The monster-sized garbage truck was headed straight for the horse I was riding down busy Columbus Avenue, at the height of evening rush hour on New York City’s Upper West Side. Gears grinding loudly, the vehicle kept chugging toward us as I maneuvered my horse as close as possible to the parked cars along the curb in an attempt to avoid a truck-horse-human collision.
The perpetually rearing wooden horse still stares out the enormous picture window oblivious to the constant bustle of New York City, just as he’s done since 1912. All around him, the world has changed. The once plentiful shops offering equestrian accouterments to clients with names like Rockefeller and Kennedy have disappeared, leaving Manhattan Saddlery as the sole surviving tack shop in the borough.
It was 8:45 p.m. on a Thursday evening. It was dark, wet and cold outside. I had 24 hours until the chili cook-off fundraiser I’d been planning for the Area II Young Riders, and the anxiety was setting in, as it always does before any function I plan.
I was doing my best to balance my time between my full-time job at Sinead Halpin Eventing, my part-time job at Prestige Saddles, my commitment to Young Riders, my part-time job teaching at River Edge Farm, and my personal commitment to fitness.
Gaisha, an upper-level eventing mare, was euthanized in early May at the Sun Kissed Acres Retirement Farm near Summerville, Ga. She was 26.
When Mary Jo Herhold bought the Hanoverian mare (Garibaldi—Lemonade, Lemon), she was competing at the novice level. Partnered with Janet Andrews, Gaisha soon began moving up the levels and eventually found success at the intermediate level.
Gaisha was the U.S. Combined Training Association Mare of the Year in 1993, and in 1994 she was the American Horse Shows Association Zone 4 intermediate champion.
Canaris, a successful advanced-level event horse, died on May 26. He was 25.
Owner and rider Jim Wolf imported the Dutch Warmblood as a 5-year-old in November of 1989 to begin his eventing career. The pair established an enduring partnership from the very beginning.
At 17.2 hands, Canaris was once considered “bigger than a horse needs to be,” by Bruce Davidson, but his cat-like quickness in the combinations, tremendous scope, and big heart enabled him to excel at the highest levels of the sport.
Bütow *E*, one of country’s leading Trakehner sport horse sires, died on May 29 at Nancy Cornelison’s Rolling Oaks Farm in Elgin, Ill. He was 27.
Bütow, an imported Trakehner by Mahagoni, was bred in West Germany in 1981 by Wolfgang Kiau. In 1984, Bütow completed his 100-day performance test at the Klosterhof Medingen, finishing in the top five. After his importation to Canada in 1985 by Günter Bertelmann, Bütow was purchased by the Cornelison family in 1987.
Red & White & Yellow by Ellen A. Gavin
Ellen A. Gavin knew at a young age that art would be her passion; she began painting and drawing when she was 4 years old. As a child and adolescent she drew only horses, dreaming about owning a pony. She earned a bachelor’s degree in fine arts from Temple University (Pa.) and is a full member of the American Academy of Equine Art.
After a long and successful commercial art career in New York, Gavin is dedicating herself to fine art.
Show The Way by Sharon Lynn Campbell
Artist Sharon Lynn Campbell, Rochelle, Va., is known for her beautiful lifelike oil portrait. She captures expression and emotion in her paintings and is able to bring out the personality of the people, horses and pets.
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