He was not only a great horseman, but racehorse trainer J. Willard Thompson also should be remembered as a great gentleman. The horse world lost a much-admired figure when he died Saturday at the age of 83 after a long illness.
A fixture at Monmouth Park for more than a half-century, Willard’s involvement in racing began when he was a steeplechase rider before switching to training in the early 1960s. He dominated the New Jersey racing scene in the 1970s, winning three consecutive training titles at Monmouth Park from 1975-1977 and two at the Meadowlands in the 1980s.
J. Willard Thompson (photo by equiphoto.com)
Willard was back in a big way several decades later, when he took the 2001 Monmouth title and had record earnings that year of nearly $1.6 million for his runners, many of whom raced in the colors of his Quiet Winter Farm. Some his most recent stakes winners included Jenny Bean Girl in the 2007 Jersey Girl Handicap and Pinot Grigio, who took the 2014 Open Mind Handicap.
In 1996, Willard won the first Virgil “Buddy” Raines Distinguished Achievement Award, honoring men and women who demonstrated a continuing commitment to the sport of thoroughbred racing and whose conduct has been exemplary for professionalism, integrity and service to the sport.
“It’s very hard to imagine Monmouth Park, and racing, without Willard,” said John F. Heims, Monmouth’s racing secretary.
“I’ve had the privilege of calling Willard my friend for nearly 20 years. We had spent countless hours in his office, the clocker’s stand, frontside and my office talking horses, politics and everything in between. With Willard, the generation gap just slipped away as age made no difference. He was kind and generous to everyone in this sport and his passing is a tremendous loss for our industry.”
From 17,863 starters, Thompson won 2,137 races, good for earnings of $30.5 million. With his longtime assistant, Sergio “Victor” Rabadan, Thompson’s most recent starter as a trainer was Snowday on Oct. 26 at Laurel and the most recent starter for his Quiet Winter Farm was Arnold Ziffle, who finished third at Laurel as Willard watched on the internet, just a few hours before he died.
Thompson was married to the former Carol Hofmann, a show jumper who rode for the U.S. Equestrian Team and died in 2013. An Olympic alternate in 1968, after the Games Carol accepted an invitation from a friend to “come to Aiken, S.C. for a quiet winter.”
On her second day there, Carol met Willard, and after that, as she always said, “It was definitely not a quiet winter.” But least that gave the couple a name for their Colt’s Neck farm.
Last year, Willard finished a novel, “The Mission,” that he had begun in the 1960s.
As he recalls in the book’s preface, the draft “was lost moving back and forth between Florida, South Carolina, and New York and never finished. Recently, I found the book in the bottom of my desk drawer. Now, at the age of 82, I finally got around to finishing it.”
The book, available from Barnes and Noble and Amazon, centers on a man who has everything, but is bored, and decides to rob the bank where he works.
“Things seemed simpler back then and in other ways, they’re still the same — people still yearn to be successful without really knowing what that is and whether they have achieved it,” Willard observed.
Proceeds from the book will go to the Retired Racehorse Project in Maryland. Here is a link to the book’s website.
Willard’s survivors include sons Glenn and Stewart; daughter Julia and nine grandchildren: Julia, Parker, McKenzie, Wyatt, Mizuki, Taylor, Landon, Shelby and Bradyn.
A celebration of Willard’s life will be held in the spring to coincide with the opening of Monmouth Park’s 2019 racing season.
It seems like common sense to acknowledge that New Jersey’s horse industry is part of the agricultural community, but everyone doesn’t see it that way.
To some who raise crops, “Horse people are not farmers. That’s the mentality,” noted equine veterinarian Brendan Furlong, recalling a comment from an acquaintance whose business is growing vegetables. And that farmer isn’t alone in his viewpoint.
In an attempt to change the mindset, members of the horse industry got together with farmers this week at the Desiderio family’s Tranquillity Farm in Chester during the “Equine is Agriculture” gathering.
Explaining the effort to have representatives of both sectors at the meeting, Brendan said, “We’re trying to integrate them.”
Such a move seems long overdue, considering their shared concerns about such issues as farm labor, farmland preservation, waste management and the pressures of development, as well as the often-burdensome regulations that go with the territory in the country’s most densely populated state.
Brendan’s Oldwick-based practice, B.W. Furlong Associates, partnered with the New Jersey Farm Bureau, Califon Animal Hospital (one of its owners, Mary Beth Hamorski, is a past president of the N.J. Association of Equine Practitioners) and John Deere/Central Jersey Equipment on the program. It drew 135 people to the show stable’s indoor arena for the lively session.
Brendan’s son, Adam, a vice president of both the Furlong practice and the Horse Park of New Jersey, said that as a member of the New Jersey Agricultural Society’s Leadership Development Program, he learned, “There was a sense the equine community was separate from the agricultural community.”
He put in a call to discuss the subject with Somerset County hay farmer Ryck Suydam, the farm bureau’s president, who is well aware of the horse industry’s importance to larger New Jersey agricultural picture.
“Our interests are perfectly aligned with each other,” said Ryck. “What is good for the hay farmer is good for the horse owner and vice versa.”
The two began planning for the event about a year ago. Ryck said this is the first in a series of such get-togethers, with another already requested for Gloucester County.
Such meetings facilitate what he called “old school networking,” with people getting together beforehand and afterwards to share their points of view.
“It’s better face-to-face that it is in an email or a tweet,” Ryck continued. The last time the Farm Bureau did something similar, when the subject was changes in farmland assessment, three such meetings were planned. “We wound up doing 11,” he said.
The question is why there has been a lack of cohesiveness between equestrian interests and non-equine farmers in the Garden State, where the horse is the state animal.
“I don’t think either side is to blame,” observed Adam.
“Equine is very definitely a big component of agriculture,” he continued, explaining organizers of the event want to “create a more singular voice. If we look out for interests of the equine community, it’s going to go hand-in-hand with the agricultural community. Likewise, we should support farm legislation in general.
“If commodities go up in price because land values skyrocket, or it becomes too inefficient to farm here, it will have a negative impact on the equine community in New Jersey. People are moving out; it spirals.”
Citing the Horse Park’s struggle to obtain more funding, Adam observed, “the only way get it is if more revenue is counted in through agriculture and/or equine and showing the state this is a revenue-producing industry for them.”
Speakers included Brian Smith, chief of legal affairs for the State Agriculture Development Committee. He discussed the right-to-farm act, which offers protection to agricultural operations. Its website is worth a look at http:nj.gov/agriculture/sadc/rtfprogram, particularly for those whose operations are having trouble with neighbors taking issue with farming in their area.
Ed Wengryn, a farm bureau research associate, offered welcome news that the much-hated sales tax on boarding horses, which went into effect in 2006, may soon be a thing of the past. A bill pending in the state Legislature is designed to repeal it, but a provision to make it retroactive didn’t fly because it would be too costly and complicated to refund the money collected over the last 12 years. Equestrian interests have been trying for more than five years to kill the fee, which is a “storage” tax, similar to what you would pay to keep your sofa and bookshelves at a facility somewhere.
“Horse are livestock, they are not furniture,” Ed pointed out. The bill, which has been passed by the Assembly, will go through the Senate budget process and from there to a floor vote.
Brendan gave an equine health update, discussing the importance of turnout and ways to feed horses more naturally (less grain, more forage), cutting down on the chances of colic in the process.
Organizers of the meeting are hoping more horse people will join the Farm Bureau and help its efforts with their support. The cost is $150 for a regular membership, $60 for an associate membership and a $210 corporate membership. Fine out more at https://njfb.org/join/.
The bureau offers information on current farm issues through a weekly newsletter, a quarterly publication and its website. Among many other initiatives its efforts include working with legislators, providing leadership development for young farmers and focusing on immigration reform to ensure a stable and affordable source of farm labor.
“I hope the Farm Bureau increases their membership out of this,” said Adam.
“I want the farming community to think about changing the mindset, being supportive of each other and really acknowledging how much our interests are aligned.”
The phrase “old-fashioned fun” is too seldom heard these days in connection with equestrian sports, which tend to be high stakes, played with horses bearing even higher pricetags.
So it was refreshing to roll back the clock this weekend at the Masters’ Chase, “a family-friendly day of amateur horse racing” put on by the Peapack-based Essex Fox Hounds (essexfoxhounds.org) and the Countryside Alliance of the Somerset Hills. It all took place on the great lawn at Natirar, a former estate in Peapack now owned by the Somerset County Park Commission.
Don’t confuse this with the 98th Far Hills Race Meeting, which will be run a little more than a mile down the road next Saturday at Moorland Farm in Far Hills. That’s serious business, professional steeplechasing complete with pari-mutuel wagering this year for the first time, and $850,000 in purses. (See the On the Rail section of this website for more information about the Far Hills Race Meeting.)
The Masters’ Chase didn’t offer purses; its prizes were ribbons, small trophies and lots of candy for the kids taking part, along with opportunities for real amateur riders to get a taste of what it’s like to race, the thrill of pounding hooves and cheers from the crowd. Some competitors, like the team that won the baton relay, wore racing silks. Others were togged in hunting attire or show clothes. But few crossed the finish line without smiles on their faces.
The relay was lots of excitement for the six teams of four participating, particularly with the trickiness of passing off a baton while barely pausing in mid-gallop.
Nancy McCaffrey was grinning broadly after coming in first in the Senior Fieldmaster race on Simon. Her trainer, Ann Sullivan Scher, had warned her that Simon was rather slow. Nancy, of Far Hills, was glad to find that wasn’t the case in this instance.
“It was fantastic,” said Nancy of her racing experience over fences. “He was just so strong. He just wanted to win.”
Ann, who brought eight horses to the Masters’ Chase, recounted Simon’s interesting history. He is by Sale Johnson’s stallion, Golan. His granddam is Isle of Erin, a great show ring performer for the Scher family. Simon was trained by top show jumper Laura Chapot and was the high money-winner in the Preliminary division in Florida years ago. He also jumped with Sarah Segal in amateur classes and has spent time hunting.
The race was led by Karen Murphy, joint master of Essex with Jazz Merton. She set a sensible pace for the 10-horse field over fences at various heights arranged around the lawn, then peeled away before the home stretch to allow the contenders to battle it out on the flat.
There were similar races for juniors and ponies. Karen rode at the head of the pack for all of them, alternating among her three gray horses; George Clooney, Sean Connery (do you see a naming pattern here?) and Bentley.
Jackie Gattoni of Bedminster got popped off her horse, Levi, over a fence in the Senior Fieldmaster race, but true to the sporting spirit, came back with him to win one section of the Senior Foxhunter Flat Race in a close call over Nancy and Simon.
While Simon has quite a background and lineage, the day drew all kinds of horses and ponies, like the black-and-white pony aptly named Oreo, ridden by Ian Ucko. The little paint ran gallantly in several races, before taking a break to nibble grass and get some love.
The smaller children were involved in stick pony races for three age groups, making early converts to the equestrian scene. The winners got three-streamer blue ribbons; all the other participants got rosettes with checked streamers on either side of the main ribbon.
The next age group up had the option of a lead-line race, in which the leaders walked, or a match in which the folks holding the line could run.
Take a look at the video below to get the flavor of the Masters’ Chase, which started off with an appearance by Essex huntsman Bart Poole and the hounds, who made friends with the kids. In the stick pony race, watch for the little girl in pink boots who dropped behind the rest of the field but didn’t give up.
While racing was the afternoon’s focus, there were other things going on as well.
Prudence Theriault of Kinderhook Lake, N.Y., was recruited for the new vendor village by her friend Penelope Ayers, who organized the initiative in a tent on one side of the racecourse.
“I love the combination of the jewelry and the horses; I have fox earrings and pawprint jewelry for the dog lovers,” said Prudence, who designs the pieces she sells. Other vendors offered dog beds, paintings, honey and a variety of knick-knacks.
Tailgating was right next to the track, enabling mounted riders and their friends to mingle and grab a sandwich or a drink. Mary Lane sat comfortably on her horse, Denali, sipping champagne (what else?) from a plastic glass.
“That’s what makes it a race day,” she said cheerfully of the bubbly.
Wallis Weiner-Trapness was next to her, enjoying the ambience aboard her mare, Brons Flicka (a great-granddaughter of Bold Ruler).
“I’ve been involved in this event since it started (in 2013),” said Wallis.
“I love competing in it. It takes me three months to get the horse quieted back down. It’s a great day of friends competing against each other. It’s a great venue and it’s getting bigger and bigger every year.”
Wallis pointed out that Essex started the races that became the Moorland meeting. The steeplechase originally was done as a thank you to farmers and landowners over whose acreage Essex hunted. The fixture became known as “the hunt races,” and although the hunt is no longer involved, some people insist on referring to the Moorland races as “the hunt.” Anyone who calls it that obviously doesn’t know what they’re talking about…
Sally Ike, who missed much of the action because she was the “front gate host,” had a chance to see everyone at the end of the day for socializing and reminiscing.
“It reminds me of what steeplechasing was like in the old days. It’s a family outing and a community-based thing and it was a great deal of fun,” said Sally, who chairs the Essex hunt committee.
“It’s an opportunity for our neighbors to come together on a Saturday afternoon and just enjoy being out and watching the races. What struck me was the public coming in to watch. That’s the kind of atmosphere we want to have.” She would also like to see more riders participate.
This year, members of the Windy Hollow and Amwell Valley hunts took part.
“We had a great group of people,” said Karen Murphy, who thanked the park commission for its cooperation.
“I absolutely loved it. This is super fun. It was super inviting and nice,” said Gabrielle Sterling of Amwell.
Ed Wiley, joint master of Windy Hollow, noted, “I think the concept of getting the various equestrian organizations together to enjoy a day of good sport is fantastic, and I thank the Essex Foxhounds for accomplishing that task.”
At the end of three phases of competition, 2017 ASPCA Maclay winner Maddy Goetzmann and 2018 North American Young Rider show jumping individual gold medalist Daisy Farish were 1-2 in the Platinum Performance USEF Show Jumping Talent Search Finals East. But it wasn’t over yet.
Yesterday’s flat and gymnastics segments–as well as this morning’s show jumping—each were won by Maddy, who looked as if she were gearing up to take the whole thing this afternoon at the U.S. Equestrian Team Foundation headquarters in Gladstone. Her total for the three phases was 421, to 406 for Daisy.
The only segment left to contest was the Final Four, where the top quartet of riders started with a clean slate to compete over a shortened course, then rode the same route aboard each of the other finalists’ horses.
While Maddy earned a 90 on her mare, Faemes Van T Poelzelhof (AKA Famous) Daisy got an 88 with Arsouille Des Etangs, the horse she brought to the party. So Maddy was still ahead at the end of round one.
Maddy stayed one point in front of Daisy when each rode Cooper Dean’s Braavos. But the game changed in the third round when Maddy was on Arsouille, who cross-cantered, where the horse is on one lead in front and the other behind.Judge Ralph Caristo, who noted the young women had been “neck-and-neck” called the mishap “a slight bobble” but after everything was added up, that little mishap gave the title to Daisy by a single point.
In Ralph’s view, however, “To me, they were both the winners of this class.”
Last month was the first time that FEI World Equestrian Games has not used a Final Four format to decide its individual show jumping titles, but the other Talent Search judge, Chris Kappler, likes the concept continuing as part of this competition.
“I can understand why they have taken it out of the WEG, because of such big jumping,” said Chris.
“But I think it’s still very important. It makes this class different and distinct. You really get to see the horsemanship, the feeling, that these riders can give. We tried to have a somewhat simple course…that riders really had to use their eye…and their ratability and feeling for the horse.”
Maddy and Daisy, who are close friends, held hands as they waited for the announcement about who had won, then embraced as they heard the decision. Daisy’s score in the final four was 349, to Maddy’s 348.
“I knew it was going to be close, and I wasn’t sure which way it would go,” said Daisy, a 17-year-old high school senior from Kentucky.
“I felt the same way as Daisy…when it was just us two, the final two, and Daisy won,” said Maddy, briefly breaking into tears, “it was a very proud moment, we’ve been dreaming of this for awhile, she’s been one of my best friends for a long time.”
Maddy, who is coached by Stacia Madden and Beezie and John Madden, is headed in the next few weeks for the USEF Medal finals and Washington International horsemanship championship with her longtime ride, San Remo VDL. She isn’t sure if she will try the Talent Search again. Unlike the other finals, which are only open to juniors under 18, riders can compete in the Talent Search until they are 21. But she’ll be starting at Fordham University in September 2019, so what the New York resident does after that is to be decided.
Cooper, who finished third with a score of 311, works for Heritage, the farm headed by Andre Dignelli, the 1985 Talent Search winner who is also Daisy’s coach. A 19-year-old from Alabama, Cooper was reserve champion in the Medal last year. He noted that two weeks ago, he didn’t know what horse he was going to ride, and gave heartfelt thanks to Andre, the judges and God “because I wouldn’t be here without his support. To come here is a dream come true.”
Asked what he does at Heritage, he said, “I ride as many horses as I can. When they need me to be there at 3 in the morning, I’ll be there at 3 in the morning. Whatever needs to be done, if they need me to do it, I do it.”
Lili Kaissar, fourth on a score of 309, is going to Vanderbilt University in the fall of 2019 and hopes to become an equine vet.
The 18-year-old New Yorker was the only Final Four competitor who rode her own horse, Salt Lake. The dark brown gelding, who has an endearing habit of sticking his tongue out of his mouth as he goes around the ring, was named Best Horse of the finals.
The other riders’ mounts were leased or borrowed for a class that goes above and beyond what is required in most equitation finals. That was reflected in the fact that there were only 33 starters this weekend, down from 52 last year.
The idea of the Talent Search is to discover riders who have the ability to go on and perhaps someday represent the U.S. internationally, the way such previous winners as McLain Ward, Richard Spooner and Charlie Jayne have done.
“I think the great part of this final is the people who have won it in the past, and just looking at where they have gone in their riding careers,” said Daisy, who emphasized that her life will include “something to do with riding” after she goes to college.
Frank Madden, who trains Lili with his wife, Jennifer, noted that in 1982, when the Talent Search began, the only other equitation finals were the Maclay and the AHSA Medal (now the USEF Medal). Then the Washington International Horse Show put in a final, and soon a host of other championships were on the calendar.
“I think people have so many options and they made the standards of this more difficult than it had been,” Frank observed.
“You need a special horse. I think a lot of people have made the choice, (and say) `Maybe we’re not ready for this’,” he commented, though he suggested professionals need to keep an eye on what’s happening “so we don’t let it turn into 25 kids.”
Other trainers suggested lower numbers might stem from the advent of an easier option, the new USHJA jumping seat championship that has 3-foot, 3-inch fences, as opposed to the 1.20 meter (over 3-feet, 9-inches) that is the maximum obstacle height in the Talent Search, which also requires a water jump.
In other years, we’ve often seen competitors who really weren’t ready for the Talent Search challenge. Some of them may have opted for the USHJA class this year. The riders who participated this weekend all rose to the occasion, without the unhappy outcome for some that has happened in other years.
Stacia Madden pointed out that the sensible courses devised by Ralph and Chris were most welcome. The gymnastics at the Talent Search, for instance, had “historically been kind of a sticky wicket,” she noted, citing the fact that segment often relied on gimmicks. This time, it was more straightforward, including a serpentine of four fences down the middle of the ring, which gave the judges the opportunity to see “how their legs their hands, their seats, all work together; their eyes, using all their aids,” Chris explained.
Stacia was grateful that the gymnastics “were going to be something productive to treating these horses well and working on their jumping style and rideablity and letting judges judge the class, instead of the gimmicks. Ralph and Chris took this very seriously to make sure it was very standard and straightforward. I think the horses and riders were able to all solve the problems and come away feeling like they learned something.”
Asked what he thought of the event, managed by international judge David Distler, Frank–who has attended since the first finals–said, “Class is a word that comes to mind. This is such a class place, a class event for 33 classy riders here this year and two very classy guys judging it. It was the best of all the USEF finals I’ve been to.”
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.
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.
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 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.
“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.”
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.
While a number of shows in its region have been scratching for participants this summer, Monmouth at the Team is so well-attended that part of the mandate for next year is figuring out a way to limit entries for certain competitions.
The show, with an eight-day run through Monday Aug. 20 at the historic U.S. Equestrian Team Foundation facility in Gladstone, has an appeal that is more than just location, location, location. It’s also a well-run show, owned by insurance executive Tucker Ericson and his cousin, professional horseman Michael Dowling, who has a stable nearby and is a coach of the Centenary University equestrian team.
“Our objective is to develop this and not grow it into something that’s about numbers,” said Michael. He and Tucker bought New Jersey’s oldest horse show three years ago and moved it from Monmouth County to Somerset County, giving it a new and more exciting identity.
“It’s interesting, because I know some of the (other) shows’ entries have been down,” Michael observed. Meanwhile, he said, “we are struggling with getting everybody in the ring and out, and not letting it get too big. We’re always looking at how can we do this a little bit better each year?”
There are no ring lights at the facility, which means some days, there’s a race to conclude everything before sunset. The $10,000 Bobcat Derby, which drew 59 entries in its 2-foot, 2-6 section and 35 in the separately pinned 3-foot section, for instance, wrapped up just as twilight was falling.
“The biggest thing we have to take into consideration the limitations we have of the ring,” noted Michael. This is basically a one-ring show, though occasionally something is held in the indoor arena.
The atmosphere is reminiscent of an A-rated competition because of the venue and the hospitality, but the show’s highest-rated days are B, and some days are unrecognized by the U.S. Equestrian Federation. It presents an opportunity for those at the lower levels of the sport to be able to participate in a prestige fixture.
The last time Sima Morgello rode at the foundation grounds was in her equitation days at the Platinum Performance/U.S. Equestrian Federation Show Jumping Talent Search Finals East. This was the 22-year-old New York University graduate’s first visit to Monmouth at the Team and she loved it—an emotion heightened by her victory on Orientales in the $10,000 Mini-Prix sponsored by Horseflight.
“It was fantastic. It’s a very special horse show. It’s very inspiring for people to see the history of the sport. They’re at a top, top facility which is always a pleasure,” she said.
“The divisions are very welcoming to riders at all the levels. The horse show really did think about making sure everybody had an opportunity to show themselves to the best of their abilities.”
“Most of the people who come back are people who are relatively local,” pointed out Michael. “We are thrilled because it’s an awesome atmosphere.
Noting, “the judges are impressed by the quality of horses coming through the ring,” he commented, “it’s really fulfilling our objectives and what we want this to develop into. We have to fine-tune some things and make sure we’re giving back to the people who sponsor, and involving more of the local community, not just the horse people, but the local merchants and restaurants and trying to increase the entertainment aspect and atmosphere.”
Tucker said having a single ring enables the community to join together and bond, instead of being scattered among arenas. “I think that adds a lot of strength for the community.”
Sima, who rides out of River Run Farm in Long Valley with her partner, Devin Ryan, led off the tie-breaker of 12 riders from the field of 28 competing over Skip Bailey’s course in the mini-prix. After overhearing one of the riders talk about making a difficult, time-saving turn following the first fence, she decided to try the maneuver, with Devin advising “go for it…make everyone chase you.”
She pulled it off with her “phenomenal” Selle Francais mare and became the only person in the tie-breaker to finish fault-free.
Discussing her success, Sima cited the support of her mother, Susan Morgello, and groom Eliane Feltz. A native of France, Eliane can reassure Orientales (also known as Chantilly) by speaking French to her, since that is the mare’s “first language,” the one she heard before being imported to this country.
Those who finished behind Sima in the class included Devin, fourth on the eye-catching chestnut, Florida. Devin, who was named this month to the U.S. show jumping team for the FEI World Equestrian Games, enjoys Monmouth at the Team not only as a good place to put mileage on jumpers (he’s always looking to develop his next big horse) but also as a chance to compete a convenient 20 minutes or so from home after spending time in Europe, most recently in Aachen and Dublin.
B.J. Ehrhardt, who took hunter and jumper style awards, won the 3-foot portion of the Bobcat Derby on Leigh Creamer’s Dutchbred, Micah 7:7. She grew up in northern New Jersey’s Bergen County and showed all over the state. Now based in Goshen, N.Y., she still has a lot of friends in the Garden State, including Leah, who is from Saddle River and names her horses after Biblical verses.
“I love this horse show. I love the barn,” said B.J. Part of the charm involves housing horses staying overnight in stalls named after famous U.S. Equestrian Team mounts. Micah occupied the stall named for Udon, Steffen Peters’ 1996 Olympic dressage team bronze medal ride.
The show is more than business for B.J.
“I love the whole ambience of it. They’re so pleasant here. It’s a great experience for my students and myself,” she said, noting that with the one ring, everyone can come and watch the classes because they don’t have to be running around to other rings.
“It’s all win-win to be here and be able to win,” she commented.
The 2-foot/2-6 section went to Heartbreaker and Libby Shea Dayton from Red Oak Farm in Stirling.
The Selle Francais belongs to the Storms family, but he hadn’t shown awhile since his owner went to school.
“This is his first attempt back. I think he did a pretty good job,” said Libby, who is trained by her mother, Bethie Dayton.
This was the first year the derby was broken into two sections, since management felt that the 3-foot competitors had dominated previously and wanted to give those jumping lower heights a chance for victory.
The derby is sponsored by the Nature Conservancy. It’s a fundraiser for Bobcat Alley, a 32,000-acre area on the border of Sussex and Warren counties where the organization wants to buy more land (the wish list is for 3,500 additional acres) so the endangered cats can move safely between the New Jersey Highlands, the Kittatinny Ridge and part of the Appalachian mountains.
Although some bobcats were imported from Maine to grow the bobcat population, there are only an estimated 300 to 400 in New Jersey.
“They’re still struggling,” said Barbara Brummer, the Nature Conservancy’s New Jersey state director.
Bobcat ear headbands with little tufts on top were much in evidence at the show, and those who taped them to their helmets got an extra point in the derby.
The USET Foundation will have another big hunter/jumper show in May, with the Junior Essex Troop’s Garden State fixture moving from Sussex County to Gladstone. Tucker will be managing it, and already is planning for the nine-day competition that likely will have a familiar feeling for those who have been to Monmouth at the Team.
“I think the shows will complement each other well, because now people know what kind of hospitality they can expect, they understand the footing can hold up to any kind of weather conditions,” said Tucker.
The iffy August weather might have wreaked havoc at another showgrounds, but not with the super drainage of the foundation’s ring.
“We had two days of steady rain,” observed Michael.
“The kids rode through it; the footing held up beautifully. It was a tribute to the facility and the reason we want to see it utilized and see our neighborhood enjoy it.”
Tucker noted that, “Sponsors already are lining up for Garden State. The shows will be a little bit different and distinct. The May show will be AA-rated, while in August, we have more grassroots focus.” He noted, however, that the first weekend of Garden State will be unrated with a $10,000 hunter derby before seven days of the double-A competition.
Barbara Brummer mentioned another initiative of the Nature Conservancy involves restoring habitat in the Paulinskill watershed for American shad, so I can see fish fins and tails taped to helmets if the organization decides to sponsor that derby at Garden State.
Asked how he analyzes the success of Monmouth at the Team, Tucker said, “Whether it’s food, décor, the courses or the awards, we don’t cut corners. If you don’t cut corners, you end up with a better return, because people know they can count on you.”
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