Mumford, NY – March 5, 2014 – The Derby at the Genesee Country Village & Museum is pleased to announce Bobby Murphy as the course designer for this year’s inaugural USHJA National and International Hunter Derby event, to be held on June 7 and 8, 2014.
Murphy brings the stand-alone derby event years of hunter course designing experience and the
creative, artistic eye that will bring The Derby to life on the sprawling Great Meadow of the Genesee Country Village & Museum.
In 2013, Murphy designed the picturesque course for the acclaimed Chicago Hunter Derby. He, along with The Derby organizers, are hoping to bring a similar vintage hunt feel to The Derby at the Genesee Country Village & Museum in Mumford, NY.
“The Derby concept has been in development for the past year or two,” Murphy shared. “[The Derby producer and organizer] Brian Brown has come to the Chicago Hunter Derby the past couple years, and he likes the model that was built there, so he asked me to take part in The Derby.”
“Usually, I’m in Colorado during that month, but I made some adjustments to my schedule. I’m going to join them to make a new successful, stand-alone event, because I really believe in the stand-alone derby event,” Murphy said. “The stand-alone events are kind of the only true hunter derbies, and there aren’t very many of them. So I think it’s important for the hunter derby program. It’s the stand-alone event that will keep the true derbies going. That’s a real derby course, where the horse and rider are going over a 1500 or 2000 meter course.”
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The Genesee Country Village & Museum is a 19th-century, living history museum situated in the heart of Western New York hunt country, an area steeped in rich equestrian history. Murphy plans to incorporate that incredibly rich history in the courses for both the USHJA National and International Hunter Derbies, while also creating a course that showcases the horses’ abilities and creates an enjoyable experience for both horse and rider.
“At Chicago this past year, we replicated a lot of fences from the 1700s,” Murphy said. “In New York, with all of the rich equestrian history and the history of the Genesee Country Village and Museum and all of the resources that they have there, we can really get into an artistic approach.”
Murphy continued, “I like to try and create new fences that are exciting to see, but that don’t jeopardize the horse or the rider. Now we’re getting to be able to build real stonewalls, real hedges. We built a 200-foot rock wall in Chicago with timber above it. I think introducing old fashion concepts in a modern course design is my favorite aspect.”
With the USHJA National Hunter Derby on Saturday, June 7 and the USHJA International Hunter Derby on Sunday, June 8, The Derby at the Genesee Country Village & Museum will become only the nation’s third prestigious stand-alone derby event.
