Cover Story

Horses Take Center Stage at Pinegate Farms

For owner Lauren Clegg, Pinegate Farms is a lifelong dream come true

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Admittedly, the tune of “My Old Kentucky Home” may pop into your head when you see Pinegate Farm’s 14 rolling green acres peppered with gallant, galloping horses. Amid the pastoral milieu, it’s hard to imagine a major city is just 20 minutes away. For owner/manager, Lauren Clegg, Pinegate Farm is a dream come true. Like many little girls, she asked her parents for a horse every birthday and every Christmas. And for every birthday and every Christmas after that. Her dream came true at 17, and it was clear tending to horses was much more than a passing phase – it was her life’s calling. Lauren says that when she decided to go to Meredith Manor in West Virginia, a nationally accredited equestrian vocational college, that her parents and large Italian family knew she was dead serious about a future with horses taking center stage. “My father wanted me to pick a ‘real’ career, but in the end they were so supportive,” she says. It was there she “fell in love” with Dressage, considered to be “the highest expression of horse training.” It’s a centuries-old discipline that Lauren compares to ballet. “Even if you don’t compete in Dressage, to train a horse like that, to see those things is pretty amazing.”

With that large support system, Lauren founded Pinegate Farm in 1978 so that others with a passion for Dressage and Eventing, which is show jumping with a horse both on the flat and over fences, as well as for those simply with a passion for their equine friends, can have a place to call their own. “It’s been 38 years now and I still love being on farm with the animals – it’s people who are exhausting!” she says with a laugh.

Pinegate Farm, Lauren Clegg, horses, horse showing, show horses, andrea mchugh, stacey doyle, the bay magazine, dressage, eventing, equestrian

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