By Nancy Jaffer October 21, 2016 “It was the luckiest day of my life when I met Jennie Brannigan,” said Beth Battel, who has owned Footlight Farm in Roosevelt, Monmouth County, for 37 years. A rider, trainer and horse breeder, Beth is a half-owner...

With the major competitions of 2021 now behind us, how do you get your eventing fix until the season starts again in earnest? Here’s an easy answer that offers an opportunity for entertainment and education while relaxing by the fireplace. Sip that...

Back to normal, and it feels so good. Seeing the hundreds of people who came out this morning to watch the Essex Foxhounds gather for their annual Thanksgiving meet was quite a contrast to the scene in 2020. Last year, the front field of the...

With two important competitions separated by 317 miles this weekend, Beacon Hill Show Stable’s crew handled the distance and came up a winner at both the National in Lexington, Ky., and the Washington International in Tryon, N.C. The Colts Neck,...

The Jersey Fresh International three-day event will not be held in 2022, even though the Horse Park of New Jersey trustees had voted to stage it one last time. Under the new U.S. Equestrian Federation eventing calendar process, it lost its 4-star...

There is concern about the future of Dressage at Devon, though you might not have thought so after seeing the crowd that packed the grandstands for Grand Prix night last Saturday The U.S. Equestrian Federation Heritage Show is always popular with...

New Jersey dressage competitors made quite an impact at the U.S. Equestrian Federation national championships last summer, and they proved over the weekend during ShowPlus Dressage at Devon that was no fluke. Even though multiple national champion...

The grandstands were packed with enthusiastic spectators cheering each ride in the featured Saturday night classes of ShowPlus Dressage at Devon, and the competitors rose to the occasion for their expectant audience. The group that had ridden in...

“Awesome!” “Excellent!” “Beautiful!” So much fun!” “A blast!” Those comments and similar remarks were expressed by happy riders crossing the finish line at the Tewksbury Trail Association’s Trail Pace on a sparkling, almost-autumn Sunday at...

Catherine Haddad-Staller wanted to salute the outstanding success of New Jersey dressage riders and trainers during the U.S. Equestrian Federation’s Festival of Champions, so she borrowed a tradition from Europe for a celebration at her Califon...

It’s been a crazy year in the equestrian world, as in every part of the globe, but Covid and the Olympics combined for an especially challenging situation on the competition front. Those who rose above it had to make a lot of compromises and be...

The Olympic closing ceremonies didn't wrap up the global athletic competition in Tokyo. Now the U.S. Equestrian Federation is focusing its attention on the Paralympics, which begin there Aug. 24 and run through Sept. 5. But first, after scores of...

Time for a deep breath, as the equestrian portion of the Olympics comes to an end. For some riders, that deep breath will be a sigh, as they're wishing things had gone better. For others, it will be a chance to remove the masks that were...

If the pressure felt enormous in today’s team show jumping qualifier, just wait until tomorrow. Ten teams will be going for three medals as the equestrian portion of the quirky Tokyo Olympics concludes. The candidates were culled from 19 countries...

The Olympic show jumping medalists are pictured at the top of the page, as the discipline's individual competition wrapped up in Tokyo. Read the blog to get the timeline of how it all happened. It's 6 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time and the individual...

Another contingent of U.S. riders is taking to the arena at Baji Koen Equestrian Park today to compete in the first qualifier for the individual show jumping medals, the opposite of the usual order, when the team goes first, as it did in dressage...

It's 7:15 a.m. EDT and the top 25 riders are still walking designer Santiago Varela's course where they will contest the individual medals. It's shorter than the course for the team final that finished earlier today. (See the story on this website)...

It's 4 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time and the eventing stadium jumping is under way  at Baji Koen Equestrian Park. We're starting out with the lowest-placed riders after cross-country, as the competitors proceed in reverse order of merit. Designer...

(This blog is being updated with the second session of eventing dressage. It starts with the first session and continues into the second session, so keep going down to get the latest information.) It's 7:30 p.m Eastern Daylight Time as three-day...

There were a few surprises in the dressage competition at the Olympics; the U.S. got its first team silver in the discipline since 1948, and there was a new face on the highest level of the podium after the individual competition. No one was...

  I put the medalists in the headline, but to find out how they got to the podium and what happened to the other riders, follow my live blog. It's 4:30 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time as the final dressage competition of the Tokyo Olympics gets...

Yes, it's 4 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time on July 24, and it's finally happening! After a year's postponement due to Covid, horses actually are competing in the lovely arena at Baji Koen Equestrian Park, which also hosted Tokyo's 1964 Olympic Games....

A new partnership has been formed between Global Equestrian Group, headed by Andreas Helgstrand and Wellington Equestrian Partners, whose CEO is Mark Bellissimo, with plans for an 11-acre expansion of WEP’s Palm Beach International Equestrian...

Although he started as the traveling reserve for the Olympic eventing team, I always had a feeling Doug Payne would make the squad. And today he did, with his longtime partner, Vandiver, owned by Doug; his wife, Jessica, and Debi and Kevin Crowley....

We all know about horse farms that regrettably have been sold for development in the face of ever- increasing suburbanization. The 350-acre Wildwood Farm, 20 miles from Memphis in Germantown, Tenn., would have seemed a likely candidate for that...

After seven years in Tewksbury, trainer Sara Schmitt next month is moving her operation to a larger venue at Riverfield Farm in Annandale, which was a top hunter-jumper operation when owner Karen Peterson Da Prato ran it as a show stable.. The...

The Essex Horse Trials didn’t run in 2020 due to Covid, but the event will be making up for that this summer, adding to the competition at Moorland Farm in Far Hills with tailgating, shopping, a car show and a concert. The fixture runs July 17-18,...

A quick description of Ray Francis would be perfectly accurate using just three words: dignified, respected and meticulous. But when one talks about him as a horseman’s horseman, there has to be more detail to explain his essence. A convivial top...

The horse show world has lost another icon during a very sad week. John Franzreb III, the ringmaster of ringmasters, died yesterday at age 79. He was diagnosed with cancer only recently, after coming back from last month’s Pin Oak show in Texas,...

There’s quite a lineup for the Jersey Fresh International Three-Day Event, which gets under way with dressage competition on Thursday, May 6 at the Horse Park of New Jersey in Allentown. (Diehards can attend the horse inspection on Wednesday for...

The Jersey Fresh International Three-Day Event will be back next month after missing its 2020 edition, when competitions across the country were shut down due to the pandemic. This time around, plenty of top riders are expected to take part, but...

At tonight’s U.S. Hunter Jumper Association Town Hall meeting, the question of when the public will be allowed to return to U.S. Equestrian Federation horse shows was asked several times--most notably by Hampton Classic Executive Director Shanette...

As thoughts turn to this summer’s Olympics, the names most familiar to the general public for U.S. team candidates are Adrienne Lyle with Salvino, who earned 80.170 percent in the Grand Prix Special a year ago (we’re waiting to see her ride the...

Think about hunter and jumper shows in Florida. What location comes to mind first? It’s probably Wellington, home of the Winter Equestrian Festival in Palm Beach County on the state’s east coast. That’s the circuit with the greatest name...

Monmouth at the Team is hitting the road. The innovative one-ring show that debuted at the U.S. Equestrian Team Foundation to an overwhelmingly positive reception in 2016 will be held instead this year at the Centenary University Equestrian Center...

A legend in the world of Equine Assisted Activities and Therapies, Octavia Brown got in on the ground floor of this significant movement, becoming a visionary instrumental in its growth. And at age 78, the Gladstone resident is still just as...

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...

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...

It was nearly everything a show jumper could hope for--a victory in a 4-star grand prix worth $213,300, over a track laid out by an Olympic course designer, and against an all-star field that included some of the sport’s biggest names, McLain Ward...

A third-place finish in the Adequan®/ USEF Para Dressage National Championships last weekend signified a triumph of will and commitment for Alanna Flax-Clark. Even traveling to the competition in Tryon, N.C., took some resolve during the Covid...

The ad Kevin Babington placed in the local newspaper during the late 1980s read something like this: “Young Irish lad specializing in problem horses…” That rang a bell with Deborah and Richard Roslowski of West Amwell, who just happened to have a...

When you’ve fallen off your horse, then ended up sporting a black eye and bloody nose after another ride, it may seem that you didn’t have a good day on the cross-country course. But if you earn a nice trophy at the end of the process, it’s a great...

As 1978 wound down, Denis Glaccum knew he was in trouble. With little time until his end-of-year deadline, he was not close to making his quota as a salesman for IBM. Inspired by something he read in an article about kids with cancer, he put a sign...

Summer used to be a time of seemingly endless horse shows, week after week of grands prix and hunter classes in North America; big shows, smaller shows, take your pick. It was always the occasion for partying in the VIP area, seeing old friends,...

Sally Ike stepped down yesterday as managing director of the U.S. Equestrian Federation’s Licensed Officials committee, but don’t think for a minute that she is just retiring. A multi-faceted pillar of the equestrian community, she will become a...

The Far Hills Race Meeting, an annual tradition that draws more than 30,000 spectators in October, has joined the Covid cancelled list on its 100th anniversary year. A New Jersey state regulation limiting crowd size to 500, except for a protest or...

The Pennsylvania National Horse Show and Washington International Horse Show equitation championships and the junior jumper national championships are moving to North Carolina’s Tryon International Equestrian Center--home of the 2018 FEI World...

Heather Mason was the U.S. Dressage Federation’s owner of the year in 2019. In 2020, however, like so many others during the pandemic fallout, “We are taking it one week at a time,” said the trainer, who owns Flying Change Farm in Tewksbury. This...

A viewing for respected trainer Ricci Desiderio, who died last month, will be held from 2-4 and 6-8 p.m. tomorrow, Aug. 5, at his Tranquillity Farm, 300 Old Chester Road, Chester, NJ. It is being arranged to allow for social distancing. Services on...

Boyd Martin decided to take it a little easy at the Horse Park of New Jersey's Horse Trials II yesterday. For the Iron Man, that means he only rode three horses as heat soared into the high 80s and beyond, winning the FEI 3-star on Fernhill Prezley...

As fear of the Covid-19 pandemic began to spread early in March, Jaime Potkalesky, the senior events manager for Reeves International, was getting nervous about the prospects for BreyerFest. Breyer is the signature brand of Pequannock-based Reeves,...

Melissa Murphy Rafano and two of her amateur rider friends have come up with an antidote for “stir crazy” after months of Covid lockdown. With the horse show circuit in disarray, answering the question, “What are we going to do this summer?” became...

The Covid lockdown hit the Horse Park of New Jersey hard at the beginning of the season, after the gates were closed March 18. The park’s finances were impacted by cancellation of its signature event, May’s Jersey Fresh International (which was...

Trainer Bob McDonald today denied an allegation involving sexual misconduct with a minor in 1973, following a decision by the U.S. Center for SafeSport that resulted in a lifetime ban from the U.S. Equestrian Federation. The husband of U.S....

Organizers of the MARS Essex Horse Trials at Moorland Farm in Far Hills have made the “agonizing decision” to cancel the 2020 edition, due to the complications of running it under Covid-related restrictions from the state and the U.S. Equestrian...

Remember when you were having fun at horse shows? It was back in the early days of 2020, a time during which you also could go to the beach, eat in a restaurant with friends and family or get your hair done. That was before Covid-19 (or as I call...

We lost the World Cup finals and Kentucky 5-star in April, the Devon Horse Show in May, Aachen in June and of course, the Olympics in July and early August. Will the cancellations due to the pandemic ever end? Sadly, they continue. Today’s victim...

It’s not really a surprise. With so much uncertainty about restarting the economy in the midst of the pandemic, the U.S. Equestrian Federation has extended its previous deadline for resuming competitions, training camps, clinics and other...