September 2025 Issue

EAST COAST EQUESTRIAN September 2025 41 ances that commitment with showing and continuing to learn. “Understanding everything you possibly can is only going to help your riding,” Gina observed. According to Jonna, Debbie “believed in the con- nection between horse and rider, and that connection starts with the horsemanship. The part we feel is miss- ing is day-to-day barn work. People are quick to take a lesson and go to a show, but kids don’t want to spend hours in the barn.” Jonna said Debbie was never one to take credit for how well her students did; she was simply happy for them. “It was her joy to watch them grow and do well,” said Jonna, noting that could even be “10 minutes in a lesson that somebody felt something they hadn’t felt before.” Jonna, who didn’t own her horse until she was 57, runs the Green Valley Tack Shop in Pine Island, N.Y. Like so many of their generation, she and Debbie got the basics of equestrian involvement from 4-H; she was in Bergen County, N.J.; Debbie was in Rockland Coun- ty, N.Y. But the two didn’t meet until 1990, when Jonna answered newspaper ad to ride at a local barn. That was Debbie’s base, and the light came on for Jonna. “Oh, that’s what a lesson is supposed to be like,” she realized, after Debbie taught her the first time. But learning came from more than riding. With Debbie, she would visit George Morris when he ran Hunterdon Inc. in Pittstown, and benefit from watching the lessons he taught, and eventually those given there by Jeff Cook and Chris. Gina envisions the foundation’s work being car- ried on with other trainers as it grows, and various fundraisers, large and small, will contribute toward keeping the project going. This month, it had its first such clinic, with pre- sentations by veterinarian Brendan Furlong and a talk on shipping safety by Kevin Hennessey, who runs a horse transportation business. Chris filled people in on setting courses and also taught a lesson. The focus of the foundation is the current group of younger riders, but there’s another generation coming along. Anastasia Deren is one of them, just 10 years old. The first word she said was “horsie” and she hopes to take lessons with Chris someday. The youngest person at the clinic, Anastasia felt the best thing about it was watching her idol teach. “I just love the way he addresses everything to the riders and how he incorporates dressage into his jump- ing,” said the fifth-grader from Bridgewater, N.J. who found Chris after searching on line, Anastasia, who rides with Cara Wheeler at Duncraven in Titusville, N.J., shows in the 0.70 meter jumpers with her Argen- tine warmblood, Rose, but she is looking to go higher; much higher, someday. “I definitely want tomake it to the Olympics,” she said. But there’s more to her dedication than that. “I always felt horses need to be treated the right way. They need to be taken care of. You can’t just hand them to someone else or you’re never going to learn. You need to have proper horsemanship.” Debbie would agree. To donate to the fund to to https://bit.ly/horseman- shipfoundation Author and journalist Nancy Jaffer is one of the best-known writers specializing in equestrian sports. She has covered nine Olympics in person, along with every World Equestrian Games and many World Cup Finals, in both dressage and show jumping. For more than four decades, she produced the equestrian sports column for The Star-Ledger of New Jersey. At the time, it was one of the country’s 10 largest newspapers and the only one offering week- ly equestrian coverage. Beginning in 2016, Nancy’s stories moved online to the Nancy Jaffer Equestrian Sports website. A rider herself, she has written for many web- sites and publications worldwide, including Horse & Hound, Horse Sport, Practical Horseman and In Stride. Her books include “Riding Through” with Debbie Mc- Donald, “Life in the Galloping Lane” with Karen and David O’Connor, “Riding for America,” and “Riding for the Team.” Visit her website and sign up to get regular news at www.nancyjaffers.com. Or email her at nancy@ nancyjaffer.com and follow her on Facebook at Nan- cy Jaffer Equestrian Sports, Instagram or Twitter: @ nancyjaffer. (Continued from page 12) In Memory of a True Horsewoman Chris trains Clare through a gymnastic. (Photo © 2025 by Nancy Jaffer)