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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Lamb-Cason was named 2024 National History Teacher of the Year by the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, the first Indigenous person to receive the honor, and is now the Assistant Director of Native American and Indigenous Studies at Brown University. She will speak about the importance of oral tradition for Indigenous communities and of her efforts to write down the stories.
Provided
Lamb-Cason shared her story with the publication:
“The Northwest Corner is not just where my grandmother lived; it is our ancestral homelands. Our reservation was established near Kent in 1736. My grandmother grew up in Newtown and spent her childhood returning to Schaghticoke, visiting family and learning from her grandparents. In the early 1980s, she built her home on the reservation with my grandfather, and that is where I spent so much of my own childhood—learning with and from the land and waters that have sustained our people since time immemorial.
“As a historian, storyteller and educator, every moment with her was a teachable moment … and as her eldest grandchild, she felt a strong responsibility to impart as much as she could to me …
“A brief trek in the snow became ‘Wunneanatsu, what animal print do you think that is? Yes, you’re right, that’s Rabbit. That reminds me of a story about how rabbit got such long ears.’ …
“‘Wunneanatsu, do you hear the birds singing? That one sounds like blue jay. Let me tell you a story about how the birds got their songs.’
“My grandmother and those teachings guide everything I do; as an author, a storyteller, a relative and teacher; they inform my pedagogy and instructional style but also how I view and navigate the world. Grandmother Moon became an opportunity to honor her and her legacy of centering Indigenous ways of knowing in western academia and educational landscape. It was a way to carry her teachings forward for my children and future generations. It is, at its heart, a love letter to the woman who gave me so much. Essentially, my grandmother is and always will be everything I want to be when I grow up.”
Copies of “Grandmother Moon” will be available and the author will sign books. Native baskets from the collection of the Torrington Historical Society will be on display during the event.
Please register to reserve a spot: torringtonhistoricalsociety.org
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