Brian Feigus has been all in on hunters and jumpers since he was 13 years old. Growing up in Farmingdale, New Jersey, with a mother who taught lessons at the family farm, Feigus has always been passionate about training, teaching and showing. He’s racked up top placings on a string of horses and maintained a successful group of clients and a close relationship with his mentor, Emil Spadone.

But by the end of 2023, in his mid-30s, Feigus was ready to take a pause. He’d won a huge $100,000 USHJA International Hunter Derby at the HITS Championship (New York) on Seth Vallhonrat’s jumper-turned-hunter Nessaja that September, but then he got kicked and broke four ribs, necessitating four months out of the saddle.

“From 13 years old, that’s all I could ever imagine: Being a horse professional, and honestly, looking up to Emil, I always wanted to be Emil. I got to a level that I know how much this industry takes out of you, or the job takes out of you, and how much time you have to dedicate to it,” he said.  “And I had just given up so much of my life that I just needed to take a step back and just a little bit live life for a second. I just needed to take a step back for myself.”

But, while Feigus was refreshing and refocusing during his hiatus from the show ring, the opportunity to ride a promising horse came along in February 2024, and he couldn’t pass it up.

Spadone connected him with Four Aces, a 10-year-old Holsteiner gelding (Acodetto 2—Haamoon, Leonid), now owned by Marita Zuraitis.

“Ace” had some jumper experience in Europe, and he’d just gotten out of quarantine after being imported from Stal Hendrix in the Netherlands. Spadone was confident he was ready to try a hunter class the same week, so Feigus hopped on, and after a warm-up class, they promptly won the $40,000 USHJA International Hunter Derby at HITS Ocala (Florida).

Ace took to the hunter ring easily. He went on to show that winter in the junior hunters with Ella Witt, while Feigus showed him in the professional hunters every few weeks. They won another $40,000 derby at HITS, and Feigus knew by then that he had something special with Ace.

By the spring, the Zuraitis family bought Ace, and Casey Zuraitis showed him in the junior hunters, with Feigus and David Wilbur showing him in the professional divisions.

As part of his step back from showing, Feigus, 35, decided to stay in Ocala, Florida, full time and break away from his family’s NeverGreen Farm. Ace, meanwhile, headed up north to Spadone’s Redfield Farm in New Jersey.

While going out on his own in Florida was a big change, Feigus knew he was set up for success. When he was a junior, his mother, Barbara Feigus, sent him to trainer Nanci Urban, and he moved on to working for Spadone from there. 

“Being a mom, she knew that it was better for me to get help from someone else,” he said. “[Urban] taught me a lot of what I know as a rider, and a lot of the things that I ended up teaching to my students. A lot of that came from discipline and making every little detail count and never, never letting up on the little details like the turns and your straightness and how your horse feels and the shape of your horse and the softness of your horse. I learned so much from her.”

He started working for Spadone when he was 19 and described him like a second father.

“My career as a trainer and as a rider wouldn’t be where it is without him,” he said. “When I was about 21, I ended up [at my parents’ farm] and I ended up creating a business out of nothing there, and it became huge. Emil had always been a part of that, helping me buy horses for my clients, and guiding me and helping me with buying and selling horses in Europe. I would go to Europe with him twice a year. I’d buy horses with him and learn that end of the business, and I always looked to him for guidance when it came to my customers.”

Reunited

With a refreshed outlook on riding and showing after such a positive experience with Ace, Brian reconnected with the gelding again in May at the Devon Horse Show (Pennsylvania).

“I really don’t get to spend a lot of time with the horse, day in and day out,” he said. “I just got lucky enough, after the Zuraitises left and the horse left, he stayed with Redfield, and I got to show up at Devon, and that was a pretty awesome horse show for us. It’s the first time I ever did the professional divisions at Devon in the hunter ring. The horse performed amazing there.”

The pair continued to meet up at big shows like Saugerties (New York) and the Platinum Performance/USHJA International Hunter Derby Championship (Kentucky). 

“Little by little, that horse just proves every single time I walk in the ring that he’s a competitor—that he wants to win and that he wants to do his job,” Brian said. “First and foremost, he enjoys the connection he has with his rider, whether it’s me or Casey or Erin Carey [Spadone’s home rider]. [Carey] makes sure that we’re all able to succeed in the ring. She spends the time prepping him before the class, riding him before the class. Without her, this is not possible. She’s built a relationship with that horse, and she’s built a relationship with me, and we have a lot of trust between each other about what we’re feeling and what we have that day. And little by little, it’s just become so nice to ride the horse.

“I’ve never had that feeling in the hunter ring,” he continued. “I haven’t had a lot of catch rides in the hunter ring, honestly, ever, so it’s just really nice to be able to bond with the horse the way that I have with him, and we have a relationship that I trust him, and he trusts me and Erin as well. I think it’s just a great team, and he’s the captain of the team.”

Brian and Ace ended their 2024 with a win in the $50,000 HITS USHJA International Hunter Derby (New York). This year, they’re off to a great start, with a win in the $80,000 Mars Equestrian USHJA International Hunter Derby at the World Equestrian Center—Ocala (Florida) on Feb. 28.

While Brian was thrilled to win, he’s also just happy to enjoy riding again.

“I’ve never looked at a class as being successful because of a ribbon. I look at it as a connection between me and the horse,” he said. “I look at it as, how the horse is performing, and I just kind of take it day by day. To me, the results only mean so much unless you’re doing it with your team, and the horse is able to be rewarded the way that they deserve. I didn’t really set my sights on anything, because I take each class for what it is, and I just go out there, and I ride. Every class is just another ring, more jumps, no matter how much prize money is on the line, no matter who’s in the class. First, I have to go out there and ride to the best of my abilities and hope the horse performs to the best of their abilities, and then we’ve got to beat the course, and then hope that the judges reward us. So, the reward for me is just knowing that me and the horse connected that day.”

Brian’s not sure how the rest of the year will play out with Ace, but he’s happy to continue showing him when he can and working toward his other big dream, representing the United States in show jumping. He’s ridden to the five-star level in the past and has a small group of jumpers he’s excited about.

He’s kept a handful of students, including his fiancé, Steven Saumell, but is working on more balance in his life.

“It’s kind of fun to have that be a part of my life as well,” he said. “I get more joy out of seeing someone like my fiancé succeed, or my sister succeed, or a client succeed than I do myself. I love winning. There’s no one more competitive than me, but it’s never about the ribbon to me, because they only hand that to you when the class is over. It’s about the fire that you need to have prior to that to try to win. And then when I do win, I love to celebrate with my team.

“I’m just finding my joy for riding again,” he added. “I just want to kind of focus on me and riding. And I still have a great group of horses that, though I let them have the year off from showing [in 2024], they’re ready to go.”