Silo Ridge Masters: World-Class Show Jumping Arrives in the Hudson Valley

On a windswept hill just outside of Amenia, NY, Olympic show jumping champion McLain Ward is putting his horse through its paces. It is the opening day of the Silo Ridge Masters, the first of two world-class equestrian events taking place back-to-back at The Highlands, a stud farm in Dutchess County.

While an estimated 20,000 visitors are expected to attend the fortnight of show jumping at the farm, most of those visitors will come over its two weekends – the first weekend, which ended with World No.1 Kent Farrington claiming the $125,000 Grand Prix on Sunday, and this coming weekend, which will see the final of the $340,000 Highlands Cup which begins Wednesday (October 8).

But on Day One, Ward must content himself with a small crowd as he moves his animal with practiced grace across the sand and fiber floor of the ring, managing to clear the course’s 14 jumps without error.

Show jumping originated in nineteenth-century England, evolving out of the countryside sport of fox hunting. Legislation known as the Enclosures Act led to the fencing off of much of the English countryside, forcing fox hunters to dismount and jump fences on their mounts to pursue prey.

Until it was banned in England in the early 2000s, fox hunting was considered a sport of the elite. The same is true of show jumping, where the prohibitive costs involved with owning, stabling and traveling with horses to competitions put it out of reach of many people.

To underscore this elite pedigree, it is worth noting that the FEI, the international body that oversees show jumping, counts among its former presidents no less than five royals, including Princess Hussein of Jordan and the late Queen Elizabeth II’s husband, Prince Philip.

But while money might get you a seat at the table, equestrian demands talent and dedication to reach its highest tiers. It also demands the cultivation of a relationship unique in high-level sport.

“The difference between equestrian and other sports is that you’re dealing with two athletes – the horse and the rider,” says Pedro Torres, the owner of The Highlands and the organizer of the horse show, now in its second year.

Torres cites the example of Gem Twist, a thoroughbred regarded as one of the best show jumpers in history, who enjoyed much of his success being ridden by an amateur, Greg Best. “It’s the combination of horse and rider that is critical to success and that’s something you can’t replicate in any other sport,” says Torres.

Even so, there are those who question the nature of this relationship – the animal rights group PETA, for example, claims that the sport is based on an inherently coercive relationship in which the horse has no agency. The show jumping world, meanwhile, says it takes very seriously the horse’s welfare, with the FEI handing out bans to riders and trainers found guilty of animal cruelty.

Whatever your views on the ethics of the sport, there is nonetheless something magnificent in the spectacle of a thoroughbred making a jump. Oftentimes, the horse seems to hesitate slightly just as it approaches the jump, as if reluctant to go through with it. But then it goes anyway, and you see the beautiful perfection of its taut musculature rise powerfully into the air and over the fence. Sometimes, you hear the slight clip of hooves catching a bar and toppling it, a mistake which leads to an automatic deduction in points.

The appearance at the event of show jumping stars like Farrington and Ward – a five-time Olympic medalist who has won two team golds and an individual silver – was one of the key reasons Torres felt drawn to hosting the event. He says that while many of the best show jumpers are based in the North-East – Ward, for example, hails from the Hudson Valley town of Brewster in Putnam County – there has traditionally been a deficit of high-level shows in the region.

“It always surprised me that we had to go somewhere else to find top-level competition,” says Torres, who organizes the horse show in partnership with his wife, the show jumping trainer Judy Garofalo-Torres. “If you go to Europe, you find the shows are smaller but with a lot more professionals competing, and we were always looking for the opportunity to bring something similar to the US.”

However, hosting a show of this caliber requires significant investment. For the two events – the Silo Ridge Masters and this week’s Highlands Cup – Torres says he had to put up $1.2 million in prize money alone. Additionally, there is the cost of hospitality – the competition ring is surrounded by a VIP tent offering gourmet cuisine and beverages.

“In order to attract the sponsorship required to fund the event, we needed to be majorly creative,” says Torres. “That’s the reason we’re trying to integrate so many events into it.”

Those events include performances by the rock bands Third Eye Blind and Dinosaur Jr this Friday (October 10) and the following night by the country stars Brothers Osborne and LeAnn Rimes (October 11). There will also be a collection of classic cars on display at the site to coincide with the final competition day at The Highlands (October 12), as well as an outdoor market featuring stores specializing in equestrian-related accessories and clothing.

Judging by the first day, Torres’s hard work has paid off. Milling about the expansive hillside occupied by the farm, the event feels prestigious. A McLaren sports car is parked up alongside the VIP tent and, in the training fields that overlook the competition arena, impeccably-groomed horses cross back and forth in the soft autumnal light.

We meet one of them, Dorado De Riverland, a 13-year-old French-born gelding, competing in the international class. With his dappled gray coat and tightly trimmed mane, the animal is a thing of beauty. But as with most of the beauty on display here, it comes with a high price tag.

World-class show jumping horses can cost in the tens of millions, and a horse like Dorado De Riverland – Roger to his friends – is in high demand, traveling throughout the world to compete in shows.

Back at the ringside, we meet Nick Dello Joio, a 36-year-old show jumping professional, who has just come first in his class. Dello Joio, who is based in nearby Westchester County, attests to Torres’ point about the wealth of local equestrian talent.

“We travel to shows all over the country and the world, but we always put this one on the calendar because not only is it convenient – we’re only an hour and 10 minutes away – but it’s also one of the premier shows in the country in my opinion,” says Dello Joio. “It’s a luxury to come here for us.”

Dello Joio has been steeped in the horse world his whole life – his father is the former Olympian Norman Dello Joio, and the two of them run a horse farm together in Bedford, NY. He says: “I love riding, I love competing, I love working together with the horses. I love all aspects of the industry – the buying and selling, the training; all of it brings me pleasure.”

Torres, too, grew up immersed in equestrian, traveling from his native Venezuela to compete at horse shows in the US and Europe as a child. “I started riding when I was 11 years old, and then I spent probably 20 weeks a year competing,” he says.

His connection to the Hudson Valley began with his father, who spent his childhood in the region. Later on, Torres began riding with Norman Dello Joio’s stable and met his wife, a fellow show jumper, whose family also had a farm in the area.

Besides show jumping, Torres is involved in land development, and his company, Stone Leaf Partners, was a co-developer of the nearby Silo Ridge Field Club, an 850-acre luxury development featuring a golf club and private residences.

Before I take my leave, I have lunch in the VIP tent. The sun streams in through a bank of windows as I enjoy a zucchini and mozzarella sandwich and a glass of freshly squeezed fruit juice. Just on the other side of the row of windows, straight-backed riders in spotless white breeches guide expensive steeds over jumps.

As I sit soaking in the glamour of the occasion, I think about Roger, the gelding, flying on planes to far-flung places, a showpiece in a world of luxury he has no way of understanding. I barely understand it myself – this much privilege existing alongside everything else that it exists alongside.

Yet here it is – the world of show jumping. A beautiful bubble siloed off from real life, and peopled by a dedicated group of enthusiasts in love with their animals and the shiny, bright world they created to play with them in.

Photos by Ashley Neuhof and Megan Giese

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