Show Jumper Lillie Keenan Enjoys Her Education,  In And Out Of The Ring

At just 24 years old, Lillie Keenan is one of the most talented show jumpers in the United States. With a maturity beyond her years that has been evident since she started riding horses, Keenan used education, both in and out of the competition ring, to advance her career. Having recently made Wellington her full-time home, the New York City-born equestrian is reaching for new heights and learning along the way.

Keenan first came to Wellington at the age of seven, when she convinced her parents to forgo a skiing trip on their winter break from school and instead travel to South Florida for her to compete on her pony Aspen Spring. They have since spent every winter traveling to the warmer climate. “That is why I still don’t know how to ski!” she noted.

The talented young rider has made a habit of convincing her parents and others of what she already knew: her passion for horses, riding and competing would always be foremost in her life. While horses take center stage, Keenan has also valued the importance of education and all of the relevant skills that come with learning.

Keenan said that her parents, Pam and Howard, were “used to sacrificing for their kids’ passion,” with her older brother being a professional hockey player and her sister a professional ballerina with the New York City Ballet. For Keenan, it meant her mother, who was a successful junior rider herself, ferrying her to ride with Andre Dignelli and Patricia Griffith at Heritage Farm and traveling to horse shows throughout the year, including to Wellington every winter. “They were incredibly supportive,” she said.

As a student at the Spence School in Manhattan, Keenan commuted every winter from ages eight to 17, her junior year at Spence. “JetBlue was like a second home to me,” she laughed. “I was in a position that my family could make that possible, so I was very lucky. I kept my grades up and was allowed to do it. [Spence] set me up for success with academics and with sport. They made it possible, but taught me discipline, and I could manage to do well in school while also jumping five star [Grand Prix classes] while still in high school.”

This sometimes required taking matters into her own hands. “When I was in eighth grade, I spoke to my head of school about missing every Friday for three months,” Keenan recalled. “She explained that anything is possible as long as I’m the one who makes it happen. I had to talk to the head of school and my teachers myself, rather than my parents. I had to be responsible for my own work and time management. If I missed anything, I had to make a plan and communicate. I was comfortable with it.”

While Keenan visited six schools for higher education, Harvard University was her first choice. “It was the one place that I had a feeling that I could be myself there,” she said. “What made Harvard different was that every person that I met there, they didn’t have to understand show jumping and horses, but they had something in their life they were passionate about, too. They were driven by something; it connected all of us.”

Keenan continued her equestrian passion through her college years.

“I don’t remember feeling like I wished I wasn’t doing both,” she explained. “I didn’t want to miss out on a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity of the experience of moving away from home and being a college kid. I liked it, but I realized there was never a moment at a party or something that I wasn’t missing horses and the sport. Once I realized horses is what I wanted to do, I was able to commit myself better to studies and sport. At school, I was at school. When I wasn’t, I sat down and got work done.”

In a remarkable junior career that included wins in the USEF Pony Finals, the ASPCA Maclay Finals, the USEF Medal Finals, the Washington International Horse Show Equitation Finals, double gold at the North American Young Rider Championships and winning the USHJA International Hunter Derby Finals against a full slate of professionals, Keenan kept her laser focus on her goals.

She jumped in her first Nations Cup at the age of 17 in Bratislava, Slovakia, and turned professional in 2015 during her freshman year at Harvard. In 2017, she was a part of the first all-female team to win the Aga Khan Trophy in the Nations Cup at the Dublin Horse Show. She has remained not only one of the best Under 25 riders in the world but is also consistently one of the top 10 riders in the country.

Keenan has fond memories of growing up wintering in Wellington at the Winter Equestrian Festival, watching the Grand Prix classes under the lights at 10 years old and feeling that she would never jump that high, and then four years later being anxious to try. She rode in her first Saturday Night Lights with Pumped Up Kicks at 17 years old.

“The crowd there is a different experience than a lot of shows,” Keenan said. “The atmosphere is electric. The crowd definitely raises you up.”

After graduating from Harvard, Keenan turned her commitment full-time to horses and show jumping. “After 15 years or so, my focus was on one thing,” she explained. “I really looked forward to it; I never had that other than in the summers.”

Keenan has now made Wellington her permanent residence with Chansonette Farm, and a bonus of being in one place so much is the chance to go to the local Pilates Rocks every day.

“It has really become home,” she said. “It’s the only time in my life where I have lived where my horses are and had that constant every day, where I can wake up and go and ride. I love having other [equestrian] disciplines at such a high level so close to home. I enjoy watching dressage and learning from seeing that. I think it’s a very unique community that you don’t find anywhere else in the world.”

Keenan’s current string includes top horses Fasther, Skyhorse and Agana van het Gerendal Z, along with promising nine-year-olds El Balou OLD and Cazaan, as well as Ann Thompson’s eight-year-old Delta de la Rasse. It’s a family affair, as her mother Pam helps pick out young horses and develop them for the future.

“From the very beginning, one thing my mom never pushed to try was riding,” Keenan said. “When she stopped riding, it was hard to give up; it was her entire life. This sport is so up and down, and you lose a lot more than you win. You need support and people around you to understand how much commitment it takes. Horses are always going to be the priority. I’m very lucky that I get to share that with my mom.”

While it has been two years since she graduated, Keenan’s love of learning continues. Six months after she left school, she was tutoring high school students. “I love learning, and there are parts of school that I really enjoyed. I think that will be true for life,” Keenan said. “That’s why I started my own business with designing show jackets, and I push myself in new ways, in more than just sport. It makes me a better rider and a better person.”

International Show Jumping Family The Beerbaums Enjoy Spending Time In Wellington, Their Winter Home

When equestrian Meredith Michaels-Beerbaum first set foot in Wellington in the late 1980s, she used it as a stepping-stone to one of the most successful careers in the equestrian sport of show jumping. More than 30 years later, she is a regular winter visitor with her husband, Markus Beerbaum, a top rider and trainer, and her 10-year-old daughter, Brianne.

While studying political science at Princeton University, the Californian won her first big Grand Prix in 1989 at the age of 19 in Wellington riding Quick Star. At that time, the Winter Equestrian Festival was based at the old polo stadium grounds, currently home to Equestrian Village and the Adequan Global Dressage Festival. Flying down on the weekends to compete, Meredith balanced riding and school like many junior and young amateur riders do to this day.

Two years later, in 1991, Meredith moved to Germany to work for legendary trainer Paul Schockemöhle, and when she met Markus, she stayed. The couple started their own riding and training business in 1994. After marrying in 1998, Meredith became a German citizen and was the first woman to ever earn a spot on the German national team when she competed at the 1999 European Championships.

While Meredith was focused on her career and competing in Europe — which led to three victories at the FEI World Cup Jumping Finals, Olympic team bronze, three World Championship medals and six European Championship medals — Markus, who has won team gold medals at the European Championships and World Championships himself, was traveling to Wellington annually to ride and train students such as Alison Firestone, who was the alternate for the U.S. show jumping team at the 2000 Olympic Games in Athens.

“He was doing more of the Wellington circuit than I was,” Meredith remembered. “It’s a bit of a contradiction! I would commute a little bit back and forth; he was based in Wellington doing the full-time WEF circuit.”

When the Beerbaums gained new sponsors who lived in Florida and were interested in having their horses compete in Wellington, Meredith joined Markus in more regular trips to the Palm Beach International Equestrian Center. Meredith brought two young, talented horses, Jim and Nancy Clark’s Shutterfly and Checkmate, to give them experience. Those two horses would turn into her most successful mounts with seven championship medals between them. Shutterfly took Meredith to the top of the podium three times at the World Cup Finals in 2005, 2008 and 2009. Checkmate returned to WEF in his late competition years, until he was 19, to compete in Wellington.

Since 2012, Meredith and Markus have spent winters in Wellington, with horses owned by Jim and his wife Kristy Clark of Artemis Farm, and working with students such as Saer and Audrey Coulter, Lucy Davis and Chloe Reid.

The Beerbaums’ daughter Brianne was born in 2010, and the family trade has been passed down.

“She started in the walk-trot classes in the South Ring, and now she’s out there on Pony Island,” Markus said. “She adores it and has a great time, and she established a network of friends.”

Brianne trains with Patricia Griffith of Heritage Farm, and she attended school at Binks Forest Elementary School for the semester they live in Florida. With COVID-19 making schools virtual, Brianne will continue with her German online school in 2021, working with Upper Echelon Academy in Wellington, which was founded by equestrian Clementine Goutal.

Markus and Meredith will be primarily training students this winter, but they have brought one pony for Brianne to compete.

There are many facets of life in Wellington and at the Winter Equestrian Festival that make it an ideal place for the Beerbaums in the winter, both professionally and personally.

“The weather is fabulous, and we get to ride outside. You can’t ride [outside] very many places in the world [in the winter], particularly in Germany,” said Meredith, who is based the rest of the year at the Beerbaums’ stable in Thedinghausen. “The [PBIEC] show grounds has everything in one location, which is so attractive for a family like us. I can help Brianne in the pony ring, then go and ride in the Grand Prix without traveling to another show. In Europe, that is not possible because the big shows don’t have [classes] for kids.”

Markus also enjoys his winters in Wellington.

“We have a lovely life as a family in Wellington, and we get to all share and enjoy our time together,” he said. “We have a normal time schedule, having dinner in the evening, and are able to sit around the pool and throw steaks on the grill. We have a really comfortable, nice family life and still ride our best horses, compete at the top level of the sport, plus watch our daughter shine in the pony ring. It’s a win-win-win for us. It’s a wonderful time to be together and enjoy what we all love to do, but in the same place for a good length of time.”

While the whole of Palm Beach County has much to offer residents and visitors, the Beerbaums tend to stay closer to home in Wellington, usually enjoying restaurants and shopping. “I think the Village of Wellington offers so many things,” Meredith said. “It’s really convenient. You can get whatever you need: Pilates, golf, a tennis lesson, all next to the stable or where your kid goes to school.”

Competition at WEF in 2021 will be as tough as ever, with top riders from around the world coming to Wellington to compete. More European riders are making the trip across the Atlantic as well, realizing something that Markus and Meredith saw years ago.

“It’s vital to point out that this is the top of the sport,” Markus said. “For years, before Europeans came, they knew [WEF had the] best American riders, but they didn’t realize how good the sport is. Now in the last few years, Europeans have come and seen how difficult the competition is, how the course designing is top, the facilities are great and the prize money is outstanding. It’s not only the best Americans, but there is a European and international flair. That brings a lot to Wellington and makes it one of the best places to compete, particularly this time of the year.”

Joining thousands who attend the Winter Equestrian Festival every year, the Beerbaums are happy to have made Wellington their winter home.

Learn more about the Beerbaums at www.michaelsbeerbaum.com.

Faces of WEF

The world-renowned Winter Equestrian Festival has returned to the Palm Beach International Equestrian Center in Wellington, bringing 13 weeks of top hunter, jumper and equitation competition. The 2021 WEF opened last month and continues through April 4 featuring the best riders from across the nation and around the world. Although this year will look different due to COVID-19 rules and guidelines, with very limited spectators, that does not mean that the quality of the sport will be any less impressive. Show jumping riders will have 12 weeks of FEI competition, including four CSI5* events. Highlights will include the popular Great Charity Challenge on Saturday, Feb. 6, which will provide $1 million to local nonprofit organizations. As we do every year, our Faces of WEF pictorial feature puts a spotlight on just a few of many amazing riders competing at WEF this year.

Faces of WEF – Beezie Madden

Only the second person to be named U.S. Equestrian Rider of the Year three times, Elizabeth “Beezie” Madden has spent most of her life around horses. Riding since age 3, she was the first woman to pass the $1 million mark in earnings for show jumping. A seasoned athlete, Madden was part of the gold medal U.S. teams at the 2004 and 2008 Olympics, as well as the silver medal U.S. team at the 2016 Olympics. She claimed the individual bronze medal at the 2008 Olympics. She also medaled at the World Equestrian Games in both 2006 and 2014. In 2014, Madden became the first woman to win the prestigious King George Gold Cup at Hickstead with Cortes C. Madden was only the fifth woman ever to win the FEI World Cup Finals. Madden followed up that win with a repeat in 2018 with Abigail Wexner’s Breitling LS. She heads into the 2021 season with an eye on the upcoming Olympic Games in Tokyo.

Faces of WEF – Brian Moggre

Brian Moggre, a 20-year-old Texan, is considered a rising star in U.S. jumping circles. Moggre started riding at age 2 and never looked back. He shot to the top of the charts in 2019 after winning both the $100,000 Longines FEI Jumping World Cup Ocala CSI3* at Live Oak and the $225,000 Longines FEI Jumping World Cup Lexington CSI4*-W. He had great success with mount MTM Vivre le Reve, a German-bred Westphalian gelding. Last year, he was named the recipient of the prestigious Lionel Guerrand-Hermes Trophy from the United States Equestrian Team, which is presented annually to a junior or young rider on the team who demonstrates the values of sportsmanship and horsemanship. Moggre was part of a team of up-and-coming U.S. athletes who dominated the $150,000 Nations Cup CSIO4* last season at the Winter Equestrian Festival, and he is back in action this season at WEF in Wellington.

Faces of WEF – Dominic Gibbs

Dominic Gibbs is an up-and-coming equestrian based out of Colorado Springs, who has for several years now wintered in Wellington and competed at the Winter Equestrian Festival with a focus on equitation. The 17-year-old had an outstanding 2020 season, earning top-five finishes in all four major equitation finals, capping the year by clinching the prestigious 2020 ASPCA Maclay National Championship at the National Horse Show in Lexington, Kentucky, with his mount Cent 15, a 12-year-old Hanoverian gelding owned by Mountain King Ranch LLC. He outperformed more than 250 other riders to take the honor, often called the sport’s equivalent to the Heisman trophy. Gibbs trains with Stacia Klein Madden and the team at Beacon Hill Show Stables and one day hopes to become a professional equestrian and represent the United States at the Olympic Games.

Faces of WEF – Kent Farrington

Show jumping star Kent Farrington began riding at age eight after seeing an old photo of his mother riding. He turned professional in 1999 and has been winning ever since. During his first three years as a professional, he earned more than $1 million in prize money and received the Maxine Beard Award. Originally from Chicago, the 40-year-old Farrington is now based in Wellington. He was on the gold winning U.S. jumping team at the 2011 Pan American Games in Guadalajara and took the team bronze at the 2015 Pan American Games in Toronto. He also won a bronze in team jumping at the 2014 World Equestrian Games in Normandy. Farrington’s 2016 highlight was riding with the U.S. Equestrian Team at the Rio Olympics, where his team won the silver medal. He had some strong outings at last year’s WEF and was back in the saddle with wins during the summer and fall shows at PBIEC in the lead-up to this year’s festival.

Faces of WEF – Martin Fuchs

Swiss Olympian Martin Fuchs, 28, is one of the top show jumpers in the world today. As of the latest update, he is ranked second on the FEI Longines rankings. He comes from a family of equestrians and began riding as a young child. Fuchs’ first major victory was team gold at the inaugural Youth Olympic Games in 2010, and he went on to make his senior Olympic debut in 2016 in Rio with his gray gelding Clooney 51. Fuchs won individual silver at the FEI World Equestrian Games 2018 in Tryon, helping his Swiss team to fourth place and earning a team quota place at the upcoming Olympics in Tokyo. He had a stellar 2019, finishing as runner-up at the Longines FEI Jumping World Cup Final in Gothenburg and taking the top spot at the Longines FEI Jumping European Championships in Rotterdam aboard Clooney 51. He is a regular on the WEF circuit, winning the $137,000 Equinimity WEF Challenge Cup CSI5* last year aboard Stalando 2.

Faces of WEF – McLain Ward

Whether it’s Wellington, the Olympics or the World Equestrian Games, show jumper McLain Ward is well-prepared for the challenge. Ward started riding after being encouraged to take up the sport by his parents, who were professionals in the industry. In 1990, at age 14, he became the youngest rider to win the USEF’s Show Jumping Derby. At the 2004 Olympics, Ward won the gold medal as part of the U.S. team — a feat he accomplished again in 2008. He was back at the Olympics in 2016 as part of the silver-winning U.S. team. In 2017, Ward won the Longines FEI World Cup Championship aboard his 2016 Olympic mount HH Azur. That was also the year he was ranked #1 in the Longines FEI world rankings for the first time. In 2018, Ward and his mount Clinta were instrumental in the U.S. winning the team gold medal at the World Equestrian Games in Tryon. A talented rider, Ward is a dominant force to watch when he’s back in action at WEF.

Faces of WEF – Raleigh Hiler 

Raleigh Hiler, a talented young rider out of Massachusetts who competes in the hunter, equitation and jumper rings, took up riding when she was eight years old after starting with lessons at a local farm. In many respects, she’s just like other young riders, but she’s also deaf. Hiler was born hearing, but after a bout with meningitis as a baby, she became deaf. With her cochlear implants in, she has 75 percent of her hearing in one ear, but little in the other. Intensive speech therapy and additional support throughout school has allowed Hiler to lead a fairly normal life — and pursue her love of riding at horse shows around the nation. Hiler capped 2020 by being named Show Jumping Hall of Fame Rider of the Month for October, earning the award by riding Cassina 64 to victory in the 2020 Show Jumping Hall of Fame Year-End Championship held at the National Horse Show in Lexington, Kentucky.