Essex Horse Trials

The Essex Horse Trials will be held on January 24th and 25th, 2017 at Moorland Farm in Far Hills, New Jersey.  The Olde Mill Inn will be one of the sponsors of this exciting and successful community event that will return after a 19-year hiatus since 1998, when the 30-year continuous run of the trials was interrupted.

The Essex Horse Trials are a pre-Olympic qualifying event that was previously held at the United States Equestrian Team headquarters until 1998.    The original event was started during the 1960s as a competition for young riders,  and the first location of the Essex Horse Trials was at the Hoopstick Farm in Bedminster, NJ, with support by Mr. and Mrs Elliot Haller.   The first Trials were held in 1968, with Training and Preliminary levels of competition.  The event continued to grow during the 1970s and 1980s, expanding into a major three-day international event where riders competed for U.S. Team positions for the Olympic Games and World Championships.   The event ultimately moved to the United States Equestrian Team headquarters.

Proceeds from the Essex Horse Trials will directly benefit the Greater Newark LifeCamp, which annually hosts children from Newark, New Jersey for a camp experience in Pottersville, New Jersey.  Approximately 300 Newark youths per day are provided with an enrichment experience at the camp for six weeks during July and August.  The goal of the program is to provide these children with the tools to succeed and excel in their lives by developing life skills, character and leadership outside of an urban environment.  The LifeCamp campus, which opened in 1923, is on 90 acres of open fields, rolling hills and woodlands on the Lamington River and is located just a few miles from the Moorland Farm.

In 1887, the original editor of LIFE Magazine founded the Life Fresh Air Fund to help inner-city children by sending them to the country.  This fund launched the LifeCamp movement.

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