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.
The U.S. Equestrian Federation and The EQUUS Foundation have joined together to offer an industry-wide award, which will be presented for the first time during the USEF Pegasus Awards Dinner at the USEF’s annual meeting in January 2010.
Artist Susan Van Wagoner lives and works in Middleburg, Va. She’s combined her bachelor’s degree in studio art with a life-long knowledge of animals to produce distinctive works of fine art. The animals in her mostly life-sized work come alive with texture and feeling, and she often uses unique compositions for a dramatic effect.
Lois Duffey a lifelong horsewoman whose Mr. Frisk won the Seagram Grand National Steeplechase in England in 1990, died in Chestertown, Md. She was 96.
Mrs. Duffey, was involved with horses from an early age, hunting in Virginia and in New York and attending steeplechases. She married steeplechase jockey and farmer Harry Duffey in 1935.
Jean “Terry” Campbell Tugman, a driving force in Hawaii’s dressage scene, died June 19 in Christchurch, New Zealand. She was 82.
Mrs. Tugman was born in 1927 in Middletown, Conn. She graduated from Skidmore College (N.Y.) in 1948 and later obtained her master’s degree in physical education from Smith College (Mass.). After graduating, she instructed at Russell Sale College and Skidmore in New York, where she taught several riding classes.
Highland Hogan, an alternate for the 2000 U.S. Olympic eventing team, died in his paddock on July 12. He was 18.
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