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The Hampton Classic is internationally recognized as one of the equestrian world’s foremost competitions. Grand Prix Sunday is by all measures the largest social event in the Hamptons. And while most people know that the Classic helps to support Southampton Hospital, far fewer are aware of the extent of Classic’s good works, the assistance and encouragement it provides to a host of organizations. As Shanette Barth Cohen, the executive director, explains, “The Classic is in its own right a 501©3 non-profit corporation. Its mission is two fold, to put on a world-class horse show and to support other charities.”
Southampton Hospital is considered the “Official Community Partner,” and over course of a 35 year relationship has received close to $1.7 million dollars from the Classic in addition to booth space and other benefits typically given to corporate sponsors.
ASPCA is also a partner of the Classic, with a visibility at the show that enables them to raise money and awareness and pursue their mission. Dogs, cats and horses all find new homes on ASPCA Adoption Day. One of the jumps in the Grand Prix ring is named for the organization, and every time a rider successfully goes over the jump, the show’s largest corporate sponsor makes a donation. Several of the vendors in Boutique Garden give a portion of sales to the ASPCA.
JustWorld, a charity that raises money in the equestrian community and distributes it to impoverished areas of the developing world, is also given space and opportunity at the Classic to make money and get the message out.
Long Island Horse Show Series for Riders with Disabilities Finals is now in its 6th year and has become a fixture on the Hampton Classic calendar. After a series of competitions in the spring and summer, winning riders qualify for finals on Monday at the Classic showgrounds. A prominent Grand Prix rider (Peter Leone, Joe Fargis, Georgina Bloomberg among others) presents the ribbons.
The list of other organizations benefiting from the Classic includes Long Island Professional Horsemens Association, the Sag Harbor Food Pantry, Seraphim 12, (a horse rescue and anti-slaughter organization), Autism Speaks, and HEART Equine Ambulance
Can the Hampton Classic get any bigger or better, we wondered. “From a participation perspective, I’m not sure that the Hampton Classic can get much bigger than it currently is,” Barth Cohen answered. “We host approximately 1,600 horses over the course of the show, and we don’t have any more property to accommodate additional stabling tents. Our time schedule is very full as well, so I don’t expect we’ll be adding additional events either. When it comes to attendance, we could probably fit more people on the grounds during the middle of the week.”
Just when you think the Hampton Classic Horse Show can’t get any bigger or better, it does exactly that. Prize money this year will be a whopping $250,000 for the FTI Grand Prix and World Cup Qualifier. Additional temptation is hardly needed—the best riders in the country are already there in Bridgehampton—but who could fail to be impressed by such an opulent cup and not try to shave off an extra second or two jumping to victory?
The Hampton Classic Horse Show is rich in tradition—the time-honored ways of the sport of show jumping as they have evolved over many decades, and the customs that have formed here in the Hamptons over the past 36 years. The roots of the Classic
The Hampton Classic has constantly grown in the years since then, becoming one of the largest and most important equestrian events in the United States—and certainly the most beautiful. It moved to its current 60-acre location in Bridgehampton in 1982, and was then extended to a seven-day show spanning two weekends. (In 1988, as the final selection trial site for the American Olympic team, the show advanced to the end of July to permit the lengthy quarantine of horses heading to Seoul.)
Whatever the date, whatever the weather, nothing takes away from the sheer joy of equestrian activity in two jumper rings, four hunter rings and six schooling rings. More than 1,600 horses will be exhibited. More than $600,000 in prize money will be offered. Some 50,000 people will attend, and 3,000 guests will be seated in the VIP patrons’ tents.
The Hampton Classic Horse Show, as we know it, is 36 years old. But its roots in the area are long and deep, going back to an early 20th century annual show held on the then open fields of First Neck Lane overlooking Lake Agawam in Southampton. Discontinued during World War I, the show was revived in the 1920s at the Southampton Riding and Hunt Club located on Major’s Path, a splendid facility with stables and a posh clubhouse that took six years to construct and was completed in 1928. As one of the renowned equestrian showcases of the east coast, the club and its horse show flourished until another war, World War II, shut it down. Yet another horse show was revived in the post-war years, but the social and economic environment had changed too much. Without the hunt club site or the glamour and energy of that particular kind of world, it never quite caught on.
Conditions seemed right again in 1970s. Riding and show jumping were becoming less of an elitist activity or social occasion for the wealthy, and more of a real sport for greater numbers of participants and spectators. With well-trained and disciplined riders, horse shows became more competitive and more serious.
In 1976 the Southampton Horse Show, as it was then known, was expanded from a one day competition to a five-day A-rated event that would draw in top riders and horses from around the country. A hurricane delayed the start of that 1976 show by a day and a half, and it will always be remembered not only as the birth of the Classic as we know it (the name became official in 1977) but the first of many times that disastrous weather has struck. The show has since survived downpours, weeklong rains, mud, hurricanes and tornados.