AMENIA — Spectators gathered at Keane Stud in Amenia Sunday, Oct. 6 to watch the $125,000 Grand Prix final at the Silo Ridge Masters showjumping competition.
Brian Moggre, of Flower Mound, Texas, took home the prize money and a champagne soaked jacket Sunday afternoon.
Moggre rode 15-year-old gelding Vivre Le Reve around the ring, receiving no penalty points in the first round.
Four riders competed in a tie-breaking jump-off: Sloane Coles of Virginia; Darragh Kenny, representing Ireland; Daniel Bluman, representing Israel; and Moggre, the champion of the weekend.
The show jumping competition was the first of its kind at the expansive Keane Ranch. Pedro Torres, owner of the farm and racecar driver, said the ring finished construction just days before the event started on Thursday, Oct. 4.
Torres said a horse show had been a long-time dream for him and Judy Garofalo-Torres, his wife. They built Keane Stud so Garofalo-Torres could train show jumpers. Torres said there are a lot of show jumpers local to the Northeast U.S. and there’s demand for more competitions in the region. Silo Ridge Masters also serves as a fundraising event for the Silo Ridge Community Foundation and the Amenia-Wassaic Community Organization.
Speckled colors on the ridges of the Amenia valley provided a scenic backdrop for the four-day long event. Visitors remarked on the location, saying the views from the top of the hill were breathtaking.
Anticipation began to build as representatives of regional press organizations were invited to Media Day on Thursday, Oct. 3. Reporters met riders and their horses, some from area and regional stables and others coming from countries whose flags circled the competition rink.
Caroline Mawhinney of Wellington, Florida, competed in the $125,000 Grand Prix class at Silo Ridge Masters on Carsey Z, an 11 year old Belgian warmblood. The rider ranked 14th at the international competition in the scenic Harlem Valley.Nathan Miller
The Silo Ridge Masters event marks the first year of a local equestrian center joining the competitive Hudson Valley Show Jumping circuit for their fall calendar. An equestrian training program led by Judy Garofalo-Torres is included in the programs at the Keane Stud Farm in Amenia. Silo Ridge served as a sponsor for the show jumping competition. The proceeds would benefit the Silo Ridge Foundation and the Amenia Wassaic Community Organization.
Student riders were the feature of the day on Oct. 3, putting their horses through their paces as they confidently jumped the obstacles and kept to good form. Many of the students’ adult riding coaches would be competing into the weekend, in preparation for the finals on Sunday.
This year the competition would be a 3-star show, explained Lindsay Brock, press officer, noting that shows can be up to 5 stars. The differing levels determine the height and difficulty of the obstacles being jumped and the size of the prize purse.
Warmblood horses are ideal for jumping events, due to their hardy nature and temperament.
Already planning for next year, Brock said that Silo Ridge would like to go to 5 stars.
Christian Coyle of Christian Coyle Show Stables, Sherman, Connecticut, originally from Ireland, had horses and riders competing in the event. He said that he has been involved with competitive show jumping for 40 years and was pleased that the Silo Ridge event was relatively close by.
One of Coyle’s riders, Camellia Ford was once a student at Kent School, studying under Michael Page. Ford said she would be riding 9-year-old Jetties. She added that all horses turn a year older each January, rather than being fussy about their actual birth month.
“It’s a matter of trust between horse and rider,” Ford said about building the essential relationship. “It’s a partnership with the horse, with another sentient being,” explained Tiffany Foster, competing from her home stables in Vancouver, British Columbia. She operates an equestrian training center and most often brings some of her students to compete in show jumping competitions.
A three-time Olympian, Foster is ranked as the world’s top female rider in the sport, although she said that she is ranked 21st among all riders. The 20 who rank higher are all men she explained.
“We’re all here because we love horses,” Foster said. “It’s a physical thing; it’s hard on your body,” she added in speaking about the demands of competitive show jumping.
Foster rode “Northern Light” during Sunday’s final Grand Prix competition.
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Estate/Tag Sale: 168 Johnson Road, Falls Village CT. Friday Saturday Sunday, December 5th-7th. Total house contents, furniture, antique and vintage collectables, costume jewelry, shed stuff, basement stuff, stairs chairlift, some art. Fri, Sat 9-4 and Sunday 9-noon. A Tommy sale, come and get it!!
PUBLISHER’S NOTICE: Equal Housing Opportunity. All real estate advertised in this newspaper is subject to the Federal Fair Housing Act of 1966 revised March 12, 1989 which makes it illegal to advertise any preference, limitation, or discrimination based on race, color religion, sex, handicap or familial status or national origin or intention to make any such preference, limitation or discrimination. All residential property advertised in the State of Connecticut General Statutes 46a-64c which prohibit the making, printing or publishing or causing to be made, printed or published any notice, statement or advertisement with respect to the sale or rental of a dwelling that indicates any preference, limitation or discrimination based on race, creed, color, national origin, ancestry, sex, marital status, age, lawful source of income, familial status, physical or mental disability or an intention to make any such preference, limitation or discrimination.
Sharon, CT
TAG SALE: SATURDAY, DECEMBER 6, 10:00 AM - 2:00 PM, 135 Sharon Mountain Road, Sharon, CT 06069. Clearing things out before the holidays! Stop by for a great mix of items, including: Kitchenware, Small pieces of art, A few pieces of furniture, Clothing, Books, And more assorted household items. Easy to find, everything priced to sell. Hope to see you there!
On Dec. 11, at 6:30 p.m., at the White Hart Inn in Salisbury, Day and Weitzman will share their memories in a conversation moderated by noted designer Matthew Patrick Smyth. The event is organized by Oblong Books and the Scoville Library.
Fresh home from her exhibition and book signing in Paris, Day sat in her Salisbury aerie high above the distant hills, her daughter’s black cat on her lap. She told the story of “Les Flashs d’Anne,” and the kismet that spurred its evolution.
In 2024, afterlearning that Day had worked with Guibert in New York and Paris, Weitzman — the author of numerous books about Guibert —saw her salvaged images, sought her out and announced, “We must do a book together.”
Weitzman writes in the book’s prologue, “This book is the dreamlike, uncanny result of that serendipitous encounter with a remarkable woman.”
Cover of “Les Flashs d’Anne”Jennifer Almquist
During the 1980s, Day was a working photographer living on Fifth Avenue. A friend, the editor of Le Monde, asked whether Guibert, on his maiden voyage to New York, could stay with her. “I remember it was a cold night when Hervé showed up at my door,” she said.“His flight had just gotten in from Paris and he had this big box of Guerlain perfume. It was wrapped in beautiful pink paper. Within four minutes, we were friends.”
Thus began a whirlwind collaboration that took them from Manhattan, where they interviewed André Kertész, to Paris where they dined with Henri Cartier-Bresson and Duane Michals, and on to interviews with Isabelle Huppert, Gina Lollobrigida, designer Madeleine Castaing, Orson Welles and other luminaries of that time.
Day never saw Guibert after 1983. “Hervé got AIDS in the late ’80s and was quite militant. He now has a following of young people,” Day saidwistfully. During his final days, Guibert wrote five books based on his existential journey.
Orson Welles, top, and Hervé Guibert and André Kertész by Anne DayJennifer Almquist
Day recalled the devastating house fire in which her family tragically lost their friend Maria Paz Reyes and their dog. Day survived by jumping from the second story. A lifetime of images, negatives and slides were lost or damaged. “To lose pictures is like losing friends. Everything was piled into metal file cabinets in my studio. All my negatives and slides were packed in tight. The fire started at the farthest point from there as possible. It was the only thing that wasn’t destroyed— every other single thing was gone. Nothing left. It was raining, so my friend Christopher covered everything with a tarp. The fabulous part of this story is how much help I had from my town, which gave me the empty firehouse to lay out everything to dry. Friends came from near and far to help. Some days I had ten volunteers, and it went on for a month, which gave me something to move forward with. It was so tragic and awful.”
Self-portrait, New York City, 1981by Anne DayJennifer Almquist
A veteran photojournalist, portrait, wedding, and architectural photographer, Day created images for five books featuring the architecture of the Library of Congress, the U.S. Capitol, and the New York Public Library. She covered events in Cuba, Haiti and South Africa, where she took an iconic image of Nelson Mandela emerging from his prison cell. Her commissioned images of four Presidential Inaugurations are featured in the Smithsonian. Her work has appeared in Newsweek, Time, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Fortune, Paris Match and Vogue. She was the editor of Compass at the Lakeville Journal and The Millerton News.
Currently, she enjoys shooting digital photographs of nature. “I am interested in migration, large groups of birds and insects. I’ve been to New Mexico to photograph monarchs, Nebraska to photograph Sandhill cranes, and Ireland to photograph a murmuration of starlings.”
Day summed up her life: “Things just happened to me.”
Tickets to the event at The White Hart Inn on Dec. 11 are available at oblongbooks.com
