It’s been a busy day for Molly Pellegrini. She and her husband, Hank Pellegrini, 55, were supposed to fly from Philadelphia to Alabama to watch their son Will, 22, play in a college tennis match. However, the couple, married 27 years, had their flight delayed and then rerouted to Atlanta. They missed the tennis match, so Pellegrini was revising their travel plans. They’d rent a car and drive from Atlanta to Auburn University in Alabama, where Will was playing in another match the next day. They’d then drive back to Atlanta, catch a flight to Ocala, Florida, and watch their daughter Meg, 20, an up-and-coming eventer, ride in an Andrew Nicholson clinic.
Busy times are nothing new for Molly, 52, the president-elect of the U.S. Eventing Association. She’s a longtime nonprofit volunteer in several sectors, mom to four children, and works around her family’s 70-acre Post Road Farm in Malvern, Pennsylvania, which the couple built after moving east from California in 2020. In addition to Will, a senior at the University of Tulsa (Oklahoma), and Meg, they also have son Charlie, 16, a high school sophomore, and daughter Annie, 25, who lives in Chicago, where Molly lived and worked just after graduating from Boston College with a finance degree in 1994.
Molly will assume the USEA presidency in December, when she takes over from current president Lou Leslie. She was unanimously voted into the position in August and is excited to step into the role.
“I’ve been shadowing Lou Leslie, in meetings and phone calls, so she doesn’t just drop it off on me next December,” said Molly. “We’ve got a good process in place, and I’m not afraid to ask questions.”
Little did she know, 10 years ago when she and Hank moved their family from Tulsa—where she grew up, and where they met on a blind date—to Newport Beach, California, that she’d be embarking on a volunteer journey that would lead to a role heading a nonprofit organization that supports almost 13,000 eventers. Meg, then 10, had been taking riding lessons at a hunter/jumper barn, and Molly was looking for a place where Meg could continue to ride. By chance, she found the Capistrano Valley Pony Club, then known as the Newport Mesa Pony Club and based at the Orange County Fairgrounds, under the tutelage of Brian and Lisa Sabo, longtime elite eventers and trainers.
“We didn’t know what eventing was, but Meg fell in love with eventing and Pony Club,” Molly said. “Brian and Lisa were really instrumental in developing her.”
They were also key in fostering Molly’s desire to volunteer for the sport that was her daughter’s new passion. She helped wherever she was needed, eventually serving on the USEA Area VI board and on the USEA board of governors. Brian, a former USEA president himself, said Molly is a natural to help lead the USEA.
“She’s an action-oriented person. She’s not one to sit and watch,” Brian said. “She wanted to learn the sport from the inside out. She started out as a jump judge and then moved into other things, and I saw avenues for her to become involved in Area VI in different roles, such as a Young Riders’ coordinator, and then eventually we were able to move her into different levels at the national level.
“She takes an opportunity and does her best with it,” he continued. “She is able to balance the needs of the larger percentage of the eventing population—the adult amateurs and the juniors, and then people who don’t compete at the elite level, but the people who are basically funding the sport. You have to be able to see the value of the lower levels and not have them take a back seat to the upper levels.”
Having watched her daughter advance through the levels, Molly said she’s noted the hard work and passion of the sport’s athletes and organizers. She’s eager to continue supporting those people as she helps grow the sport, not to mention watch her daughter as she continues her eventing journey. She’ll be on hand as Meg competes around the country at CCI3*-Ls this year. Meg trains with Will and Katie Coleman, dividing her time between Ocala and Charlottesville, Virginia.
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“She’s a solid three-star rider,” Molly said of Meg. “Her path is just to keep developing until three-star becomes boring and learn about four-star here at home and then move up. She’s got plenty of time to do that.”
As Molly juggled changing travel plans in her attempt to watch two of her children pursuing their passions, she took a few minutes to answer questions about eventing and life.
Did you ever see yourself as president-elect of the USEA?
I’ve always served on boards and volunteered and given back. I was always like, “Where can I help?” I don’t know that I ever saw myself on the USEA level, because I was so removed from it in California. We had gone to the [USEA American Eventing Championships] in North Carolina and Kentucky, so we’d had some exposure to East Coast eventing. And everyone told us we’d have to go to the East Coast with Meg, maybe not permanently, but at least to let her try it and expose her to it.
2019 was a really good year for her. She was 15, and we said, “Maybe let’s get through the 2020 season and rent an apartment outside Philly,” but then COVID hit, and California got crazy. We’d been there six years, and Will had moved to a full-time tennis academy in Oklahoma, so we just said, “Let’s see what happens.” We put our house on the market in April, and at the beginning of June, we were packing up and moving. We had sold all of our furniture, too.
The horses flew out, and then my husband and I drove the horse trailer east. He had always wanted property, and the horse country in Pennsylvania is amazing. Great school systems; you’re 10 minutes from Target. You don’t feel as isolated as you might in Oklahoma. We built a farm in Malvern and just finished it last April.
Were you, your husband or any of your other children into horses, or just Meg?
We joke that she came out of the womb talking about horses. We were in Oklahoma, and no one had any interest in horses, and we’d never been around horses, but my best friend’s daughter was doing hunter/jumpers. Meg begged for lessons, so at around 5, we started her with some lessons. She did it for about five years, and then we decided to move to California. We looked at a lot of barns in Southern California and just ended up picking the one closest to our house. It was at the Orange County Fairgrounds, the Newport Mesa Pony Club, and she started with Lisa and Brian.
You spent a lot of time volunteering while living in California. Did you take a break from it once you
moved to the East Coast?
I jumped right in. It was very welcoming. Meg felt instantly comfortable. She was training with Lillian Heard [Wood], who was at Windurra, Boyd Martin’s farm.
Ironically, it was Brian Sabo who kept pushing me. He wanted to nominate me to the board of the USEA. I joined the board in 2022, on the finance committee. Everybody was welcoming and warm. I was still learning about horses and the USEA, but I knew a lot about nonprofit finance.
My dad and stepmom started a family foundation in the ’90s, and I’m still on the board today. My stepsister is, too. And then I served on the board of the YWCA in Tulsa, and I was president of the [Monte Cassino] Catholic School Board in Tulsa and director for the Route 66 Marathon. I also had been active with the National Charity League in California and the Southern California Pony Club [Region].
Many people volunteer for causes they’re interested in or because their children are involved in an activity, but it’s not something that’s necessarily a passion for them. But for some, volunteering is truly a calling. Where do you fit on that spectrum?
I think it’s a calling. I feel like my family is extremely blessed to be able to do what we’ve done, travel where we’ve traveled, live where we’ve lived. When you see a need, someone should fill it. If I have the capacity to take on a big job, I feel I should, especially in the horse world, where everybody is busy, and everybody works hard.
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When you take over in December, what will be your first steps? Do you have plans or changes you’d like to implement?
I don’t have a huge platform. I just think we need to grow our membership, and I think we have opportunities to do that in the adult amateur divisions. I think there are so many adults out there who want to get into the sport. We added the starter division a year ago, and it exploded. I think we also need to grow our sport through our youth and keep them engaged as adults.
How do you think the USEA can best support event organizers and athletes?
Maybe a division below starter? Even some of the starter ones [are challenging for competitors]. Sometimes people just want to get out there and see what their horse can do. Something below starter might increase participation and make the sport safer.
We added modified a few years ago. It used to be that the jump from training to preliminary was a massive jump. That was really successful and made it safer. If we can make it safer and more accessible, those are key parts to growth. The board also just voted to update the software management system. I think it will make it much easier for staff and more accessible to members.
I think our organizers and community as a whole are amazing. Yes, we’ve lost some events, but those that have stayed are solid. I think the staff at USEA and all of the programs they put forward are great, like the Intercollegiate Eventing Program and Emerging Athlete U21 Program, and our educational programs are exceptional, such as the Eventing Coaches Program. We just need to shout from the rooftops about all of it.
Do you have a bucket list of events you’d like to attend?
On the list is Aachen [Germany], for sure. We’re going to go this summer. And then events in the U.K., Badminton or Burghley. I’ve been to Boekelo [the Netherlands]. Meg groomed there. I think the L.A. Olympics will be fascinating and then Australia after that. They’re all on my list!
If you could ride around one five-star, which one would it be, and what horse would you want to ride?
Kentucky on Teddy O’Connor. I’m a little person (5’1″), and I like appropriately sized horses. Kentucky’s the goal for everyone!
When you’re not volunteering or taking care of horses or your family, do you have hobbies you like to pursue?
In my early motherhood years, I trained for marathons. I did 17 marathons in this country and others. Now I run for my sanity instead of speed. I like to play tennis, and I really enjoy all things outdoors. Cooking is a big hobby for me. I would rather eat at home than go out. I like to travel. I’m planning a trip for our family overseas. I hope Meg gets to tag along. I base my life around my family. They’re super supportive. No one’s suffering in this family. We’re all very lucky.
This article originally appeared in the February 2025 issue of The Chronicle of the Horse. You can subscribe and get online access to a digital version and then enjoy a year of The Chronicle of the Horse. If you’re just following COTH online, you’re missing so much great unique content. Each print issue of the Chronicle is full of in-depth competition news, fascinating features, probing looks at issues within the sports of hunter/jumper, eventing and dressage, and stunning photography.
