .
“This is why we are so confident,” he said, while noting that if the IOC thought the Games couldn’t be safe, “we would not go for it.” And they are going for it.
IOC President Thomas Bach
He said the Covid vaccine could not be considered a silver bullet and athletes will not be required to get their shots (but are encouraged to do so, as long as they don’t cut in line ahead of the vulnerable).
Instead, the IOC is counting on such counter-measures for safety as reducing the number of athletes lodged in the Olympic village at the same time. Other concepts are outlined in a playbook that will detail housing, transportation and similar matters. It is coming out next month and is first in a series.
IOC Vice President John Coates said in an interview with Sky News that athletes must stay in the Olympic Village when they are not at their venues, and cannot go downtown. They will not be quarantined on arrival, but would be subject to testing for COVID at the Games every four days. They also will have to follow a set of rules before traveling to Japan, when they must quarantine, and on arriving in Tokyo.
A decision on whether spectators can attend will have to be made by March or April, though no one knows how many people could be in the stands at this point. Doubtless there will be social distancing in the stadiums, which means less tickets available. But maybe it will go the way it did for the Super Bowl in Tampa, where the least expensive tickets are running $10,250 (per ticket, for a 2 pack of tickets, going up 10 percent in a week). That stadium is using only 22 percent of its seats for the big game.
Tickets aren’t the IOC’s first concern, however. Don’t forget, the Olympics have TV contracts and sponsors to pay the way. The priorities for IOC are the field of play and safe competition, according to Bach.
“Everything else has to have second priority.”
by Nancy Jaffer | Jan 24, 2021
An advisory group working on a strategic plan for the future of the Somerset County Park Commission’s Lord Stirling Stable in Basking Ridge includes six volunteers with close ties to the facility, as well as two paid consultants.
Names of the group’s members were made public today during the annual meeting of the Friends of Lord Stirling Stable, a support network for the operation that runs the retired school horse program.
Lord Stirling, which celebrated its 50th anniversary as a public stable in 2019, was closed in April during the midst of the pandemic. Although it eventually reopened for private boarders, the school horses were sold. Those who rode at the stable worried about if and when lessons will resume.
The county indicated earlier this month that the purpose of the advisory group is “to study and ensure future equine activities and programs” at the stable, which lost more than $500,000 in 2019. Such losses were subsidized by other park commission programs until the advent of Covid, when golf courses and other activities also were shut down. Nancy Brown, past president of the Friends and a member of the advisory group, said during the meeting that the stable is not being considered for a lease to a third party, which some had thought might be a possibility.
Speaking about the advisory group, Geoffrey Soriano, executive director of the Park Commission, believes his agency “ is exceptionally lucky to have folks like these willing to volunteer their time to endeavor to build a business plan aimed at reintroducing programmatic components to Lord Stirling Stable with a keen eye on fiscal prudence and sustainability. “
Karyn Malinowski, the founding director of the Rutgers Equine Science Center, has been hired as a consultant for the project, along with a fellow Ph.D from the university, Robin Brumfield.
A Rutgers animal sciences professor, Karyn has spent time as an extension specialist in equine sciences at the university and served as a director of the Rutgers Cooperative Extension. She has extensive experience in researching equine physiology in relation to the well-being of the performance horse, and also was successful as an amateur harness racing driver.
Robin is an extension specialist in farm management at Rutgers, where she works for the Department of Agricultural, Food and Resource Economics. She also has expertise in management for farming business.
Nancy Brown, who owns a horse that boards at Lord Stirling, has been a leader or side walker with Somerset County’s Therapeutic Riding Adapted Instruction program for the disabled community. Nancy was in one of the first classes of women admitted to West Point and attended the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business in executive leadership while serving as vice president of operations for Coldwell Banker Commercial Corporate Headquarters, Realogy.
Nancy was succeeded today as president of the Friends by Anna McLernon, retired from Johnson & Johnson after 34 years as an industrial microbiologist. Her final position was as director of industrial microbiology worldwide. Anna’s retirement plan was to renew her passion for horses, starting with a course in horse management at Rutgers. Her professor recommended she go to Lord Stirling, where she has been a volunteer stable worker for four years. She started riding as a child at Watchung Stables, Union County’s equivalent of Lord Stirling. Anna enrolled in the lesson program at Lord Stirling, appreciating programs offering the opportunity to work with and ride horses for those who are not able to have a horse of their own.
The new vice president of the Friends, Barbara Roche, was Somerset County’s 2014 Volunteer of the Year. When her daughter decided that horseback riding was her passion, Barbara dedicated hundreds of hours to Lord Stirling Stable, where she now boards two horses. She worked with Verizon’s C-suite executives for decades, ensuring a symbiotic relationship between audience, objectives and strategies. She is said to have a solid understanding of the type of programs that patrons at Lord Stirling Stable are seeking.
Also serving as an advisor is eclectic horse show judge Kennis “Buttons” Fairfax, who often has been as a clinician at Lord Stirling. Buttons is an expert in both English and western disciplines. He has officiated at shows round the world, and in 2018, received the “Spirit of the Horse” award presented by the Rutgers Equine Science Center.
Chuck Rosen, who has been associated with Lord Stirling for 45 years, has three horses boarding at Lord Stirling. He has volunteered for more than 35 years for the park commission, and is a past president of the Friends. A certified management professional, he is experienced in leading multi-million dollar commercial, government and non-profit projects. His areas of expertise, decision support and conflict resolution have been applied to various companies and organizations through strategic planning, systems delivery, organizational management and behavior and decision support.
Ravenell Williams has ridden and cared for horses for his whole life. He managed a YMCA summer camp riding program and most recently held part time-barn care positions at Lord Stirling. A longtime horse owner, he has an extensive background in fundraising, grant writing, strategic planning, construction management, budget development, program development and public speaking. A career as a YMCA professional provided Ravenell the opportunity to work with mission-driven board and staff teams, conduct community relations initiatives, manage multiple facilities and implement successful marketing programs. He served as the president and CEO of the Plainfield YMCA from 2010 until his retirement in 2018.
by Nancy Jaffer | Jan 18, 2021
“We are listening,” was the U.S. Equestrian Federation’s key message during its virtual annual meeting, responding to a perennial complaint from members who feel their views are not considered by what some have seen as a top-down organization.
Hearing the voices of membership and affiliates is a priority for Tom O’Mara, who succeeded Murray Kessler in the USEF presidency as the meeting ended over the weekend.
Meanwhile, USEF is actively soliciting members’ thoughts, including organizing a competition task force to deal with reform of its often-contentious competition licensing process. It’s also putting together a group to handle the issues of restive amateurs who recently have asked for their own “bill of rights.”
“The listening part is obviously critical and I always felt there was the ability to do that, but you’ve got to listen when people say it’s not happening. We have to make sure it’s happening. That’s why we need a concerted effort to listen, learn and lead together,” said Tom, quoting a slogan from the USEF marketing department that lays out the pathway for change.
USEF President Tom O’Mara. (Photo © 2020 by Nancy Jaffer)
People can’t always get an immediate response from USEF, as they do on social media, but they shouldn’t feel it’s a lack of transparency, Tom stated. The organization takes note of all input
“Serve the members. That’s our job,” he emphasized.
Tom, the federation’s former treasurer, noted USEF is a “revenue-constrained” organization, so more members would generate more sponsorship, meaning extra support for affiliates and other purposes.
“Great programs take more money,” commented Murray, who donated $50,000 of his own funds as a parting gift for para-equestrian development.
Murray Kessler, former USEF president. (Photo © 2020 by Nancy Jaffer)
During the meeting, the board voted $50,000 for an Opportunity Fund. That will go toward new diversity, equity and inclusion grants for organizations offering equestrian outreach to minorities and under-served communities.
“So many people in the U.S. love horses, but the joy of horses doesn’t mean that you have to be a competing equestrian,” said Tom, who sees other possibilities.
“For so long, our association and its predecessors focused on riding, training, competing and showing a horse. That’s our mission, as the National Governing Body, to make sure there’s an opportunity from the grass roots to high performance, and to field U.S. teams.
“We cannot lose focus on that. Sport is the most important thing. However, around that, is our job as an NGB to get everyone to ride a horse…or to watch someone ride a horse?” Tom asked, knowing there’s plenty of potential in the latter.
Retired from an investment banking and business development career, the USEF president is a problem-solver who will devote full time to his new role. That means a lot, since his record includes helping assure that NCAA equestrian would keep going for college riders when it was in danger of being cancelled, and leading the task force that worked out a drug-testing partnership with the University of Kentucky, after USEF’s own testing lab ran into major problems.
When USEF and the lavish new World Equestrian Center in Ocala reached an ugly impasse over show dates, Tom was involved in a thinking-outside-the-box compromise last month that enabled WEC to run under the National Snaffle Bit Association umbrella while avoiding sanctions against FEI riders, owners, horses and officials taking part in the facility’s winter series this year.
Tom O’Mara and Beezie Madden, the 2019 USEF Equestrian of the Year, at the 2020 awards ceremony. (Photo © 2020 by Nancy Jaffer)
“Glad to have WEC throwing a bit of disturbance into the show world,” one person wrote on social media about the drama. But USEF still feels it’s important to have shows that it licenses held at WEC.
“It’s a phenomenal facility,” said Tom.
“We have to work through the process to get there. I think it will be worked out over time.”
In other matters:
- USEF is ramping up its compliance efforts to insure shows meet expected standards. For this year, there is a new compliance director, and goals are to increase visits by those who will grade shows on everything from footing to facilities and developing a scorecard system that can categorize where competitions meet, exceed or fall short of regulations.
- Despite Covid, nearly two-thirds of the horse show calendar was able to run, with 729 license modifications needed to make it happen. USEF officials and staff put in a mighty effort to keep things going during the pandemic once showing began again June 1 after it had stopped for 11 weeks.
- Going forward, the competition task force will be working with a membership survey that drew nearly 4,000 responses (more than half of which were from those involved with hunters and jumpers) on how licensing can be improved for the 2,300 USEF horse shows.
- Suggestions focused on making licensing less restrictive in some ways and more restrictive in others.Members’ ideas also included mileage expiration after a certain number of weeks or years that a show runs, along with lack of compliance to standards as a reason for ending protection. Another idea involves no restrictions for smaller regional shows running against national or premier shows. There is the thought as well that show facilities which are owned or leased long-term by an applicant should have date protection that makes sense for organizers who are investing money into the venues. Another meeting on the subject will be held Jan. 25.
During the USEF’s virtual awards ceremony, show jumper Kent Farrington won the International Equestrian of the Year title. No surprise, as he was the lone nominee. Names of candidates for the William C. Steinkraus Trophy are put forward by each of the Olympic discipline affiliates, but “Kent was the only nomination we received this year,” a USEF spokesperson said.
The announcement of nominees came out Dec. 16, and voting continued through Jan. 2. Liz Halliday-Sharp, the first woman to become U.S. Eventing’s Rider of the Year since 1981, would have seemed a possibility in that discipline. Ditto Boyd Martin, who took the 4-star-Long national championship on Tsetserleg in Tryon, N.C.But as USEA CEO Rob Burk explained,
“Unfortunately, the USEF requires all nominations for the Equestrian of Honor or the Horse of the Year to be submitted by November 9. The USEA Rider of the Year came down to the very last event of the year from a points perspective and our season ends on November 30th. Our season was still quite active as of November. When the USEF reached out to us in October, we were not yet prepared to submit an annual Horse or Rider nomination; however we indicated that we were interested in submitting nominees for those awards once the season was closer to a conclusion.
“Once the Tryon CCI-4*L (November 11-15) was completed, we reached out again to the USEF but they indicated that the nominations were closed at that time. So unfortunately for us, the timing of the USEF award prevented submissions.
Another international discipline, dressage, saw limited FEI competition between March and the end of the season, but Adequan®/USDF Grand Prix Horse of the Year Suppenkasper was undefeated in 15 starts this year, under the guidance of Steffen Peters. His final victory came Nov. 22 in the Thermal Desert Dressage CDI3* Grand Prix Special .USDF President Lisa Gorretta said USEF’s timeline on nominations was “earlier than we were prepared for” and therefore no name was submitted.
Said the USEF spokesperson, “We’ve discussed this internally with our team and it is something we plan to address with the affiliates for the 2021 awards nominations process, since it’s the first time we’ve heard that feedback from them. We want as many athletes represented as possible, so we will try to improve this process next year to be sure everyone has enough time to submit nominees, particularly on the international side.”
by Nancy Jaffer | Jan 17, 2021
During all the Covid-related down time, you’ve probably had many hours to weed out your tack trunk as part of your closet-cleaning spree.
So take your used tack, horse-related items, jewelry, knick-knacks, models and riding clothes (from those closets) to Riding with HEART in Pittstown and Mane Stream (adaptive riding and therapy services) in Oldwick, Riding with HEART’s sale is March 27 (10 a.m.-3 p.m.) and March 28 (noon-3 p.m.). Mane Stream’s is April 10 from 8 a.m.-4 p.m.Proceeds from the sales at both 501c3 organization’s benefit their offerings and horses.
Donations for Riding with HEART can be dropped off at 619 Route 513, Pittstown from 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Mondays-Fridays and noon-3 p.m. Saturdays. Call (908) 739-5912 before you come. Email tacksale@ridingwithheart.org to arrange for a different drop-off time or ask for a pick-up for a big donation within an hour’s drive.Item
Items for Mane Stream can be dropped off at the stable at 83 Old Turnpike Rd., Oldwick during office hours. Those who have questions should contact Jen Dermody at jen@manestreamnj.org, 908-439-9636 or visit the website at www.ManeStreamNJ.org
