Joe Fargis to Lead USHJA EAP Regional Training Session Live on H&C

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The Lindsay Maxwell Charitable Fund/USHJA Emerging Athletes Program was created to provide opportunities for young riders to advance their horsemanship education and riding skills. Since the EAP’s inception in 2009, athletes have gone on to earn numerous championships and titles in the Hunter, Jumper and Equitation show rings, including the Platinum Performance/USEF Show Jumping Talent Search Finals, the ASPCA Maclay Finals, USEF Prix des States, and the IHSA Nationals, to name just a few. Please visit the EAP Alumni page for more information.

About Joe Fargis:

Joe Fargis first represented the U.S. in 1970 in Lucerne, Switzerland, where he rode Bonte II on the winning Nations’ Cup team. He is best known for his double Gold Medal performance at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games riding Touch of Class. He became only the second American show jumper to win an Olympic individual Gold Medal, while leading the U.S. to the team Gold as well. He rode Touch of Class to an Olympic record that year by jumping 90 out of 91 obstacles clear. Four years later, Fargis added a third Olympic medal to his collection when he rode Mill Pearl and helped the U.S. win team Silver at the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul, Korea, and finished seventh individually. Over the years, he has ridden on more than 30 Nations’ Cup teams and was part of winning teams at Aachen, Washington, New York, Calgary, Rome and Cannes.

Fargis won the USA-East World Cup League twice and finished fourth in the 1989 World Cup Final in Tampa. He was the Leading International Rider at the National Horse Show in Madison Square Garden in 1987. He was also a member of the Gold Medal team at the 1975 Pan American Games in Mexico City, and the fourth place team at the 1990 World Championships held as part of the initial World Equestrian Games in Stockholm, Sweden.

Fargis’s string of grand prix wins is equally impressive. He won such notable events as the American Gold Cup in Devon, PA; the Hickstead Grand Prix in England; the USET Wellington Cup; the Ox Ridge Grand Prix; the Grand Prix of Tampa; and the I Love New York Grand Prix in Lake Placid. Continuing to compete well into his fifties, Fargis added more wins in the first decade of the new millennium including the I Love New York Grand Prix; the $175,000 Grand Prix of the U.S. at the Oaks Blenheim International CSI***; and the $100,000 Hampton Classic Grand Prix. Already a USHJA Lifetime Achievement Award winner, Fargis was most recently honored in January by the USEF as its 2012 recipient of the Jimmy A. Williams Lifetime Achievement Award in recognition of his outstanding equestrian career.

Equally respected and admired by the full spectrum of the show jumping world as a rider and instructor, Fargis continues to be a favorite at every event he attends. USHJA is honored to have him serve as an Emerging Athletes Program clinician in 2013.