The monster-sized garbage truck was headed straight for the horse I was riding down busy Columbus Avenue, at the height of evening rush hour on New York City’s Upper West Side. Gears grinding loudly, the vehicle kept chugging toward us as I maneuvered my horse as close as possible to the parked cars along the curb in an attempt to avoid a truck-horse-human collision.
The perpetually rearing wooden horse still stares out the enormous picture window oblivious to the constant bustle of New York City, just as he’s done since 1912. All around him, the world has changed. The once plentiful shops offering equestrian accouterments to clients with names like Rockefeller and Kennedy have disappeared, leaving Manhattan Saddlery as the sole surviving tack shop in the borough.
It was 8:45 p.m. on a Thursday evening. It was dark, wet and cold outside. I had 24 hours until the chili cook-off fundraiser I’d been planning for the Area II Young Riders, and the anxiety was setting in, as it always does before any function I plan.
I was doing my best to balance my time between my full-time job at Sinead Halpin Eventing, my part-time job at Prestige Saddles, my commitment to Young Riders, my part-time job teaching at River Edge Farm, and my personal commitment to fitness.
Long-time Radnor Hunt (Pa.) senior master and president of the Bryn Mawr Hound Show, Frank Hastings “Terry” Griffin III, of Devon, Pa., died of heart failure on Dec. 31. He was 62.
Elizabeth Cromwell Bosley Bird, the first woman to train a Maryland Hunt Cup winner, died on Dec. 30. She was 81.
Mrs. Bird was born in Monkton, Md., the heart of Maryland steeplechase country, and raised at Fox Hill Farm where she started riding as a small child.
Betsy Buchanan Fishback, former University of Kentucky riding team coach, died Jan. 17 after a battle with breast cancer. She was 58.
Mrs. Fishback was born in Valley Forge, Pa., and graduated from The Shipley School (Pa.) and Sweet Briar College (Va.), where she was president of the riding council.
In 1979 she started the equine program at Midway College (Ky.) with Anne Bozarth. She also taught riding at her family farm, Trackside, until she retired to help her daughters in their equestrian careers.
Dacardo, a talented and accomplished FEI-level dressage horse, was euthanized on Jan. 8 due to a broken bone fragment in his neck. He was 11.
A Swedish Warmblood gelding, he was fondly called “D” by his owner Melissa Taylor, who imported him from Sweden in 2003.
Lars Petersen started Dacardo’s dressage career, winning the 6-year-old FEI Young Horse test in 2004 at Dressage At Devon (Pa.). He went on to find success in the Prix St. Georges and Intermediaire levels, winning nearly every CDI he entered.
Announcer, rider and tack shop owner David Lewis Young died Dec. 2 at his home in Camden, S.C. He was 76.
Mr. Young grew up in Buffalo, N.Y., and learned to ride as a child, showing hunters and jumpers as a junior. He was a graduate of Alfred University (N.Y.), where he earned his degree in animal husbandry. Mr. Young then served in the U.S. Army Veterinary Corps and was stationed at Ft. Leonard Wood, Mo.
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