Gladstone, N.J.—Oct. 8

Hamilton Farm is home to the USET Foundation, and houses a division of the USEF, including the jumping sport department. The place also hosts a few horse shows, including this weekends Platinum Performance USEF Talent Search Finals—East.

Managing Director of Show Jumping Lizzy Chesson took me on a behind-the-scenes tour to see some cool spots with a special interest to show jumping nerds like me. The spot serves as a central location for many trophies, ribbons and so on.

Check out all the photos here.

There are multiple displays filled with ribbons in the Carol H Durand Memorial Trophy Room. Photo by Mollie Bailey.

We walked through the storage facility, where much of the USEF Team equipment for all sports is stored. It didn’t look all that different than any other big show barn’s equipment room, with oodles of coolers, tool boxes, banners, embroidered chairs and the like, but of course, they’re all in red, white and blue.

Coolers are sorted by size in the cupboards in the storage room, ranging in size from 72 to 86. Driving ponies usually use the 72s, and Cortez ‘C’ and Sapphire both wore 86. Photo by Mollie Bailey.

She also showed me around her office, where many of the trophies and awards from recent show jumping triumphs live, including a wall full of silver trays from recent wins in Longines FEI Nations Cup competition. Lizzy said that she’s recently started a popular team tradition.

When a team wins a senior Longines FEI Nations Cup competition, they take home a silver tray, and several recent ones are displayed in the USEF Show Jumping office. Photo by Mollie Bailey.

“After we win a Nations Cup, I come back with beers for all the grooms on the tray. They love it,” she said.

This is the coat that McLain Ward wore for team gold at the 2008 Olympics, where he and Sapphire helped Team USA earn gold. Photo by Mollie Bailey.

I made my way upstairs to the Carol H Durand Memorial Trophy Room, where memorabilia from over the years is displayed.

How many of these people from the 1960 Rome Olympics can you name?

Follow along with all our coverage of the Platinum Performance USEF Talent Search Finals—East

For more in-depth coverage from the Platinum Performance USEF Show Jumping Talent Search Final, check out the October 23 issue of The Chronicle of the Horse magazine

USEF members can watch the live stream on usefnetwork.com, where you can also find results.

Keep up with the inside scoop on horse sports by following The Chronicle of the Horse on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram at @chronofhorse.