A Sunday Horse: Inside the Grand Prix Show Jumping Circuit Book

Contents

Chapter 1 - Money and Mosquitoes
Mid-February at The Winter Equestrian Festival at the Palm Beach Polo Equestrian Club

Chapter 2 - A Box of Chocolates
Behind the scenes with the travelers on the winter circuit in Wellington, Florida ... Bob Stillwell and the Metro Gulf Cart shop which sells golf carts to winter circuit patrons ... Andy Ebelhare, golf cart sheriff who polices miniature traffic jams, ten to twelve hours a day ... A golf cart tour of the grounds and people at the Palm Beach Polo Equestrian Club passing the permanent barns and tents of famous horse farms along the way ...Small ponies, medium ponies, large ponies, children's hunters, green hunters, adult-amateurs, amateur-owners, green working hunters, conformation hunters and handsome working hunters ... Sunday afternoons in the Internationale Grand Prix ring ... a million dollar Dutch bred Warmblood, the preferred breed of jumper ...how to pick one ... Alain Cherney's Clothes Line Laundry Service, interior designer Douglas "Dougie" Mutch, custom bootmaker Harold A. "Hank" Vogel, Jr., Katie Coldren, owner of the Clothes Horse which manufactures stable sheets, rain sheets and scrim sheets - custom made chaps and riding helmets, handmade saddle soap, The Show Jumping Chef d'Equipe Frank Chapot

Chapter 3 - Paint by the Numbers
The strange case of veterinarian Cathy Crighton, the Rust-Oleum Rustler; Veterinarians and ambulances; Physical therapist Michele Altemus and The Perfect Balance for Equestrians ... sports hypnotist Laura Boyton King ; The Carrot Man Walter Chiveral; A Sunday in the life of Van Geest the groom.

Chapter 4 - Mad(den) about You
A typical Sunday afternoonon the Grand Prix circuit; Peter Doubleday, Grand Prix announcer, for thirty years he's traveled forty weeks a year on the circuit; Paddock Master Mike Fletcher, the voice from the in-gate, systematically recites the jumping order to the riders as the class gets under way....The story of John and Beezie Madden's marriage -- how they buy, train, and show horses as a way of life.

Chapter 5 - HITS?
It's called HITS, an acronym for Horse Shows In The Sun. They run thirty shows a year in California, Arizona, Upstate New York, and Virginia and offer almost fifty Grand Prix events with a combined total of over $4 million in prize money. In the winter they produce seven shows in Ocala, Florida during the same time as the Winter Equestrian Festival. Think of it as the major league players are in Wellington and the minor league players are in Ocala. This isn't necessarily a bad thing. It's the second tier of riders, many of them up and coming, others with inexperienced horses, not ready for prime time.

Chapter 6 - Word of Mouth
News travels fast in the Grand Prix circuit ... The websites ... Hildegard: The Queen of Quip, The Diva of Dish and The Guru of Gossip ... The real scoop travels fast and furiously by word of mouth on the ever-present favorite cell phone ... Who's together, who's broken up, who's in the baby carriage ... The summer season in Vermont, Canada, Keswick, Virginia ... $100,000 Keswick Charity Invitational Grand Prix winner relative newcomer Karen Cudmore on her dazzling bay stallion Conejo.

Chapter 7 - Who's Gonna Sit with the Prince?
The hierarchy of horse showing and the organizations responsible for the logistics. In 1917, the American Horse Shows Association was formed as the national governing body as the sport grew. After the Calvary disbanded following World War II, no one was fielding a United States Team for Olympic competition. The United States Equestrian Team was formed in 1950, organizing and financing international teams. Everything went along just fine and the two organizations peacefully co-existed for many years --until 1997.

Chapter 8 - Where Champions Meet
The Devon Horse Show and Country Fair offers a sophisticated mix of the oh-so patrician and proper Philadelphia main line social set with the crème de la crème of the equestrian clan. What makes this horse show so very extraordinary ? It occupies a strong nostalgic place in the hearts of anyone who's ever walked through the white wooden main gates just off route 30, which the locals call Lancaster Pike ... The history, the legends, the winners and losers, how to become chairman.

Chapter 9 - The Oldest Horse Show in the United States
The majestic main ring at the Upperville Horse Show grounds sixty-miles west of Washington, D.C. in the heart of Virginia's magnificent horse country, founded in 1853 when Richard Henry Dulany found a colt with frozen feet caught under a split rail fence ... 2,000 entries and $200,000 in prize money, despite the inevitable rain ...One elegant, groomed and gleaming, magnificent horse is ridden by one perfect rider after another. It's quiet, like at a golf tournament when a player putts. Polite clapping and an occasional "whoop" break the silence. ... From $100 lace-up paddock boots to an $850 saddle (not to mention the pony) ... What it costs to start up a 2 to 6-year-old rider. ... The sponsor who didn't pay.

Chapter 10 - Trials and Tribulations
The Oaks Blenheim Rancho Mission Viejo Riding Park is nestled on seventy-five acres in a valley hugged by the brown Ortega and Santa Ana mountains, just outside of San Juan Capistrano, California ... The atmosphere resembles the ambience of golf as all the leading riders gather for the final of six USET selection trials to determine who will ride in the World Equestrian Games in Jerez, Spain. The four days are aptly called "The Trials."

Chapter 11 - Hobsnobbing
Here we are in endless Mercedes to Range Rover bumper-to-bumper traffic along highway 27 on Labor Day weekend heading to Bridgehampton for the Hampton Classic Horse Show. It's billed as: The perfect ending to a perfect summer. And depending on whom you talk with, the featured event will either be the $150,000 Prudential Financial Grand Prix or the over-the-top display of conspicuous consumption for the luncheon in the VIP tent.

Chapter 12 - Deep Throat Meets Mister Ed
The Washington International Horse Show was put on the local map when horse lover Jackie Kennedy came to town in the early 1960's ... Archibald Cox III flies in six horses from California at $2500 each ... Actor John Cleese is dressed up as Scoobie ... Eighty-six stalls are set up inside the MCI Center, 192 others are in blue and white striped tents along F Street. Architect John Blackburn of Blackburn Architects in Washington, D.C. has been given the task of joining the puzzle and particulars.

Epilogue
The author's personal Hall of Fame ... Legendary editor and publisher of HORSES Magazine, Judith Spreckels ...The legendary horse show photographers at Budd studio, The Boys, Abraham "Budd" Waintrob and his brother Sid ...The legendary trainer, Ben O'Meara, O'Meara, posthumously inducted into the Show Jumping Hall of Fame located at Busch Gardens in Tampa.

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