POGGIO HORSEMANSHIP FUND

The Poggio Horsemanship Fund was established to support the education of riders, owners, grooms, and eventing enthusiasts to help give our horses every benefit when it comes to improving their lives. This program allows the USEA Foundation to provide funding for research, speakers, clinics, and other creative educational projects. The goal is to make information accessible in order to improve our horsemanship and in doing so, make the lives of all horses better.

If you have an educational horsemanship program you would like to offer, please contact Katherine Cooper at the USEA Foundation to discuss your idea and apply for funding.  To offer support for this program, you can donate here. 

More about Poggio II:  Amy Tryon found Poggio II in the classifieds section of The Seattle Times and would go on to produce one of the great, consistent talents in modern American eventing. The Thoroughbred gelding’s resume is full of accomplishments. He and Amy competed in two FEI World Equestrian Games and two Olympic Games, winning two bronze medals. They finished third at Rolex Kentucky in 2002 where Poggio was awarded Best Conditioned Horse.  They finished 10th at Rolex in 2005, and had a top 20 finish at Burghley in 2003. Poggio was also named the 2006 Eventing Horse of the Year by The Chronicle of the Horse.

But it wasn’t just the performance success that made Poggio so great. He attracted numerous fans due to his pure joy for life and his job, made evident by his quick thinking and his incredible, albeit unorthodox, jumping style. He took a troop of people around the world with him and, as Greg Tryon wrote, at Poggio’s passing, “The power of Poggio was his ability to bring people together, for his personality reminded us all of the beauty of horses, of our “Why”.” This spirit makes him the ideal champion for this fund.