Even as the decades sped by, the dedicated alumni of Junior Essex Troop never forgot lessons learned or friends made in the cadet auxiliary of the Essex Troop, 102d Cavalry, New Jersey National Guard. As youngsters on a 13-acre farm in West Orange,...

Everyone on the show jumping circuit knows Karen Golding. She was a longtime groom for Olympian Michael Matz and the caretaker of the great Jet Run, with a reputation so outstanding that she became the only groom in the Show Jumping Hall of Fame....

From a stark orphanage in Ukraine, a country where trouble was brewing, to being named PATH International Youth Equestrian of the Year, Vika Christian has come a long way in a decade. And it was horses who helped her get there. PATH leads the...

The Essex Horse Trials is reinventing itself. Again. For the third time since its 2019 edition, when it was staged in late June at Moorland Farm in Far Hills, N.J., it has switched its date. Organizers are hoping that positioning Essex in early...

Boyd Martin has never been shy about advising people what he's up to, but he reached a new pinnacle in that regard with his new year letter (complete with photos) to friends, owners, supporters and sponsors. He touches on everything he's been up...

Take heart, working students. It is possible to make it to the top of the game with a lot of effort. A case in point is Adrienne Lyle, who began her rise as a working student for Debbie McDonald in 2005. Last night, she won the U.S. Equestrian...

As much as a new year is a time for looking ahead, it also is an opportunity to look back and enjoy a bit of nostalgia. For me, what filled the bill on the latter perspective was “The Outside of a Horse,” a book of recollections by Steven D. Price....

My headline, which I have always used for New Year’s stories over the decades, comes from a seldom-sung verse of a favorite carol, Deck the Halls. It is amazing how fast a year goes by, isn’t it? Last January, we were still feeling the effects of...

It’s a scene that resonates every autumn, set to the bright, beckoning notes of the huntsman’s horn and the music of hounds in full cry, played out against a backdrop of brilliantly colored leaves. Eager riders on neatly clipped mounts with...

In Part One last week, we talked about how New Jersey's hunt clubs are adapting, becoming more welcoming, even offering options for people who just want to walk and trot while following the hounds. Here is a link to that story. This week, we...

“Tally ho, ho, ho” a Christmas-spirited rider joyfully called out as a merry group on horseback set off to sing carols at three farms in Bedminster, N.J., today. The event was organized by the Somerset Hills Pony Club, which invited others,...

The new Channel System that went into effect this month for the 2023 season has nothing to do with TV. It’s an initiative for restructuring horse show competition licensing that takes some explaining, which is just what happened today during a...

The answer to the question above became even more obvious this evening, as world show jumping champion Henrik von Eckermann of Sweden won the Rolex International Jumping Riders Club Top Ten Final on the amazing King Edward. The excitement level was...

The Essex Equestrian Center in West Orange, N.J., where thousands of riders were introduced to horses over the decades, is closing this month. The stable, built in the early Twentieth Century, has been known by several names over the years,...

A true horsewoman with high standards and a generous soul, Judy Hofmann Richter always did whatever she could for those who crossed her path, whether they were people or animals. A great deal was lost when she died today, because, as her longtime...

All across the country, friends and families bond in several ways at Thanksgiving, whether it’s over football, watching the Macy’s parade or of course, sharing a turkey. But in New Jersey’s peaceful Somerset Hills, hundreds have adopted a different...

A horrific fall in a jump-off tragically put the brakes on professional rider Cassandra Kahle’s promising career last January. The following nine months have tested her, as she works to recover from a traumatic brain injury, focusing on therapy...

When you are spending time with your horses, it's quite possible you are being watched, whether you're showing, grooming, riding, training or engaged in some other activity. That's the way it is when everyone has access to a digital video camera,...

Irish rider Daniel Coyle got some good advice from his countryman, Conor Swail, before heading into the jump-off of the $250,000 Longines FEI World Cup at the Royal Winter Fair last night. After Daniel asked whether his main intent should involve...

El Conde told his rider, Nayel Nassar, he was up to the challenge of the $75,000 Centennial Cup speed class at the Royal Winter Fair in Toronto last night, even before the partnership entered the arena surrounded by a crowd that packed the stands...

The $138,000 Big Ben Challenge had an improbable winner last night, as international show jumping got under way in earnest at Toronto’s Royal Winter Fair. The field of 24 was star-studded, including 2021 Olympic individual gold medalist Ben Maher...

After a two-year pandemic-related absence, the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair finally is coming back to Toronto, where it will celebrate its hundredth anniversary in November. The finale of the North American Fall Indoor Circuit, the Royal has been...

The MARS Maryland 5-star at Fair Hill went from being a novelty to a real fixture last weekend in just its second edition, with riders enthusiastic about the venue and the opportunity it provides. Even so, as world number three-ranked eventer...

There's a reason Tim Price of New Zealand rose to the title of the world’s number one-ranked eventer this month. He’s not only a great technician, he’s also cool under immense pressure. With the USA’s Tamie Smith and Great Britain’s Oliver Townend...

The world’s number one-ranked eventer, Tim Price, shuffled the deck today at the MARS Maryland 5-star at Fair Hill, and the Joker came out on top. Joker is the barn name of Coup de Coeur Dudevin, a special horse who was up to the challenges of his...

A mere fraction separates first and second place in the MARS Maryland 5-star at Fair Hill three-day event, with Woods Baughman on the Hanoverian C’est la Vie 153 staying just 0.2 penalties ahead of world number one Tim Price on a Selle Francais,...

It’s a new ballgame at the MARS Maryland 5 Star at Fair Hill. In the second year of the USA’s second 5-star three-day event, cross-country course designer Ian Stark is upping the ante on his terrain-rich route, while riders are finding the kinks...

From the start there were challenges--then the tests became increasingly difficult this weekend at the Platinum Performance/USEF Show Jumping Talent Search Finals East. And that's how it should be. After all, with competition running over three...

Now it’s Silva Martin’s turn, as showcased during Dressage at Devon last week. The Martin who always had a franchise on the spotlight was Silva’s husband, Boyd, the Olympic eventer, with an outgoing personality that has won him friends and...

Never before have I seen a psychic in a horse show’s vendor village, so it was a first for me during Dressage at Devon when I spotted the booth offering crystal ball reading ($35) and Tarot card reading ($45). But I decided to save my money because...

Dressage at Devon is a magical name. Over the years, it has conjured inspiration for thousands of riders to do whatever it takes so they can ride in the famous Dixon Oval and become a part of history. It happened last night for Alice Tarjan, who...

There was a time when the horse show at New Jersey’s Somerset County 4-H Fair felt like a really big deal. The stables were full and the competition was serious. Judy Hennessey, a 4-H leader in the county, remembers that during the mid-1970s when...

It may be hard to believe in this era, but the concept of using horses for organized therapy was still in its infancy when Octavia Brown founded the Somerset Hills Handicapped Riders Club a half-century ago. The once-weekly program began on a...

What a ride! Today’s show jumping finale of the FEI World Eventing Championships was far from an anti-climax after Saturday’s thriller of a cross-country test at Pratoni del Vivaro in Italy. The course designed by Uliano Vezzani, set on undulating...

Former U.S.Equestrian Federation president and Olympic eventing gold medalist David O'Connor next month takes on a newly created position as the USEF's chief of sport, while Graeme Thom becomes the director of FEI/High-Performance Sport Programs....

The deck was reshuffled today by a demanding cross-country course at the FEI World Eventing Championships in Pratoni del Vivaro Italy, with team standings doing a switcheroo that put the U.S. in second place from third, elevated Germany to the...

The CBS show 48 Hours, which investigates "the most intriguing crime and justice cases," will begin its fall season with a program on the matter of dressage trainer Michael Barisone. Set to run at 10 p.m Saturday, it will explore how a U.S. Olympic...

What does the name Pepita con Spita mean? I’ve wondered since I started writing about the feisty show jumper a few years ago, and the question crossed my mind again today when she won the $405,300 FEI  5-star Grand Prix at HITS Saugerties with the...

It was quite a different Michael Barisone who came back to the Morristown, N.J., courtroom where he was tried for attempted murder last spring. The dressage trainer appeared today for a hearing that would determine whether he could be freed after...

There were so many remarkable stories out of the Land Rover Burghley Horse Trials in England, which ended today. It has certainly lived up to its reputation as the toughest of all the 5-stars (including Kentucky and Maryland in the U.S.)  under its...

New Jersey riders continued to do the state proud as the Dressage Festival of Champions came to a close at Lamplight Equestrian Center in Illinois today. It was quite the show, with 168 horses and riders across 15 divisions for seven days. The...

Alice Tarjan and Serenade MF made a clean sweep of the Grand Prix championship classes at the U.S. Dressage Festival of Champions today, after adding a freestyle win to her victories in the Grand Prix and Grand Prix Special earlier in the week at...

Joe Fargis had many words of wisdom for those participating in a sold-out clinic he gave at the U.S. Equestrian Team Foundation in Gladstone, N.J., this week. You need to listen when an Olympic double gold medalist tells you something. “Better to...

The answer to the question above is not just “airplanes.” It was time for a re-think after the team failed to finish in the top five at the FEI World Show Jumping Championships last week, which would have been an automatic ticket to the 2024 Paris...

It was an intensely exciting equestrian encounter that made history today: Ireland winning the Aga Khan trophy in a jump-off for its home Nations Cup at the Dublin Horse Show. The crowd in the packed stands around the emerald grass arena at the...

There’s a new queen of dressage. Great Britain’s Charlotte Fry made it two victories in a row with the expressive Glamourdale to take the Blue Hors Grand Prix Freestyle this evening at the Ecco FEI World Dressage Championships. It happened the day...

The glamorous Glamourdale and Great Britan’s Charlotte (Lottie) Fry short-circuited expectations for a home country winner at the Ecco FEI World Dressage Championships in Denmark, edging Danish star Cathrine Laudrup-Dufour and Vamos Amigos for the...

Denmark, as predicted, made history today, taking the place usually reserved for Germany at the top of the dressage world championships podium and earning the Scandinavian nation's first medal in the global title competition since it won bronze in...

At the top level of the sport, more and more dressage horses are reaching the heights. Multiple breathtaking performances impressed as the ECCO FEI World Championships got under way with the first day of the Blue Hors Dressage Grand Prix in front...

The FEI world championships, which get under way Saturday, are about more than medals. For dressage, show jumping and eventing, they are qualifiers for the 2024 Paris Olympics, while the para dressage is a qualifier for the 2024 Paralympics. Who...

Even without spectators in the grandstand, the U.S. Equestrian Team Foundation’s arena has character. The towering backdrop of the historic stables in Gladstone, N.J., offers a reminder that this is where so many of the country’s most famous riders...

Hunter rider Amanda Steege has had great success with Lafitte de Muze in the country’s most important hunter competitions. Even so, she admitted to some extra stress today during the inaugural $10,000 Bill Ellis Memorial/U.S. Hunter Jumper...

In the nation’s most densely populated state, the Horse Park of New Jersey is a tree-shaded oasis. I think of all the places where I used to compete not so long ago that have been developed or no longer stage shows—Coppergate in Basking Ridge,...

As a kid, Lauren Chumley didn’t have a pony. The family wasn’t into horses, and her parents weren’t paying for her to ride. But as Lauren pointed out, "Little girls that like horses are going to like horses, whether you have horses or not." Her...

If anyone had the pedigree to win the Open Preliminary section at the Essex Horse Trials, it was Isabelle Bosley. She knows Moorland Farm, where the Essex cross-country was held today, after dressage and show jumping were staged yesterday at the...

The Essex Horse Trials, which began in 1968, is a piece of eventing history that always looks toward the future. In a bold move, the competition's latest version was showcased this weekend at two venues--Moorland Farm in Far Hills and the U.S....

The American squad of up-and-coming horses and riders had quite a milestone as they were second in the Nations Cup of Rotterdam, Netherlands, today, with Alice Tarjan of Oldwick, N.J., the highest-placing rider on the Dutta Corp. U.S Dressage Team...

The U.S. will be hosting the Longines FEI World Cup finals twice in the next four years, with the Split Rock Jumping Tour’s Fort. Worth, Texas, venue just announced as the site of the show jumping and dressage competition, three years after Omaha’s...

You’ve got to love a town where the official seal bears the image of a show jumper, neatly clearing a vertical obstacle of red and white rails. That municipality is Far Hills, N.J., which has quite a history with horses. The name Far Hills has long...

An international dressage show scheduled for the Horse Park of New Jersey has been cancelled due to lack of entries and a complication involving withdrawal of one key official, but the Level 3 national Dressage at the Park show, scheduled in...

Hope Hand’s devotion to U.S. Para Dressage efforts over the decades paid off in three ground-breaking medals at last summer’s Tokyo Paralympics, part of the long process in which she played a key role as America’s status in the discipline was...

The management team that kept the Devon Horse Show running and relevant for decades resigned today. No one is more closely associated with the U.S. Equestrian Federation Heritage fixture than David Distler, who began working there in 1974, and...

I’ve written this story 12 times over the years since 1999, when McLain took his first grand prix at Devon with Twist du Valon and started a remarkable run as the fan favorite at the venerable show on Philadelphia’s Main Line. Seven years ago, the...

Alice Tarjan found herself in the company of such big names as Olympic medalists Steffen Peters and Adrienne Lyle today when the U.S. Equestrian Federation announced the Dutta Corp. U.S. Dressage Team Short List for the 2022 FEI Dressage World...

Bouncing back is Tamie Smith's specialty, and the same can be said of her Land Rover Kentucky Three-Day Event mount, Fleeceworks Royal. The mare's 5-star debut at the Kentucky Horse Park last month started with a dressage test that put her first in...

Thoroughbreds are few and far between at the upper ranks of three-day eventing, ever since the steeplechase and roads and tracks elements were eliminated from the sport's prestige competitions after 2005. With the departure of the long format,...

A memory from the 1984 Olympics that has stuck with me was French show jumper Pierre Durand walking out of the ring in Los Angeles with a bridle in his hand after Jappeloup refused and he fell off, along with the bridle. It was a sad picture, but...

Things are back to normal at the Land Rover Kentucky Three-Day Event, with people lining up several hours before the 5-star horse inspection yesterday to be sure that they got the best view of the stars from  the U.S. and five foreign countries,...

You know the ASPCA Maclay, the U.S Equestrian Federation Medal and the USEF Talent Search--they are the equitation finals that get the most publicity. But what about the American National Riding Commission Championships, which wrapped up last...

If you want a deeper understanding of the Michael Barisone attempted murder case, there are two movies you should see. One is Pacific Heights (1990), starring Michael Keaton as a tenant in an escalating dispute with his landlords that ended in...

After being in jail for nearly three years and charged with crimes that could have kept him behind bars for decades, Michael Barisone today was cleared of two charges by reason of insanity and ruled not guilty on three others after being tried for...

Switzerland's Martin Fuchs took the Longines FEI World Cup Show Jumping championship in Leipzig, Germany, today, with a two-horse approach. He rode Chaplin in the opening competition on Thursday, then switched to The Sinner for Saturday's jump-off...

Self-defense cannot be asserted in the Michael Barisone attempted murder trial, Superior Court Judge Stephen Taylor ruled today. The judge made that decision as he met this morning with defense and prosecution lawyers at the Morris County...