“This is the best two weeks of my life,” Dick Feldman liked to say about the Lake Placid Horse Show, which he served as chairman for more than a quarter-century.
Dick, who died last week at 83 after a long illness, was devoted to the two-week fixture in upstate New York.
“I don’t like it — I love it,” he declared more than once about the show whose board he joined in 1987.
His enthusiasm ran from the big picture of what it took to run the show, right down to picking up lost children and loose dogs.
If an exhibitor didn’t have sufficient shavings for a horse’s stall, he’d deliver them himself when necessary.
During the show, he would ride his horse over from his nearby Woodlea farm at 7 a.m., going around the entire grounds inspecting things and making sure everything was safe, always ready for more work on the project to which he devoted himself.
“The horse show business is a hands-on business,” he once explained.
Richard M. Feldman
“He wears the show on his sleeve,” Lake Placid’s technical coordinator, David Distler, commented a few years ago.
“His heart’s in the right place. He wants to make Lake Placid one of the top shows. He wants everyone to come and love it.”
Dick’s philosophy toward those who are part of the show went this way: “If you treat them as if they were your family, they will treat you like you were their father.”
Margie Engle, a regular at the show, once noted, “He’s a friend to everybody. If you need something, he’s there. He’s not the type of person who’s nice because of who you are. I’ve seen him talking to a leadline kid who’s nervous about going in the class. Whatever he can do to make people enjoy themselves at the show, he does.”
He was employed for 40 years with Lehman Brothers, where he became the company’s youngest national sales manager and then a senior vice president and managing director of investments,
But it was horses that were a lifetime focal point for Dick. Although his family was very involved in racing (they owned 1987 Belmont Stakes winner Bet Twice), his real interest was show horses, fox hunters (he served as master of the old Hidden Hollow Hounds in New Jersey). His involvement also extended to being a trustee of the U.S. Equestrian Team Foundation.
“The Lake Placid Horse Show Association and the entire world of equestrian show jumping mourns the loss of Richard M. Feldman,” said Philip Richter, who succeeded Dick as the show’s chairman.
“He worked tirelessly to improve our sport and threw his heart, soul and wallet into making the Lake Placid Horse Show one of the most popular and best managed shows on the “A” circuit.
“It is an honor for me, as the new chairman of the Lake Placid Horse Shows, to continue to build upon his legacy, momentum and success. Richard positively impacted many lives in the world of equestrian sports and on Wall Street. His influence and dedication will be greatly missed by his friends, family and all those who were lucky enough to know him. The Board and Executive Committee extends our deepest sympathies to Richard’s family, and in particular to his wife, Diana, who, alongside Richard, has played a key role in the decades-long success of the Lake Placid Horse Shows.
When he was given the key to the Olympic Village and inducted into the Lake Placid Hall of Fame in 2009, Dick said, “This is my Academy Award. To be honored by the town on behalf of the horse show is a great honor and I have overwhelming gratitude for the town. This is the pinnacle of everything I’ve done and I am so thankful to everyone in town, not only for this honor, but also for all they have done to support the horse shows.”
Memorial services are tentatively planned for New York City in April and for Lake Placid during this summer’s horse shows, June 26 – July 8.
Memorial donations may be made “In Memory of Richard M. Feldman” to the Lake Horse Show Association, 5514 Cascade Road, Lake Placid NY 12946.–Nancy Jaffer