The Rutgers center is fulfilling its mission to present matters of interest and importance to New Jersey's equine industry. ALSO: An obituary for Jean Haller Reid, one of the founders of the old Essex Horse Trials in Bedminster.
Multi-faceted Tewksbury resident Sally Ike will be the featured speaker for the first of a new series of Rutgers Equine Science Center events. The Rutgers Equine Science Center will be gaining more prominence with a series of three new special events to offer a broad spectrum of equestrian-oriented information, from life with the U.S. Equestrian Team to a business and legal slant on the horse industry and a lecture on the history of the horse.
"The traditional role of the center is having the vision to identify issues of importance to horse owners and the horse industry," said Karyn Malinowski, a professor who is the founding director of the ESC.
At the same time, "We're trying to get undergraduates to become more aware of the center and all the opportunities there," she continued, while noting alumni and others in the horse world also will have a chance to broaden their horizons at the innovative fundraisers for the center.
"It's always wonderful to bring people here to campus and so they can see everything we have in New Brunswick," commented Malinowski, noting that also includes a treadmill lab and horses used for scientific research projects.
The series kicks off Sept. 29 with "An Evening with Sally Ike." A barbeque is scheduled at 5:30 p.m. before a 7 p.m. lecture by Ike, a Hunterdon County resident who went all over the world when she was the managing director of show jumping for both the U.S. Equestrian Team and the U.S. Equestrian Federation.
Ike, who was a member of the U.S. eventing team in her competitive riding days, is one of the most highly regarded show jumping course designers for three-day events. She now serves the USEF as director of education and licensed officials, and also as chairman of the Essex Foxhounds hunt committee.
There is no charge for the lecture at the Roundhouse on College Farm Road in New Brunswick, while students can attend the barbeque free of charge and others pay $25 to eat.
On Oct. 12, a panel of specialists will share their knowledge during a daylong program on legal, business, tax and insurance issues that have an impact on the industry. That session will be held at the Palace Conference Center in Somerset, with Merial animal health as the initial sponsor. The fee is $75, which includes breakfast, lunch and conference materials.
Malinowski noted the forum is particularly appropriate for show managers, horse farm owners, breeders and horse owners. The date, she pointed out, is not only a holiday, but is even better because most professional barns are closed on Mondays, and there is no racing or showing that day.
Author Wendy Williams offers an illustrated lecture about her new book, "The Horse: The Epic History of Our Noble Companion," at 7 p.m. on Nov. 2. A well-known science writer from New England, Williams traveled widely, from studying wild horses in Wyoming to researching the Lippizans at the Spanish Riding School in Vienna as she spent five years working on the book about the evolution of the horse/human bond. Malinowski called the volume "intense and fabulous."
"I've always wondered...what is the basis of the communication between horses and humans? " asked Williams.
"Where did that come from, scientifically speaking; why do we have so much in common with horses, why are we able to understand them so well and what can we do to understand them better?"
The last part of the book is about the newest discoveries concerning horses' cognitive abilities. Some science shows they can interpret two-dimensional signs on a wall, according to Williams.
The Rutgers lecture is called, "Can Horses `Read'?"
A pre-lecture 6 p.m. reception with the author will be available for $75, which includes a copy of the book. General admission tickets for the lecture, are $20 and a book signing also will be featured. The sessions will be held at the new Institute for Food, Nutrition and Health building on the Cook Campus, near the horse pasture.
Information about registration will be available soon at the science center's website, esc.rutgers.edu. To find out more, send an email to esc@aesop.rutgers.edu.
GONE AWAY -- Jean Haller Reid, one of the founders of the old Essex Horse Trials in Bedminster, died Friday in Arizona after a long illness. She was 97.
The mother of Roger Haller, cross-country course designer for the 1978 Eventing World Championships and the 1996 Olympics, she grew up riding bareback and western on her family's Arizona ranch, sometimes even traveling to school on her horse. She attended a music conservatory in Kansas before going on to the University of Arizona.
It was then that she met Elliot Haller, who was studying at the Arizona School of Mines.
When she moved east after eloping with him in 1939, she switched to English riding. Her first question was, "Where's the (saddle) horn?" She began going out with the Essex Foxhounds when she was in her 40s, and competed in her first event when she was in her 50s.
Jean and Elliot Haller out for a day with the Essex Foxhounds. "She was willing to try everything," her son said.
The Hallers lived at Hoopstick Farm in Bedminster, where they started what became the Essex Horse Trials, which developed into one of the country's best-known eventing competitions.
"She affected a lot of people's lives," said her son, noting that even 40 years after she had been district commissioner of the Somerset Hills Pony Club and supervisor for the organization's New Jersey region, former members were still phoning her to chat.
Haller recalled that Olympic eventing medalist and trainer Jimmy Wofford said, "Her house was always open to people; you always felt you were warmly welcomed and part of the family."
It was while she was at a party at Wofford's home in 1968 that she heard a conversation lamenting that there were no events, like those in England, to bring along young horses.
"My mother said, `You know, Elliot and I have a farm that's 65 acres. I believe I could persuade Roger to figure out where the course could go and we'd be happy to support it.' " They took her up on it. She pitched in, doing whatever was needed, including painting jumps.
The event was held at the farm until 1978, when it moved over to the U.S. Equestrian Team headquarters in Gladstone.
After her husband's death in 1982, she encountered a former neighbor, Bill Reid, in Arizona, and married him in 1985. He died in 1997.
She was always active, riding nearly all her life, and didn't stop until she was 92. To celebrate her 86th birthday in 2003, she did a five-day inn-to-inn "B&B" ride in Vermont with friends.
Jean Haller on her 86th birthday riding trip in Vermont.
"She joked that the B&B stood for `bourbon & bathtub,' both of which she said she really looked forward to at the end of each day's ride," recalled Reid's daughter-in-law, Ann Haller.
"She will be hugely missed by so many. She has stayed in contact with friends that she and Elliot made when they first moved east, and had spoken to many of them recently," her daughter-in-law continued, noting Mrs. Reid never stopped traveling and even took a trip to Las Vegas to see the shows earlier this year.
"She was a rare combination of strong, gentle, determined and kind--and absolutely loyal to her friends," her daughter-in-law said.
Jean and Roger Haller March 2015 in Arizona. In addition to Roger and Ann Haller of Oxford, Ga., and her daughter, Barbara Pace of Tucson, Ariz., Mrs. Reid is survived by her sister, Joan Murphy, of Litchfield Park, Ariz., four nephews and a niece, as well as two grandnephews and two grandnieces.
A memorial service will be held at 1 p.m. Sept. 26 at Mrs. Reid's house in Tubac, Ariz.
Donations in her memory should be made to the Children's Playground Fund at St. Andrews Episcopal Church in Nogales, Ariz. (standrewsaz.org).
ACTIVITIES SCHEDULE
Today: Sussex County Fair Quarter Horse Show, Sussex County Fairgrounds, Plains Road, Augusta; Woodedge at the Park, Horse Park of N.J., Route 524, Allentown; Delaware Valley Horsemen's Association Driving Show, DVHA Showgrounds, 299 Ringoes-Rosemont Road, Sergeantsville; Jersey Palms Dressage Show, 177 South Stump Road, Jackson; Freedom Classic Show, Gloucester County Dream Park, 400 Route 130 South, Logan Township.
Tomorrow: Sussex County Horse Show, Sussex County Fairgrounds, Plains Road, Augusta (through Aug. 9).
Wednesday: The Ridge at Riverview Summer Spectacular, 3 Wolverton Road, Asbury (through Aug. 9).
Thursday: Delmarva Paint Show, Gloucester County Dream Park, 400 Route 130 South, Logan Township (through Friday).
Saturday: Zone 7 Paint Show, Gloucester County Dream Park, 400 Route 130 South, Logan Township. (through Aug. 9); CJL Farm Show, East Freehold Park, Kozloski Road, Freehold.
Aug. 9: National Standardbred Show, Horse Park of New Jersey, Route 524, Allentown (through Aug. 10); Delaware Valley Horsemen's Association Jumper Show, DVHA Showgrounds, 299 Ringoes-Rosemont Road, Sergeantsville; Central Jersey Horsemen's Association Show, East Freehold Showgrounds, Kozloski Road, Freehold; The Dressage Experience, 13 Bunting Ave., Burlington; Fidler's Run Farm Dressage Show, 456 Fidler Road, Woodbine.
Nancy Jaffer: nancyjaffer@comcast.net.