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60 FA L L 2 014 U N TAC K E D then after my stint on my team, when I was riding privately for Pinon Farm in Santa Fe, N.M., we came back to the Garden on the 100th anniversary [1983], and it was really cool! I ended up being leading open rider, and that was special for me. Obviously it would be for any rider, but to do it at the centennial of the show at the Garden was really cool. Every night after the show was over they had an exhibitor party across the street at the Statler Hilton [now the Hotel Pennsylvania]. They usually had it up on the top floor of that, and that was always fun. Everybody always went to it. It started around midnight, and they always had breakfast. I could eat breakfast every meal of the day, so I was in heaven with scrambled eggs and whatever at midnight! I just loved it. Buddy Brown I grew up within an hour of New York City, and all my life, the only time I enjoyed going into the city was for the Garden. I remember just being in awe watching the jumpers. As a kid who loved horses, it was like going to Disney World—it was cool as hell. The Garden is a monumen- tal place to compete or have a concert. I think any athlete in any sport that knows about the history of MSG wants to be part of it. It was a thrill for sure. Harrisburg, Washington and Toronto were all nice, but the Garden was definitely special. Logistically, it was a bit of a nightmare. As special as it was, you had to make a lot of sacri- fices, because most of us were showing in the President's Cup on Sunday night in Washington, D.C. The horses had to ship, all the equipment had to be taken down and set back up. Pushing those carts up five stories worth of ramp [the ground floor of the Garden was actually the fifth] and things like that, getting stuff up and down in a timely matter and unloading the horses down there on the street one at a time, all that stuff. It was like an all-night adventure and a defi- nite sacrifice to make it work, but showing and winning there was a big feather in your cap. Michael Matz I enjoyed going to the Garden, and I especially enjoyed the international competition. I took a lot of pride in representing the United States, and it was nice competing against the other countries. It was different than the people you've been show- ing against all the time. It was a nice situation. Logistically it was a little complicated. The only time you could really get your horse out was if you got up early in the morning—that was the only time you could get in the ring to ride, so it was a lot of late nights and early mornings. Michele McEvoy Grubb One year in the early 1970s, I was in the jump-off of the open jumper stake class. I was last to go on Mr. Muskie and clear over what my mother thought was the last fence when she stood up and screamed, "Go, Baby, Go!" to an otherwise quiet audience. Realizing her mistake and that I had another fence to jump, she then screamed, "Oh my God, she's going to kill me!" The entire audience laughed loudly, and luckily I cleared the final fence and went on to win the class. Though the crowd cheered for the winner, they cheered loudest for my mother and her obvious faux pas! Some of the top hunters in the country showing at the Garden, circa 1954. ROBERT F. SISSON & DONALD MCBAIN/NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC/GETTY IMAGES PHOTO Riders and pedestrians coexisted peacefully in Central Park for decades, as seen in this photo dated May 1940. COVER STORY PHOTO COURTESY DERZSI ELEKES ANDOR

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