Friends of Jeremy Fund
As most of you know Jeremy Steinberg lost his horse Augie to laminitis just over a month ago. She was his love and came into his life through sheer serendipity. When he first started her under saddle, his plan was to sell her as he already had a nice young horse going and a few horses in training at that time. Although she was a nice mover, she had a tension and hotness that he thought would prove to be tricky in getting her settled in the work, so he always took things slowly with her. That tension made him realize that he did not want to sell her as a just started 3yr old since he thought she could fall into the wrong program or become a victim of herself. He made the commitment to keep her until she was working well enough to let someone else try her, but as the first few months went on, her willingness and lovely nature gave way to a being that was so kind and trusting, as to never put a foot wrong, yet feel electric and exhilarating at the same time. As the first year passed, he never felt it was the right time to market her and his love for her grew beyond words and their fate sealed, in turn keeping her and was her sole person ever to ride her until the day she passed. Early on, he started chronicling their journey together on video, starting with early lunging and posted them so we could watch her progression over the years into a gorgeous and talented grand prix horse. All of those videos can still be found on his YouTube channel.
When Augie passed away, Jeremy was overcome by the incredible outpouring of not only friends, but also from people that he had never met who had followed that journey on Facebook and YouTube. They wrote to him saying they had watched her videos and had been an audience to her life and were heartbroken for him and all enjoyed the regular updates and videos.
Jeremy has always had a gigantic impact on the horse community around him and as one of his students, it doesn’t seem to matter if you are trying to sit the trot, learning to count tempi changes, struggling with show nerves, dealing with horse politics, doing a pre-purchase exam, finding the perfect saddle, shopping for a horse trailer, or pouring through hundreds of videos to find the next perfect horse, he seems to make the time for us. Jeremy has always been the last one out of the arena when teaching clinics, often needing to be pulled by the clinic organizer away and is always open to giving objective opinions about our struggles. As one of his colleagues, he shows us strength, wisdom, professionalism and honesty, but as his friends, it is hard to see his pain at losing Augie and we wonder what we can do to help him look forward. With that in mind, It is time for us to do what each of us can, to help him overcome his loss and grief, and get him back in the saddle again. He always helps us, so know it is time for us to help him.
A few of us have come together to raise some funds for Jeremy to add to his horse budget. As you all know a horse with upper level dressage training is very expensive and almost unattainable for most riders. We would like to do what we can to help him fill the gap Augie has left and get him on a horse of similar training sooner rather than later. We all know he enjoys the process of training his own young horses, which he will continue to do, but we also know he was starting to think of showing again and has now lost his partner.
Jeremy may have lost his beloved girl, but his friends, followers and students also lost the chance to watch him ride, struggle, train and in turn, celebrate his journey on her, of which he was always very open about sharing. We as a community would like to once again see him on a horse of the people and help him create another living piece of that art that he can share with all that know and follow him.