After almost 35 years in the training business, Anne Gribbons said she’s now doing exactly what she wants: riding and training Grand Prix horses, teaching motivated students, and judging shows around the world, all while being deeply involved in administering the sport she loves.

And dozens, hundreds, even thousands of horse people can and do thank her for all she’s done for the last three decades. “She’s one of those people who works ‘behind the scenes’ far more than most of us realize,” said Elisabeth Williams, one of the country’s busiest technical delegates and FEI stewards.

“Anne represents the discipline of dressage the way most of us wish we could.”

Williams said that the USEF Junior Team Championships wouldn’t exist if not for Gribbons’ devotion. Begun in 1997, every year the number and quality of the applicants for the 12 team places increases, thanks in part to the sponsorship Gribbons secures, which pays most of the riders’ expenses.

Linda Allen, the show jumping course designer who’s served with Gribbons on numerous USEF committees, succinctly expressed why she’s the Horseman of the Year. “It’s time to recognize someone who gives so much back to the sport. What a sport we’d have if we had 50 others (or even five) like Anne!” said Allen.

Gribbons’ life fits together neatly now, but she said she never had a grand plan. She rode some as a child in her native Sweden, mostly because of her grandfather, a Swedish cavalry officer. But she decided to go to college in New York City because her father worked for the Swedish-American Cruise Line and often docked there. She was a journalism major at C.W. Post College, training she’d finally use years later when she became the Chronicle’s dressage columnist in 1996. And it was in her second semester that she met David Gribbons. “And that’s when all the trouble started,” she said with a laugh. His family owned a farm on Long Island, which they inherited soon after they were married. Anne had always wanted a horse or two, so that’s what they did with the former cow and vegetable farm.

Eventually Knoll Farm (“We named it that because it had one little bump in the middle,” said Anne.) grew to house 85 horses on its 17 acres, including horses in training, school horses, breeding stallions, and for a time mares and foals. They also hosted many, many shows and clinics. Anne and David sold Knoll Farm in 2001 and moved to a new farm in Florida, with 50 acres and only 22 stalls.

In 1972 Anne decided to concentrate on dressage, and in the mid-’70s she began training with Col. Bengt Ljungquist, the Swedish guru whose philosophy and demeanor would shape U.S. dressage.

“He had a steady view of where to go. And he taught me that you cannot let your ambition get in the way of your horse’s development,” said Anne. “He was a stickler for position and liked to get the horse like a rubber band. That’s really helped me my whole life, and then he had the nerve to die. But I still learned from him for years afterward.”

Since then, she’s trained in Germany with Harry Boldt, Herbert Rehbein and Volker Moritz, plus sessions in the United States with team coach Klaus Balkenhol. “I hope that I have retained some of what they taught me, but the philosophy for all of them is the same–there is no quick fix,” said Anne. “They and the horses have taught me what not to do.”

Gribbons’ training, showing experience and commitment to being fair are the elements that make her a sought-after and popular judge. As one of a handful of U.S. judges invited to officiate at Europe’s biggest shows, she believes that judges really need to ride and train, “otherwise you lose the connection, and then you think they should all be perfect. Judging is about being able to be accurate and to make decisions quickly and objectively. You have to really train yourself to rein yourself in. It’s good discipline, and it’s hard.”

Gribbons reminded her family and friends just how disciplined she was a year ago, when she underwent an emergency appendectomy after her appendix ruptured shortly after Thanksgiving.

“I thought I’d eaten something,” she said of the pain. Despite the hospitalization and three weeks of intravenous antibiotics, she was riding again six weeks later and showing Grand Prix in late January.

“It was just a mess,” she said, dismissing her life-threatening condition as an annoyance. Scores of friends, students and colleagues were relieved to see her back in action so quickly. “If you ground someone like me for that long, we just become crazy. I had to get back to my horses and riding,” she said.

Personal Profile
Age: 59.
Hometown: Chuluota, Fla., formerly Brentwood, N.Y.
Pets: A Jack Russell terrier puppy named Dasher. He succeeds Chipper, who died in October at age 16, and Digger. “They’re horrible little dogs, but all other pets are boring,” said Gribbons.
Family: Husband David, adopted daughters Sherri and Laura.
Current Horses: Aureate, now showing at Grand Prix, and Leoliet, now showing Intermediaire I.
Horses Trained to Grand Prix: 12 horses–Tappan Zee, Amazonas, Adastra, Kristall, Genius, Stockholm, Ingo, Leonardo II, Metallic, Don Extra, Nicolai and Aureate. She is now training her 13th horse, Leoliet.
Best Horse: She rode Metallic on the 1995 Pam Am Games team in Argentina. “He was the best, as far as consistency. But the horse I loved the most was Leonardo.” Her partner in Leonardo insisted she sell him 10 years ago when surgery for a tumor on her leg prevented her from riding him. “It was the only time I cried when I sold a horse,” Gribbons said.

Teaching, judging, adminIstering
Most Accomplished Students: Five have competed in the North American Young Riders Championships, seven have earned USDF silver medals, and one has earned a USDF gold medal, including Karen Rohlf, Sarah Michael, Laura Samuels, Lisa Lipari, Linda Smith and Leslie Eden, the 2001 NAYRC individual gold medalist.
Judging Credentials: An FEI I-rated judge, she’s judged the 2004 U.S. Olympic Selection Trials, the 2004 FEI World Cup Finals, and European international shows including Stuttgart (Germany), ‘s-Hertogenbosch (the Netherlands), and Falsterbo (Sweden).
Committee Chairmanships: USEF Junior Subcommittee (current), USET Active Competitors Committee (since 2001), USEF Athletes Advisory Committee (2000-2001), co-chairman USEF Dressage Committee (1997-’99), USET Active Competitors Committee (1991-’92), USDF Competitors Council (eight years), American Trakehner Association Exhibition Committee (five years), USEF Nominating Committee (1995).
Committee Memberships: USEF Board of Directors (1992-’01), USEF Dressage Committee (since 1992), USEF Licensed Officials Committee (since 1990), FEI World Cup Committee (1993-’97), U.S. representative to Swedish Warmblood Association (seven years).