U.S. eventing legend Michael Page, who gained the 1956 AHSA Medal Finals, gained a number of Pan American Games medals and rode in three Olympic Games, is retiring this week from his job as head coach of the Kent School (Connecticut) Equestrian Team after 28 years within the place. The faculty is holding a luncheon Saturday to rejoice his retirement and expects a minimum of 130 of his former using college students to attend. In honor of the event, we’re sharing this “Living Legend” profile on Page that first ran in our July 10 & 17, 2017, problem.
Sitting on the ground of his household’s front room in Pelham, New York, a quiet suburb of New York City, Michael Page, then 15, dreamily flipped by way of a problem of Light Horse journal.
Photographs captured horses and riders elegantly clearing jumps, alongside studies of worldwide competitions. With every flip of the web page, {the teenager} turned extra enthralled.
His father, Homer Page, sat in an adjoining chair, equally engrossed in his Sunday newspaper. Suddenly, he put it down and requested his eldest of 5 youngsters what had so captured his consideration. He wasn’t stunned to listen to it was an equestrian journal.
Homer had noticed how his younger son would turn out to be transfixed every time a present depicting horses got here on their tv. Likewise, he’d witnessed Michael using his bike 12 miles to the closest barn the place, at first, the budding equestrian climbed into the straight stalls, hopping from horse’s again to horse’s again down the size of the barn, after which later took classes.
Homer acknowledged this wasn’t a passing fad for his son, this inexplicable draw to horses nobody else of their household shared. And he knew fairly a bit about inexplicable passions and the magic in pursuing them. He’d chased his personal as a younger man, deviating from the anticipated path to an Ivy League establishment like his siblings and as an alternative touring to Europe to turn out to be a Shakespearean actor.
Homer Page inspired and impressed his son Michael to pursue his ardour. “His experiences as a young man really made a tremendous impact on my vision of what I was going to do and how I was going to do it,” says Michael. Photo Courtesy Of Michael Page
Homer would flip away from this dream when grownup obligations intervened, and he returned to New York to run the household enterprise making hat liners at Beatty-Page Inc., based mostly close to Washington Square Park in Greenwich Village.
So, on that afternoon in 1953, Homer did a unprecedented factor. He instructed his teenage son to write down to a handful of barns promoting in again of the journal to see if one may present a proper equestrian training.
“He suggested that instead of going to camp over the summer, why didn’t I go to England and start getting an education in classical riding. He said, ‘You need more education. You need more experience. I, obviously, can’t do anything for you, so go where you can learn it. It costs the same as going to camp, but somebody has to guide you in your aspirations,’ ” Michael remembers.
“That was his thing, knowing that,” Michael says. “It was exceptional. I mentioned, ‘Wow, that sounds great!’ He understood my have to increase my data past what he may supply me.
“My father was special,” Michael continues. “And his experiences as a young man really made a tremendous impact on my vision of what I was going to do and how I was going to do it.”
That encouragement ignited a series of occurrences that may finally lead Michael to particular person and staff medals in three Pan American Games and to using in three Olympic Games, bringing house medals from two and serving to to safe U.S. eventers as a aggressive pressure within the sport.
But, he was by no means fueled by a love of competitors.
“I just wanted to ride,” he says. “I enjoyed figuring out the puzzle presented by the personalities of the horses I rode. But the competing part, no. My interest was in riding. I am a rider.”
Do Another 10 Circles
Before he discovered himself aboard a ship to England along with his saddle and suitcase in hand, Michael was obsessive about using.
“When I was 10, I used to watch black-and-white television, and my dream was to be a Pony Express rider. The world back then was different. The cowboys—they were heroes, and that always left an impression on me, right? Then part of what I saw, the visual image, was the horse,” he says.
Michael is telling me this within the cozy front room of his North Salem, New York, house, across the nook from the Old Salem showgrounds, down a dust highway lined with quaint stone fences. He’s lived right here for 38 years along with his spouse Georgette (they’ve been collectively for 50 years) and raised their son, Matthew, on this charming home nestled inside acres of preserved open house. Even although Matthew, now 38, lives in Washington, D.C., and works for NASDAQ, his presence is in every single place of their house with framed household photographs on each floor.
“He is a great kid,” Michael says as I love one of many snapshots. Matthew, whereas using as a baby and touring forwards and backwards to Florida along with his dad and mom, advanced into pursing different sports activities, like golf and baseball.
Michael, 78, has a behavior of punctuating almost each sentence with the phrase, “right?” making every assertion sound extra like a query as he recounts his life. It’s virtually as if, even in spite of everything these years, he nonetheless can’t fairly consider his luck in how his life has performed out.
For as lucky as he considers himself professionally he’s fast to inform me, “The luckiest thing that ever happened to me is her,” and factors to Georgette, whom he met at U.S. Equestrian Team headquarters in Gladstone, New Jersey, in 1966 when she was working as a groom for the staff.
“The very best thing to ever happen to me was to walk into the team and seeing her sitting on that trunk. And she hasn’t changed. Without her—and my son …” he trails off with emotion in his voice earlier than concluding, “My son is a piece of me and a piece of my wife and fortunately more of her.”
Georgette sits with us as we speak, typically chiding her husband that possibly he shouldn’t share that story and laughing at his jokes regardless of actually listening to them repeatedly over time. Their admiration for each other is palpable.
As for his different nice love, horses, Michael says, “There was at all times one thing actually clicking for me. Horses had been one thing particular in my life. It got here from nowhere, and that was simply who I used to be, proper?
“And I don’t think I have ever been emotionally connected to the horse. It was more how the horse could create an opportunity to do something unique,” he provides.
There had been the aforementioned bike rides to the now defunct Saddle Tree Farms as a younger teen. While lessoning there, Michael caught the eye of a German immigrant named Herby Wiesenthal who stored his jumper Candlestick, a remount horse, on the facility. Herby had survived life as a Jew in Germany, the small print of which had been by no means mentioned with Michael.
“Herby didn’t have any children, and he saw me as a boy who was passionate about riding and asked if I would like to ride his horse during the week,” says Michael.
“Candlestick had big feet and was sort of a clunker, but it was a horse to ride, so it was great! And Herby took an interest in me, saying, ‘Well, you love to ride, and I have a horse, and I could maybe help you a little bit along with your father,’ and so we started doing a little horse showing,” he says.
In 1956, Michael Page gained the AHSA Medal Finals at Madison Square Garden aboard a former remount horse, Candlestick, owned by his pal Herby Wiesenthal. Associated Press Photo
It was after watching his son trip Candlestick and witnessing Michael’s dedication that his father recommended the summer season in England.
Of the 4 locations Michael wrote, he heard again from two, one being Eddie Goldman, who was an occasion and dressage coach.
“It was the beginning of classical riding for me because I was so frustrated about putting a horse on a bit. Eddie would get on, ride, and the horse would go on the bit. I would get on, and the horse’s head would go straight up in the air, and then I’d get yelled at,” Michael says with a chuckle.
“All summer I rode in a little indoor ring, and when I came back, Herby and my father split the cost of the entries for equitation. We bought a single wooden trailer, and we went to the horse shows, and I qualified for the Medal Finals at Madison Square Garden on this remount horse,” he says.
His father would typically watch him education, providing uneducated however supportive recommendation.
“My dad would say, ‘I still don’t think you make round circles. Do another 10 circles.’ And he knew nothing about riding, but he’d say, ‘Do another 10 circles,’ and so I would do another 10 circles, scratching my head,” Michael remembers with fun.
At the age of 15, Michael Page adopted his father’s prompting to spend the summer season coaching with Eddie Goldman in England, the place he discovered the tenets of classical using. Photo Courtesy Of Michael Page
Educated Hands
Three years after he returned from his summer season in England, Michael and his borrowed remount clunker Candlestick gained the AHSA Medal Finals and positioned third within the ASPCA Maclay. It was 1956.
“The judges were Ginny Moss from Southern Pines and Hope Scott, the [chair] of Devon. That is imprinted on my mind,” he says with fun.
Years later, he and Moss developed a friendship. He would typically cease and go to her on his journey south for the winter and drop off memorabilia from the Olympic Games.
“One day I said, ‘Ginny, I’d like to ask you a question. How the heck did I ever win the Medal Finals at Madison Square Garden on a remount horse with a big brand down his neck?’ And she looked me straight in the eye, and without any hesitation said, ‘Michael, you were the only rider with educated hands.’ Just like that!” he says, nonetheless delighted in spite of everything these years.
This success strengthened what his father had acknowledged from the beginning, and he as soon as once more inspired Michael to push on.
“My father sat me down and said, ‘You really have a passion for riding, and you have a very limited passion for school. Why don’t we think about the idea of instead of going to college, letting you go back to Europe and spend the next three or four years doing that?’ All my siblings went to college, but he recognized in me that there was a piece that was different,” he says.
Homer acknowledged it as a result of he, too, had recognized it. While his siblings went to Princeton (New Jersey), the University of Virginia and Yale (Connecticut), Homer rode throughout the nation within the ice automobile of a practice to see the West Coast and, from there, made his solution to Europe to review Shakespearean appearing.
Fulfilling A Dream
Michael returned to Goldman and informed him he was in search of extra alternatives. This, in flip, led to a stint in Switzerland. While there, he befriended a French groom who informed him one of the best place on the earth to trip was at Saumur, the French Cavalry School, so after 4 or 5 months in Switzerland, Michael discovered himself on the well-known faculty, enrolled in a two-week course for civilians.
“The course was just superficial; you just got to ride a couple horses a day. Then, from there, I found—I don’t know how I found it, but I made my way to Paul Stecken in Germany, so that was my next big place to ride. One of the boys who was there was Reiner Klimke. He was 21 and already on the German Olympic three-day team. This was a three-day barn, so I got to ride in my first event,” Michael says.
Klimke shared his in depth data of using principle with Michael, giving him a CliffNotes model of the writings of one of the best equestrian minds.
As for his transition from equitation to eventing, Michael says, “That’s what everybody did. Where I went, everybody was eventing. They did flatwork, they did show jumping. The cavalry went back to having the great horsemen who became the leaders of the French School, the German School. They did all of it.”
The yr after Michael did the two-week course at Saumur, the varsity determined to permit—for the primary time in historical past—civilians to attend the non-commissioned officers course.
“It was brutal. You rode six horses a day, no irons, and when you got off for lunchtime, you just stood with your hands against the wall. I wore three pairs of underwear,” Michael confesses laughing.
“But it was something that I wanted to do. This was just brutally getting you to have a leg and seat on a horse. All riding, you jumped on from the ground and went out for 1 hour and 15 minutes and came back in at the trot. All trotting. Just trotting, just trotting, just trotting,” he says with a chuckle.
He would do that for 3 months till the pinnacle of Saumur, Col. Margot, uttered phrases that may as soon as once more advance his dream. Michael repeats the phrases in French earlier than taking pity on my confusion and translating them to English.
“He said, ‘Come here!’ And I said, ‘Yes my colonel,’ and he looked down from the back of the horse he was schooling and said, ‘Starting tomorrow, you ride with the officers.’ That meant that, from that day on, Jack Le Goff became my trainer, and I had seven horses to ride every day, and the French government paid for all my competing!” he exclaims and slaps his knee.
Michael Page was one of many first civilians to trip with legendary coach Jack Le Goff at Saumur and was instrumental in bringing Le Goff to the United States following the 1968 Olympic Games. Herby Wiesenthal Photo
The hours of exhausting work had paid off, regardless of Michael needing to go to the infirmary often to get better from such strenuous coaching.
“You sat on a horse for seven hours a day with no stirrups, and it either broke you, or you learned it. I would go to the infirmary like every three weeks, and you’d spend three days in bed, and they’d give you these big horse pills, and then you’d go back. I remember one time saying, ‘This is great!’ I don’t have to think for a year; all I have to do is polish my boots. You got breeches made in the place; everything was done for you!” he exclaims.
The course was a nine-month dedication. Michael would keep for 2 years. Call him a glutton for punishment, however he liked it.
With the French authorities paying for his coaching, Michael saved sufficient cash to fly his dad and mom over. When I ruminated that his dad should have been happy with him he says, “He was happy if I was happy. It was, ‘You’re fulfilling your dream.’ ”
From Saumur To U.S. Team
Equally happy with the son he by no means had, Wiesenthal intently adopted the progress Michael was making in Europe, which included putting sixth within the navy division on the French National Championships at Fontainebleau. (In a field of memorabilia Michael gave me to make use of for this story, there’s an album Wiesenthal made for Michael with 8″ x 10″ black-and-white photographs and accompanying typed descriptions of this era of his profession.)
Mounted on the hearth mantel subsequent to Michael’s chair is an oval plaque he acquired for his achievement.
“My friend, Herby—whenever I would go to a horse trials or an event, he would put a little thing in the Chronicle! You know, in the back? ‘Michael Page was sixth in the military division,’ so it sort of kept the team interested in me and knowing in the back of their mind my name. So I finished at Fontainebleau,” he continues, “And I got a telegram from the USET, and it said, ‘John Galvin has purchased six event horses for his daughter in California, and he wants to sponsor the three-day team. Would you be available to come to California and see if one of the horses would be appropriate?’ ”
As to why they reached out to him, Michael says, “There were very few event riders, and in the Chronicle were all these little snippets. ‘Ah, there is a familiar name! Michael Page! Oh, he won the Medal, and now he’s doing this, two years later. So I got this telegram, and I went home.”
He drove his household’s Jeepster throughout the nation in seven days to Sir John Galvin’s huge ranch within the San Ynez Valley close to Santa Barbara. Galvin’s daughter in the end determined to pursue dressage, but Galvin supplied to sponsor the eventing staff.
John Galvin bought quite a few occasion horses, one among which was Grasshopper, whom Page would trip in two Pan American Games and two Olympic Games. Tony Vacekt Photo
“John Galvin was special and unique. He was a real catalyst for eventing. There was not much at that time going on,” Michael says.
At Galvin’s barn, upon his introduction to a 15.1-hand Connemara-Thoroughbred gelding, Michael noticed a flash of what he most liked about horses from his childhood: the power of a horse to create a possibility to do one thing distinctive.
“My first Olympic horse fulfilled my childhood dream. That was Grasshopper,” he says.
Grasshopper had already been to the Stockholm Olympic Games in 1956.
“He was special. The world then was special. You have to realize that then, in those days, the speed and endurance was 22 miles. Took an hour and 45 minutes. You had a first roads and tracks, you had a steeplechase, then you had a second roads and tracks, and then you had the cross-country, then you had the run in,” he says.
“So you needed a tough, strong, fast horse. He had already done an Olympic Games, and he got eliminated for jumping outside a flag, but other than that, he jumped clean. He was a real different horse. He did not especially like people. If you walked up to his stall, he’d come with his mouth wide open. Obviously, since I am light, and he was small, that was the sort of horse I was given. And since I had just come from Saumur, I could sit on anything that stood up. I mean, I could stay on,” he clarifies with fun. “I don’t think it meant I rode better than anyone else.”
Jimmy Wofford, a bit youthful than Michael and an eventing legend in his personal proper, remembers the early days of Grasshopper.
“He was called Grasshopper because when Sir John Galvin came to see Michael try him out, he bucked like a son of gun, and Galvin said, ‘Well, if you like him, you’ll ride him, but you know he bucks like a grasshopper!’ But he was a phenomenal creature. At the end of a 22-mile classic Olympic level three-day event, he’d still be pulling,” he says.
“I had seen him go when he was called Copper Coin and ridden in 1956 in the Stockholm Games,” Wofford continues. “So once I went out to look at the Olympic Trials in 1960 at Pebble Beach, I walked into the courtyard on the previous Pebble Beach stables, and nobody was round, and Grasshopper’s identify was on his door. I believed, ‘Well, I’ll simply wander in there and try him.’
“I was a little greener in those days. Now I wouldn’t dream of going into someone’s stable with no permission and unannounced,” confesses Wofford with fun.
“But I just opened the stall and went in there, and let me tell you, I came out of there a lot faster than I went in! Grasshopper did not tolerate fools easily. He ran me out of there!” he says, nonetheless laughing.
Outside The Box Training
The pair had a difficult begin, forcing Michael to take an unconventional strategy to incomes the horse’s respect.
“After 2 1⁄2 weeks of trying to control him, it was getting to the point that I knew I was going to get hurt or he was going to get hurt, and there had to be some way of getting through to him in a way that made him respect me. He was bucking and vicious. It wasn’t in good fun. I was fine, but it took two people to hold him, and someone would throw me on because he wouldn’t stand still,” he says.
Michael Page’s first Olympic associate, Grasshopper was a 15.1-hand half Connemara horse recognized for his feisty temperament and unimaginable stamina. Photo Courtesy Of Michael Page
His plan was to make use of the huge acreage of the Galvin ranch and close by mountains.
“We didn’t use drugs in those days. We didn’t do anything. It was you against the horse, and he was either going to kill himself or kill me. So I said, ‘What I am going to do is no stirrups because I’m going to have to go through the cattle gate at 90 mph, across the road, and then I’m going to go straight up the shale mountain, and every stride he is going to jump into the shale. He’s only going to be able to do that a short amount of time, and then he’s not going to be able to breathe anymore, so then he’ll stop.’ So we went through—and I mean sparks flying across the road—it was really cool!” he says with fun.
Michael needed to flip Grasshopper up the mountain 3 times earlier than he would trot when turned again down.
“But it was not fun,” he says. “There was just no return. There was no return for him and no return for me. So if I could get him to stop breathing, so he couldn’t move, it would give me a chance for him to actually know I was on his back, and I was the one responsible. It wasn’t like I wanted to do this. I needed to do this. It had to be done. I understood that is who he was, so I had to think outside of the box training.”
The message received by way of, and whereas Grasshopper remained a difficult horse, the pair would go on to win a person gold medal on the 1959 Pan American Games in Chicago, along with his household there to cheer him on.
“I remember driving in the car with the whole family, and they were just announcing the winner of the three-day event, which was me, and everybody started yelling! It was good. It was a fun thing, although my mother wouldn’t watch. She would stay in the car. She was nervous about me getting hurt,” he says.
Their first journey to the Olympic Games in Rome in 1960 was disappointing once they had been eradicated after two falls, which Michael says weren’t the horse’s fault. Following the 1960 Games, Michael was drafted into the Army.
He thrived throughout his fundamental coaching at Fort Dix (New Jersey) and was named a squad chief. He briefly thought of making the navy a profession after receiving particular recognition for his management qualities and an invite to attend officer’s coaching, however he was dissuaded by his father. Homer needn’t have apprehensive, as very quickly after, Michael was known as to the bottom workplace.
“They said they had new orders for me from Washington, D.C. That I had to leave and was assigned to Fort Ord in California to ride the horses six hours a day. I had already done Rome. I lived at a little house next to the stables in Pebble Beach and had six horses to ride every day,” he says.
“We had the big horse trials out there at Pebble Beach, the Wofford Cup, which was a big deal, and I won three times, and it was then retired. So I rode for the Army and was getting paid by the Army!” he says with fun.
“I was the last Army Olympic rider, and that started way back in 1936 when the military competed, and there I was, the last. And I always figured that would be a cool picture for the Chronicle,” he says, exhibiting me a photograph of him in his Army apparel.
“We had the big horse trials out there at Pebble Beach, the Wofford Cup which was a big deal. I won it three times, and it was then retired. So I rode for the Army and was getting paid by the Army. I was the last Army Olympic rider, and that started way back in 1936 when the military competed, and there I was, the last. And I always figured that would be a cool picture for the Chronicle,” says Michael Page. Julian P. Graham Photo
Wofford remembers Michael coming alongside within the fall of 1958 and all of a sudden turning into the main American rider, winner of the nationwide championships. “It’s kind of a chicken and egg—did eventing become more popular and more successful, and Michael showed up? Or did it become more popular and successful because of Michael’s success? Michael was winning medals when none of the Americans could,” he says.
“He was the athlete you wanted to be on the team with because he was always ready; he was always prepared,” Wofford provides. “His horse was always intelligently trained, and especially in those days, in the classic format, his horses were fit. And that was a great deal of success in the classic era, having a horse that had the cardiovascular physical capacity to do that but also to be physically prepared, sound and fit when he got to the competition.”
After the frustration of the Rome Games the duo redeemed themselves with particular person and staff gold medals on the 1963 Pan American Games, adopted by staff silver on the 1964 Olympic Games in Tokyo and fourth individually.
It wasn’t simply Michael’s ability with horses that impressed Wofford. It was additionally his work ethic.
“I’ll inform you a bit story. I used to be a staff rookie within the ’60s, and Michael, in fact, was the Bruce Davidson or the Michael Jung of his day. I received to Badminton, and I used to be so excited. There had been a few riders saying, ‘C’mon Jim! Let’s go all the way down to the pub. It’s Wednesday afternoon, let’s go down and have a couple of drinks,’ and I mentioned ‘Sure!’ and I walked across the nook, and there was Michael Page, sitting on his tack trunk buffing his boots. And these different guys mentioned to him, ‘Come on Michael, come on. You can do that later, come on down and have a drink with us!’
And Michael appeared up and smiled and mentioned, ‘If you look sloppy, you ride sloppy.’ And he went again to shining his boots. I finished and I mentioned, ‘You guys go ahead; I’ll meet you in a short time,’ ” he says with fun.
Michael Page competed on the Pebble Beach, Calif., trials for the 1963 Pan American Games aboard San Jose. Photo Courtesy Of Michael Page
Riding Hiatus
Following the 1964 Olympic Games, Michael stopped using. It was time for him to reciprocate the help his getting older father had at all times proven him, and he was wanted to assist run the household enterprise.
The enterprise, which made hat and jewellery field liners, had been within the household for generations. During a go to again to the States from Europe throughout Homer’s appearing profession, he met Michael’s mom.
There has at all times been a little bit of discrepancy within the household as to their actual wedding ceremony date.
“I think what happened with him—and this is nothing that has ever been discussed—is that he came back from a tour over there and went to work at our company and met my mother, who was working in the factory, right, and I came along,” Michael says with fun.
“I mean, no one has ever said anything to me,” he admits. “But that changed the dynamics of his life, and he accepted that and obviously had four more children.”
While he might have stopped using for the staff, Michael served because the chairman of the Selection Committee and as a choose, which he mixed along with his gross sales work. He additionally rode some jumpers.
“I traveled around, and every place I judged, there would be a hat place. I was in sales, and I would do both. It was the right thing to do. My father had made it all possible, and it wasn’t like I was going to stop riding forever,” he says.
Grasshopper likewise retired after the Tokyo Games and went to reside on Galvin’s ranch. He colicked and died a yr later, which in some methods Michael seen as a blessing in disguise.
“He wouldn’t have been happy, just being turned out,” he says.
Foster Care
A number of years later, in 1966, Michael received a name from the staff to try a brand new horse for a potential return to competitors. Foster had made his solution to Gladstone and was being cared for by a younger groom.
Enter Georgette.
Foster was a difficult horse, affected by a water phobia brought on by a fall in a water soar when he was youthful.
“Foster was all Georgette. Everything that happened with Foster, happened with Georgette,” Michael says.
This can be the start of not solely an incredible partnership for Michael and his new mount, but additionally, extra importantly, with the girl who would turn out to be his spouse.
Michael and Georgette Page met when she was grooming Foster at USET Headquarters in Gladstone, N.J.. Photo Courtesy Of Michael Page
Fun truth: The pair determined to get married after relationship for seven years when Michael acquired an invite from Queen Elizabeth to Princess Anne’s wedding ceremony. It was addressed to Mr. and Mrs. Michael O. Page, and upon exhibiting it to his father, Homer mentioned they need to not go until they had been really married, so off to the courthouse they went.
Michael continued to work on the household enterprise, commuting three hours every manner into town after using within the pre-dawn hours.
He approached U.S. present leaping coach Bert de Neméthy at some point at Gladstone and requested if there was any solution to tweak the coaching schedule and maybe alternate instances with the present jumpers. Michael’s question was not nicely acquired.
“I don’t remember the exact words, but it was something along the lines of, ‘This is a waste of my time.’ So I said, ‘You know Bert, the only medal that was won in Tokyo was won by the eventing team, and we deserve a little bit more consideration than you are giving us.’ Smoke was coming out of his ears, and we never spoke again,” he says.
The trio—Georgette, Michael and Foster—would go on to create superb new recollections and share triumphs, most notably staff gold and particular person bronze within the 1967 Pan American Games and staff silver and particular person bronze within the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City.
Prior to the 1967 Pan Am Games, Michael acknowledged that he wanted to get a couple of extra miles underneath Foster’s belt and determined to take him to Badminton.
He prepped for the occasion with Lars Sederholm at Waterstock Horse Training Centre in England. The two males knew each other from Michael’s time at Saumur, the place Lars had been a working pupil.
“I went and lived in a little caravan, and we went to six horse trials, and Lars was great. We are still great friends. He knew [Foster’s] history of stopping. I said, ‘All I want is somebody smarter than me, helping me figure out how to go.’ Lars said it wasn’t a question of competing for a ribbon, it was a question of getting the horse to have a shot when it counts. So we went to six horse trials, and I just cantered slowly, and wherever the water was, I made like the world had changed and took a double handful [of contact] and finished with him as strong as I could get him,” he explains, as soon as once more revealing the delight he present in determining tough horses.
“Then we went to Badminton and jumped around Badminton and were 10th! So that was great. The whole idea was I had to do something that gave us a shot,” he remembers.
Wofford was impressed by Michael’s expertise on two vastly completely different horses (though, apparently, Grasshopper and Foster shared the identical sire, Tudor).
“Foster, and I hate to be rude, but he was not 100 percent genuine, and you would not have known it from the results. I think that displays a lot of range in a rider’s skill set, when they can ride two very, very different horses like that,” Wofford says.
Michael Page knew the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City, the place he gained staff silver and particular person bronze aboard Foster, can be his finale. Werner Ernst Photo
It’s Better To Die
Another encounter with de Neméthy on the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City offered a bit of additional motivation for Michael.
When Michael’s driver to the beginning field of the cross-country course forgot his keys, they approached de Neméthy, who had simply pulled in to look at cross-country with the remainder of the present leaping staff, and requested for a carry. De Neméthy refused, infuriating Michael.
“So we start off, and Foster is really galloping well, and we’re coming around to the sixth fence, and you can see the stables on the left hand side. All of a sudden I look at his ears, and his ears are saying, ‘Those stables look nice, and I think the jump we are heading for does not look like something I am just going to do easily,’ ” he says with fun.
“So in those short seconds, as he starts to go up onto the bank, reluctantly, we are still galloping, but I promise you, it comes into my mind that Bert de Neméthy is going to be really happy if I fall on my head. I said to myself, ‘It is better to die here than have Bert de Neméthy laugh at me having a refusal,’ ” he says.
Michael spurred on Foster. The horse made it over however struck the soar.
“He hit it so hard that when I came in off the cross-country, he had lost both his front shoes. I was down about this high off the ground,” he says, measuring in regards to the distance of a foot along with his hand. “And I see his hind find yourself behind me, and I’m going to be squashed useless, after which, on the final second, I see his proper leg come out, and he picked it up and off we went! Because he was such an amazing bodily specimen he was capable of get better and get his leg out. But if not for Bert de Neméthy, I by no means would have mentioned, ‘It’s higher to die right here than it’s for Bert to be blissful about me not getting round.’ I wouldn’t have gone to the restrict, the place you already know it’s not going to occur, however I mentioned, ‘F*** it. I am going to do it anyhow.’
“I always wanted to have a place where I could thank Bert for that,” he says.
It was simply the finale he’d hoped for, as he knew he’d retire following the 1968 Olympic Games.
“I was on the airplane home when I decided. I had to go back to work. It wasn’t like I was going to stop riding completely, but I was going to stop event riding,” he says.
The U.S. staff of (from left) Kevin Freeman, Michael Page, Mike Plumb and Jimmy Wofford earned the silver medal on the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City. Steve Price Photo
So was it exhausting for him to stroll away?
“No. Are you kidding? Did you hear how Mexico went? How could that be hard to walk away from? I didn’t ride because I wanted to be an eventer. I rode because I loved to ride!” he says.
Another Type Of Legacy
In addition to Page’s success (and close to disaster) in Mexico City, one other legacy was born throughout these days south of the border. A longtime pal from his days at Saumur, Le Goff approached him about the opportunity of coming to work within the United States.
Knowing that the momentary U.S. coach Maj. Lynch was leaving for the Morven Park Equestrian Institute (Virginia), Michael arrange an appointment with U.S. Equestrian Team President Whitney Stone and recommended he check out Le Goff for the place.
Stone, who had already deliberate on being in France to look at a horse he owned run within the Prix de l’Arc Triomphe, met with Le Goff in Paris.
“About a month later, I got a call from Mr. Stone’s office saying Jack Le Goff would be coming over on a trial basis, and the rest, as they say, is history,” says Michael.
Le Goff would coach the staff for the following 12 years, and upon his retirement, Michael acquired yet one more name from Gladstone, this time asking if he would have an interest within the chef d’equipe place.
“I said, ‘Woah, that sounds like a good thing to do, to get back into it,’ ” he says. He would maintain the job for 2 Olympic Games, two Pan American Games and two World Championships, from 1986-1992. Despite many good riders and horses, the staff discovered little success, and I get the impression these years weren’t a spotlight for Michael as he diplomatically says, “It was an interesting few years.”
Wofford explains that Michael was “a part-time chef d’equipe in a sport that had become professional. The International Olympic Committee changed the rules. They opened the Games in 1985, and we were a little slow to respond to that. At that time, Jack Le Goff retired in 1984. The riders did not want a coach. Jack was a very, very domineering, authoritative coach, and the riders were a little tired of that. They didn’t want any coaching, and so we went through a dry spell, and unfortunately, Michael was the chef d’equipe then. As I said, he was fully employed, plus he was running a program, a riding and training program, and trying to be chef d’equipe, and I don’t think it worked out very well.”
It Was Never Not Horses
Michael continued to trip and practice jumpers and for seven years with Georgette’s assist, he ran Old Salem along with commuting to town and operating the household enterprise. He’s held quite a few committee roles inside the nationwide governing physique, together with because the chairman of the Equitation Committee, and he’s judged seven ASPCA Maclay Finals.
In that position, his emphasis was at all times on the rider and horsemanship talents. He turned recognized for making riders mount and dismount. Sounds easy, proper? But it was a ability many riders didn’t possess.
“From my background, I always wanted the playing field to be as level as it could, which meant in a horsemanship class, it should also count that the child’s ability should have more of an impact and not because of who she rode with or the horse she has. So in my last years, what I used to do in all the open flat classes, I had them dismount and mount. That was a big deal. I remember five kids couldn’t get on their horses and had to walk out of the ring,” he remembers.
“They got leg ups, etc. The fundamentals of horsemanship many didn’t have, and I don’t agree with it from an education point of view,” he says.
While judging and committee work (alongside along with his day job) stored him busy, his ardour for using continued.
“It was never not horses. I used to commute to the city, and when I ran Old Salem, one year I had three Olympic trials there. I called Frank Chapot, we got the Empire State Grand Prix going and hosted eventers and dressage. I just channeled my passion for riding in a different manner. I kept showing in the jumpers, and then I started riding at Kent [a boarding school an hour from them]. It’s been great. I’ve had five grand prix horses there,” he says.
Michael Page is retiring from his position as using director after 28 years with Kent School in Kent, Conn. ESI Photo
For 5 years he rode a present jumper named Show Man. “I would show him with no stirrups,” Michael says. “I’d do 1.40-meters with no stirrups, but if you ride without stirrups you sit tight, and you are stronger, and your horse goes forward better. I mean, you can’t be competitive, but I was never interested in being competitive. I just wanted to ride.”
He’s been resident coach and teacher on the Kent School (Conn.) for 23 years and rides there seven days per week.
Looking again, does he have any regrets?
“I am just so happy I did what I did and still am riding. We are very lucky,” he says, and he turns into a bit severe for the primary time and pauses.
“I am not afraid of dying,” he concludes after a second, recognizing he has had a unprecedented life.
For Michael, each field has been checked, together with many, similar to his induction into the U.S. Eventing Association Hall of Fame in 2006, he by no means may have imagined as a baby watching tv exhibits in regards to the Pony Express.
“I was extraordinarily happy that my horses had been good enough to get me there,” he says. “Do you hear me? That is admittedly true. I feel one among my best issues was I wished to be a Pony Express rider, and when Grasshopper, after 22 miles, ran away with me, even with two falls, I believed, ‘Holy sh**! I’ve executed my Pony Express trip! I’m nonetheless alive!’
“Then about 10 years ago, there was a little girl riding with me, and she knew who I was,” he provides. “She gave me a little plaque, and it said, ‘It was never about the ribbon. It was about the ride and the horse that got me there.’ ”
For Michael Page, it’s at all times been the trip that counts.
This article ran in The Chronicle of the Horse in our July 10 & 17, 2017, problem. Subscribers might select on-line entry to a digital model or a print subscription or each, and they’re going to additionally obtain our life-style publication, Untacked.
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