A new non-profit foundation is now being established at the first place in Virginia and the United States to train horses and riders in all of the multi-disciplinary skills needed to prepare them for national and Olympics level competitions. It will be based at the recently completed Morningside Training Farm which was formally dedicated last week.
The new 130-acre facility is located in the heart of Virginia’s Piedmont foxhunting and horse country near Great Meadow, home of the classic annual Virginia Gold Cup steeplechase races and polo events. Mission of the foundation, pending IRS approval of its 501 ( C )3 status, will be, according to founder and chairman Nick Arundel, to offer top quality training in all of the throughbred horse disciplines.
Arundel is a U.S. Marine Harvard educated former Special Forces combat officer in the Vietnam War and a leader and successful journalist, newspaper publisher, former polo player and philanthropist who a quarter century earlier had also founded Great Meadow. He remarked recently that “I want this entire new place in the powerful Piedmont of Virginia and American horse sports to serve as a superior place for the education and training of young riders to compete at the Olympics level in this country and abroad.”
Recently built on a former thoroughbred breeding farm located between Middleburg and Warrenton the site has been dramatically transformed over the past year to include a 5/8 mile fibersand training track, large indoor and outdoor jumping rings, a cross country jumping course, and a new four acre lake to train both horses and ponies to swim and gallop across the shallow water.
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It also features a new regulation polo field the size of three football fields built using a new high tech satellite guided earth movers and special cool season grass. Its cross country course includes a 120’ X 140’ water complex with a tall new windmill towering on top of the hill above to draw and circulate water up from the valley below to keep it clear and fresh.
The center will offer by appointment the use of all of its training facilities to the Virginia and nationwide horse community. It also plans to host a wide range of top quality training clinics led by many of the top leaders in equestrian sports, including Sue Lyman, Katie Prudent and U.S. Olympics team gold medal winner Nina Fout .
Information about Morningside Training Farm is now available at www.MorningsideTrainingFarm.com. The site is located at 5687 Merry Oaks Road, The Plains, VA 20198.
