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Lasting Impressions: Jack Le Goff’s Legacy

t almost goes without saying: U.S. eventing wouldn’t be what it is today if it wasn’t for the legendary trainer Jack Le Goff. His impact on this sport came at a critical time in our eventing history. Besides his long list of impressive credentials, who was this so-called

maverick? Warmbloods Today found

numerous professionals willing to share both their memorable moments with Jack and their lasting impressions.

I

DENNY EMERSON

“I have never in my career met anyone else so obsessed with winning.”

Denny Emerson is well known as an eventer, trainer, coach, author and activist. Denny has received the USEA’s Wofford Cup for lifetime service to eventing, the American Riding Instructor Certification Program (ARICP) Lifetime Achievement Award and was inducted into the USEA Hall of Fame in 2006. He is also a past president of the USEA and past vice president of eventing for the USET. Now in his 48th consecutive year of competing at the preliminary level or higher, he rode on the 1974 World Championship gold-medal team. Denny, who also earned a Tevis Cup buckle for completing the famous 100-mile endurance ride, teaches, trains and competes from Tamarack Hill Farm in Vermont.

JACK HAD AN INTERESTING SITUATION when he arrived in America back in 1970. The eventing program was literally in the basement of the U.S. Equestrian Team. So the first thing he had to cope with was that eventing was a second- class citizen. And the one thing Jack was not was a second- class citizen! Think of him as a combination of Bob Hope, Vince

Lombardi and Machiavelli. He was a very complex guy, a fundamentally very serious person who used his wit and his charm to get what he wanted. And what we wanted

By Pat Payne

was to win. I have never in my career met anyone else so obsessed with winning. He couldn’t have a winning event

team without a strong base in this country. He had to build relationships to do that and he did. That’s how he got out of the basement. His ability to build strategic alliances is what really turned U.S. eventing around. Thanks to him, we went from little league to middle league to the big leagues incredibly quickly. The Clark family donated an

estate in Hamilton, Massachusetts to the USET and it became his home base. What many people today won’t remember is that

in the 1970s that East Germany and other Soviet bloc

countries used sport as a way to demonstrate superiority. Innately gifted children were put into “fast track” programs.” Going to Hamilton was our fast track program in the event world. When Jack would indentify someone as promising, he would bring them to Hamilton to train. He would coach them and often they would receive donated horses. He had a system that called for total immersion. When you went there, it was like going to gladiator

school. The trade-off for agreeing to do everything when and how he said was that Jack made you good. He understood the deal—it was how to win.

TORRANCE WATKINS

“Jack’s empathy with the horses he rode complemented their natural grace and elegance.”

Torrance Watkins represented the United States in three World Championships (1978, 1982 and 1986), winning team silver in 1978 at Lexington, Kentucky and team bronze in 1982 in Luhmuhlen, West Germany. She won the individual bronze at the Fointainebleau Alternate Olympics in 1980 with Poltroon, a small Paint mare. In 1984, her double clean cross-country and show jumping rides on Finvarra helped the U.S. team win

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