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C H R O N O F H O R S E . C O M FA L L 2 014 57 on Madison Avenue for a job interview, she noticed post- ers advertising the Kentucky Club decorating the walls. at "terrible" man, Ted Worner, was about to become her boss. Worner's firm handled promotions for many liquor companies, including Courvoisier, with its logo bearing Napoleon crossing the Alps on a white horse. So they established a contest similar to the Kentucky Club's, giv- ing away a white Arabian—which Halpern was tasked with finding—at the National. "I came up with the idea to use New York City as a venue to publicize the horse show and the Arabian, and I decided a good location would be the Abercrombie & Fitch building on Madison Avenue," she said. "It was a very fancy, elegant store at the time, different from the image it has now. "ey agreed to let me host a party on the rooftop of the building that first year," she continued. "I brought Zora [the Arabian], trainer Ronnie Mutch and USET member Robert Ridland. We took the horse up in the elevator, and they got a lot of attention and press." ese efforts would result in Halpern being hired as the National's publicist. In her two years in the role, she devised numerous ways to increase patronage, set- ting up unprecedented partnerships and promotions with mainstream fashion labels like Gucci and Hermès as well as shopping boutiques in the plaza of the Garden with horse-oriented vendors, such as Vogel Boots. "Hank Vogel told me he never sold more boots than he did that week," she said with a laugh. "I asked him to give a free pair to Rodney Jenkins as a thank you to Rod- ney for letting me use him on a poster." To Jenkins and many others, the National was some- thing magical, well worth his time in helping to pro- mote. "It was always my favorite time of year and my favor- ite show," he said. "It was one of those shows where you kind of took it at pot and luck. ere wasn't a lot of train- ing you could do, [the space] was so tight. I loved it, to be honest. I loved showing there." His memories of the Central Park Mini-Show promoting it, however, are hazy. Moving from the dark, cavernous Garden and into the vivid outdoors, the public demonstration was the first ever horse show of its kind held in Central Park. PHOTO COURTESY BARBARA STONE HALPERN