5 EXERCISES WITH MARGIE ENGLE
Graystone Stables in Berwick, Maine, buzzed with early-morning activity: Terry Golson, 62, rubbed a manure stain off her black-and-white Paint. Katie Plaisted, 15, briefly longed a pony in the outdoor ring. Ten-year-old Ryen McDaniel and a group of riders, trainers and auditors lugged jump poles, standards and jump filler into the indoor arena.
The reason for the effort? The arrival of Olympic show jumper Margie Engle.
A dressage rider, Golson had entered Practical Horseman’s contest, “Win a Day with Margie Engle,” as a way to give back to other boarders, mainly teenage girls, at Jason Ludwick’s hunter/equitation boarding facility. The young adults had cheered on Golson after she arrived at the barn in 2019 and had started to jump with her American Paint Horse Association-registered Tonkas Midnight Snow.
“Winning this was really a gift to the people at the barn who welcomed me here and brought me into their world of hunter/jumper shows and the jumping, and the kids are great,” said Golson, who won the contest, sponsored by Equimax (a Bimeda dewormer), out of nearly 550 entrants. Engle selected Golson because in her essay she spoke about how the young riders at the barn were involved in all aspects of horsemanship from grooming to cleaning tack to sweeping the barn aisles.
The clinic, held last spring after a year’s delay because of COVID-19, was divided into four sessions, with jumping heights ranging from 18 inches to 3 feet. Engle arrived shortly before 9 a.m. and the lessons began. Despite the differences in skill levels,
