| Personal information | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Birth name | Joseph Halpin Fargis IV | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | April 2, 1948 New York City, United States | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Height | 1.87 m (6 ft 2 in) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Weight | 75 kg (165 lb) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | Equestrianism | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Joseph "Joe" Halpin Fargis IV (born April 2, 1948) is an American showjumper and Olympic champion. Fargis won showjumping individual gold and team gold at the 1984 Summer Olympics. He won showjumping team silver at the 1988 Summer Olympics. [1] He is the owner of Sandron Farm. [2]
As a child, Fargis lived in Vienna, Virginia. He began riding in second grade after visiting a friend whose mother ran a riding school. [3] Fargis learned to ride with trainer Jane Dillon at her Junior Equitation School in Vienna, Virginia. In 1966 he went to Francis Rowe's Foxwood Farm in Crozier, Virginia and stayed there for the next twelve years, until he began training with Bertalan de Nemethy. [4] He rode at the Pennsylvania National Horse Show as a junior. [5]
1970s
He first rode at the FEI Nations Cup in 1970 in Lucerne, Switzerland, as a member of the US team. In 1975, Fargis helped the US secure Team Gold at the 1975 Pan American Games in Mexico City, Mexico. [6] In 1978, Fargis and his friend Conrad Homfeld became business partners in Sandron Farm. [7]
1980s
Before the 1982 World Championships, the American team went to Hickstead as a warm-up, and Fargis had a fall that broke his leg. He was sidelined for much of the rest of the year. By fall 1982, Fargis was competing again. Riding Touch of Class, he won classes at Pennsylvania National, Washington International, and the National Horse Show. In 1983, Fargis was part of the United States Equestrian Team's Nation's Cup team with wins at Calgary and Rome. In 1984, Fargis and Touch Of Class won the Grand Prix of Tampa and were selected for the Olympic team. Before the Olympics, Fargis went with the American team to Europe where they won the Nation's Cup at Aachen. [8] Fargis competed in showjumping at the 1984 Summer Olympics held in Los Angeles. There he won individual and team gold medals with the American-bred Thoroughbred mare Touch of Class. [9] The pair set an Olympic record as they faulted only a single time throughout the competition, jumping clear over 90 of 91 obstacles. [10] Fargis was the East Coast League's top qualifier to the 1985 FEI World Cup Finals. [11] At the 1988 Summer Olympics Fargis, riding Irish-bred mare Mill Pearl, won team silver and finished seventh as an individual. [12]
1990s
Fargis represented the United States at the FEI World Equestrian Games in Stockholm in 1990. [13] In 1993, Fargis won the $50,000 Budweiser I Love New York Grandprix and the $50,000 Grandprix of New Hampshire. In 1999, he was second in the $60,000 American Gold Cup. [14] In March 1999, Fargis broke a leg at a Florida show. Later in the year, he won the $25,000 Sally Hansen Grand Prix, riding 10-year-old Hanoverian, Edgar. [15]
2000s
In 2000, Fargis won the Bayer/USET Wellington Cup and the I Love New York Grand Prix. In 2002, he won the International Open Jumper, the $75,000 Tommy Bahama Open, and the $25,000 Tommy Bahama WEF Challenge Cup. [16]
2010s
In 2010, he won the $35,000 North Coast Grand Prix. [17] Fargis won the $5,000 welcome stake on July 19, 2012, at the Chagrin Valley Hunter Jumper Classic and the $30,000 Duke Children's Grand Prix on November 9, 2013. Fargis had a serious fall at the 2014 Lexington Spring Encore, suffering broken ribs and a punctured lung as well as internal bleeding. [18]
Fargis has been called "a leading figure in showjumping" and received the 2012 Lifetime Achievement Award from the US Equestrian Federation. [19] He has been inducted into the Show Jumping Hall of Fame, the Virginia Horse Show Association Hall of Fame, the Virginia Horse Center Hall of Fame and the Pennsylvania Horse Show Hall of Fame. He has also been named AHSA Horseman of the Year and has received the USHJA Lifetime Achievement Award. [20] His Sandron Farm is recognized as an influential training facility that has produced many great horses and riders. Fargis has also had a lasting effect on the administration of horse sport in the United States as a committee member of the American Horse Show Association (the predecessor to the US Equestrian Federation), United States Hunter Jumper Association, and United States Equestrian Team. [21] Fargis is considered one of the best clinicians in the United States and internationally. [22] [23]
Ian Millar CM is a Canadian Equestrian Team athlete for show jumping. He is a two-time winner of the Show Jumping World Cup, and an Olympic silver medallist. Due to his longevity and accomplishments, he is often nicknamed "Captain Canada" in his sport. He holds the record for most Olympic appearances by any athlete in any sport (10). A member of Canada's 2012 Olympic Games team, he broke the record when he took part in his tenth Games in London 2012.
Gail E. Greenough, was a member of the Canadian Equestrian Team for show jumping.
Abdullah was a Trakehner stallion ridden by Conrad Homfeld. He won many international titles in the sport of show jumping, and is considered by some to be the best Trakehner ever to compete in the show-jumping ring. Abdullah was inducted into the United States Show Jumping Hall of Fame in 2009.
John Whitaker MBE is a British equestrian and Olympian who competes in show jumping. He has won numerous international medals including an olympic silver medal at the 1984 Summer Olympics held in Los Angeles. He is the managing director of John Whitaker International Limited which produces tack and equestrian clothing.
Anne Kindig Kursinski is an American showjumper and two-time Olympic silver medalist in team jumping, at Seoul 1988 and Atlanta 1996. Representing the United States, she was a member of five Olympic teams, forty-seven Nations Cup teams, and three World Equestrian Games teams. In 2017, she was inducted into the Showjumping Hall of Fame.
Touch of Class was a bay American-bred Thoroughbred mare who was on United States Equestrian Team at the 1984 Summer Olympics, winning the gold medal in the individual and team show jumping events. She was ridden by Joseph Fargis.
Vaughn Jefferis is a New Zealand horseman who won a bronze medal at the Olympic Games.
Bertalan de Némethy was a cavalry officer in Hungary and later became the show jumping coach for the United States Equestrian Team. He was influential in developing riding and training methods used by show jumpers today.
Benjamin Richard Maher MBE is a British show jumper. He represented Britain at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, 2009 European Championships in Windsor, 2012 London Olympics, 2016 Rio Olympics, the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and the 2024 Paris Olympics. He won the team jumping gold at the London Olympics with Team GB, their first team jumping gold medal for 60 years, an individual gold for Great Britain at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, and team jumping gold again at the 2024 Paris Summer Games. That win tied him with three-day eventer Richard Meade and dressage rider Charlotte Dujardin as the most successful British Olympic equestrians.
Leslie Burr-Howard is an American equestrian and an Olympic champion in showjumping. She won team gold at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics and team silver at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, as well as team silver at the 1999 Winnipeg Pan American Games.
Francis Davis "Frank" Chapot was an American equestrian who competed at six consecutive Olympic Games - from 1956 to 1976 - and won two silver medals in team show jumping, at Rome 1960 and Munich 1972. Chapot was chef d'equipe of the American equestrian team from 1980 to 2004, leading them to their first Olympic team gold at Los Angeles 1984. Additionally, he coached the American show jumping team from 1968 until his retirement in 2005. Chapot is also known for breeding and training Gem Twist, a champion showjumper named World's Best Horse in 1990. In later life, Chapot became a jump course designer and judge. In 2001, he was awarded the United States Equestrian Federation's Lifetime Achievement Award for his contributions to horse sport.
Margie Goldstein-Engle is an American show jumping equestrian, and a 10-time American Grandprix Association Rider of the Year.
Scott Brash MBE is a Scottish showjumper. He began riding the horse Hello Sanctos in early 2012. They competed as part of the British Team at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London winning a gold medal in the team jumping event. In 2015, he became the first rider to win show jumping's Rolex Grand Slam, all three of the sport's most prestigious events in a single year, earning the sport's biggest individual prize of €1 million (£735,000).
Elizabeth Ann Drummond-Hay, better known as Anneli Drummond-Hay, was a British eventer and show jumper who won the 1961 Burghley Horse Trials riding her horse Merely-a-Monarch.
Jessica Mendoza is one of the UK's top female equestrian athletes, who broke into the world's top 100 riders, and into the top 10 British showjumping riders in Spring 2015. She is also a regular contributor to the British monthly magazine PONY.
Big Star is a Dutch Warmblood stallion who competes in show jumping with the British rider Nick Skelton. Part of the gold medal team at the London Olympics, Big Star was elected the KWPN horse of the year and formed a partnership with Skelton in 2012. After good performances in the following year, he was temporarily taken out of competition because of a leg injury. Skelton has described the bay stallion, son of Quick Star and grandson of Nimmerdor as "the best horse he has ever ridden". Apart from his show-jumping, Big Star is a successful breeding stallion, licensed in 21 studbooks for sport horses. Some of his foals have won notable victories.
Bertram Allen is an Irish show jumping rider. Originally from Wexford, he has won international medals at the pony, junior, and senior level. He won the opening round of the 2014 World Equestrian Games in Normandy at age 19, receiving international recognition. Allen is the youngest winner of a Grand Prix on the Longines Global Champions Tour, and was a team gold medalist at the 2017 European Championship in Gothenburg.
Bernie Traurig is an American equestrian known for his international success in show jumping, dressage and eventing, as well as his coaching and training career. He is the founder of Equestrian Coach, an educational website.
Graeme Otto Hansen, also known as Hec Hansen, was a New Zealand equestrian.
Lillie Carmichael Keenan is an American show jumping rider. As a junior rider she won the ASPCA Maclay Finals, the USEF Medal Finals, and the Washington International Horse Show Equitation championship, as well as the USHJA International Hunter Derby Finals and double gold at the North American Young Rider Championship.
