Horses and riding are Robyn’s passion. She took the sort of pony ride we all took when we were
very young, and she didn’t want to stop. She began riding regularly when she was six years old
at Small Pony Hunters, which emphasized presentation. She competed
both on and off the island of Martha’s Vineyard, her home, with steady success until she was
fifteen. During that time, she attended a number of clinics conducted on the Island by Tom
Davis, a trainer from Rehobeth, MA. Tom saw a potential in her riding ability that could allow
her to master the challenges of the diverse disciplines involved in eventing: dressage,
cross-country jumping, and show jumping.
Tom’s focus is three day eventing. His hope was to get Robyn to ride out of his barn so that
he could see whether his instinct that she was a natural for the sport were true. When Robyn
left the Vineyard to attend Johnson and Wales College in Providence, RI, to complete her high
school education and begin her university studies, Tom got his wish, and he began to teach her
the complexities of Eventing.
As he suspected, Robyn took to the training with enthusiasm. Although she was entering a
competitive world where most of her fellow riders had been training for eventing since their
early teens, or even pre-teens, her dedication and focus on steadily overcoming her weaknesses
advanced her rapidly through the Novice and Training levels with her horse, McMagic. In June of
2004, when she was still riding at the Novice level, Tom took her for a week of lessons at
Independence Farm in New York State with
Darren Chiacchia, then recognized as one of the top eventers in the world and a member of the
American Olympic eventing team. By May of 2006, she was riding comfortably at Training level
with a new horse, Festive Way, who had competed at Intermediate level with a prior owner. Tom
took Robyn to a two-day clinic conducted by Darren at Ledyard Farm in northeastern Massachusetts,
at the conclusion of which Darren encouraged her to train with him in Florida the following
winter.
Robyn concluded the Area I 2006 season at Preliminary level, and in November she trailered Festive
Way south to train with Darren as a working student at his barn in Ocala and to compete at the
Preliminary level for the duration of the Area III (southeast U.S.) season. Her winter
culminated with the completion of her first CCI* at the conclusion of the season at the
Florida Horse Park in Ocala, thereby advancing her to FEI international competitive level.
In April, 2007, Robyn returned north to continue her training with Tom Davis and compete in Area I.
She has attended four Area I events, winning ribbons at three of them, including a
first place at an event at GMHA in Woodstock, VT, where she rode in a level which combined
Preliminary cross-country with Intermediate dressage and stadium jumping. She also rode
for the first time at the prestigious Groton House Horse Trials in Hamilton, MA, where she
finished respectably in the upper third of a large Preliminary division.
