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 Thursday will be by invitation only because of Covid limitations on the number of people who can attend. Those who wish to make a contribution in Ricci’s memory can do so with the Arabian Horsemen’s Distress Fund, 236 Henry Sanford Road, Bridgewater, CT 06752 or online at https://www.horsemensdistressfund.com/
Thousands of people are mourning the loss of this equestrian who was also a devoted famliy man.Being a hard worker was an integral component of his identity.
“He was like the Energizer bunny, he would go and go nonstop,” recalled Kim Bonstein, who used to give lessons at the Desiderio family’s picturesque Tranquillity Farm in Chester Township.
When she suggested Ricci should slow down, the dynamic horseman told her, “Nope, I’m doing this for my kids, it’s what I’m leaving them.”
On July 27, said Ricci’s son, Michael, “We finally got him to take a day off.”
The Great Lakes Equestrian Festival in Traverse City, Mich., was dark that Monday, so the Desiderio family went boating with friends on nearby Torch Lake.
According to Michael, Ricci was walking on a sandbar when he collapsed after suffering a heart attack. A doctor who was in the area came over and tried to revive him, but had no luck.
Ricci, a legend in the Arabian horse world and an important figure on the hunter/jumper scene, passed away at age 63.
“He was the backbone for everyone; honestly, he helped everybody. He was totally unselfish. He was trying to make everything better for the horse community,” said Michael.
Ricci and his family (Photo courtesy of Michael Desiderio)
Toward that end, Ricci was a member of the Morris County Agricultural Development Board. He was well aware that horse farms are a way to save open space in the most densely populated state in the country.
“He was a super friend of agriculture, all kinds of agriculture, because we support each other–horses need hay and grain and open space,” said Ryck Suydam, president of the New Jersey Farm Bureau. The Desiderios hosted an “Equine is Agriculture” gathering with the Farm Bureau two years ago to bring together two complementary industries .
“He was a super advocate for equestrian sport and agriculture as a whole,” observed Ryck.
Ricci grew up working 60 hours a week for his parents’ equestrian operation, and had quite a career training Arabians. He became involved with hunters and jumpers after marrying Stephanie Campas, who was an equitation star as a junior rider and went on to be a trainer.
Ricci and Stephanie Desiderio.
Ricci understood a variety of breeds and disciplines, and knew how to use his knowledge of them to their benefit.
“He helped launch Arabian hunters and jumpers and get it to where it is. When Arabian sport horses came into view in 2003, he owned and trained some spectacular horses,” said Allan Ehrlick, a three-time Canadian eventing Olympian who is an Arabian Horse Association steward.
“He was very kind, a good person, big-hearted,” said Allan.
He called Ricci “passionate about his people and his horses and he was a loyal, loyal true friend. It is a huge emotional loss for me,” Allan noted.
Ricci and Stephanie at the beach with sons Michael and Vinny. (Photo courtesy of Michael Desiderio)
Ricci was the only trainer Lynne Porfido ever had, guiding the Bernardsville resident to great success in the Arabian ranks over a quarter-century after she started riding as an adult.
She was impressed when someone needed help, whether it was getting a horse in the ring, or convincing one to get on a trailer, Ricci would be there even if he didn’t know the people involved. He was a caring person.
Lynne recalled how Ricci would run alongside her son, Cole, when the boy was a beginner riding his pony, “always making sure he was safe.”
Now 18, Cole is riding with Michael in the jumper ranks. But Lynne remembered that at the Arabian Youth Nationals, her son got a top 10 in the English class in the main ring, where he worked with Ricci, then headed to another ring to win the national championship in the purebred equitation over fences class, where Michael helped him. Family teamwork at its best.
Of Ricci, Lynne commented, “He had the biggest heart, he was the most giving person. He always put himself out there for people. He leaves a huge hole in our circle of friends.”
Emil Spadone, who trained Michael for several years when he was starting out in the hunter/jumper/equitation ranks, got to know the Desiderios at that time “and what good people they were.”
As he observed about Ricci, “Above everything, he was a family man. His family was everything to him, and he was everything to them.”
Ricci with Stephanie and his family. (Photo courtesy of Michael Desiderio)
In a 2007 interview, Ricci talked about buying old houses, fixing them up and flipping them to earn enough money to buy his farm.
He passed along his work ethic to the rest of his family. In addition to Michael, daughter Alexandria and son Vinny are also riders, while Anthony pursued the law, rather than horses.
Michael and Stephanie Desiderio.
“All the kids help us at the farm,” Ricci said in the interview.
“They help us ride horses, help us train horses, help us set up. Everything,” he commented.
“I could have done a lot of other things with my money than buy a horse farm, but since we all do it, it makes a difference.”
Another man who was close to Ricci, hay farmer Frank Carrajat, who owns Snowbird Farms on Schooley’s Mountain, was in disbelief about Ricci’s death.
“How somebody so full of life could go so suddenly…” he wondered sadly.
Recalling how he was scared to death meeting Ricci when he was a 20-year-old country boy delivering hay to the big-deal trainer for the first time, he chuckled.
“I hope that isn’t straw you brought me,” Frank remembers Ricci saying,noting, “and now I know what a joke that was, but that was him.”
They soon became close, and next thing he knew, he was driving the Desiderios’ horses to Albuquerque while he, Ricci, Stephanie, the kids and a dog were all in the truck. Trips to Oklahoma, Idaho and Florida followed.
“He wanted me to succeed with what I was doing, just as much as I wanted to,” said Frank, remembering how the two of them would call each other on the phone when they were making long trips alone to keep each other awake.
“If somebody needed something, he was there. He touched a lot of people,” said Frank.
After learning of Ricci’s death, Frank sat at his picnic table at Snowbird Monday night, thinking about his friend.
“If it wasn’t for Ricci, I wouldn’t even have this place,” Frank mused.
“He played a big part in trying to get the ball rolling.”
The Desiderios have 22 clients at the Great Lakes Festival. Instead of coming home right away, Michael said, they will stay the rest of the week so their horses can show.
Michael is channeling his father in that decision, and he has it right, said Frank, who knew Ricci so well.
“That’s absolutely what he would do.”
