Jeremy Beale and Casual Water

Team #66

Jeremy Beale was a member of the British 3 Day Event team from 1957 thru 1964 and won the prestigious Burghley 3 Day Event in 1965 by a margin of over 40 points. He studied under such great horseman as Tony Collings (who himself won the Badminton3 Day Event in the early 50’s, was the trainer of the British team and is probably best known as the founder  of the Porlock Vale Riding School), Robert Hall, who was the trainer of the British Dressage and dressage coach for the Event team, and Lt.  Col. Jack Talbot-Ponsonby, the trainer and Chef d’Equipe of the British Show Jumping team. In fact, Jack Talbot-Ponsonby also invited Jeremy to join the British Show Team, but he was unable to accept due to his commitment to the Event team.

Jeremy came to this country in 1969, shortly after leaving the British Army. He was offered a position running an equestrian program at a stable in California where he worked for two years. In 1971 he came back to the east to Fox Hollow Farm in Chester Springs, Pennsylvania and has stayed in that area ever since. In 1975 he established his own business, Pen-y-Bryn Equestrian Center, which he and his wife moved to its present location in 1992.

He has specialized in dressage for many years, earning his USDF Gold medal in 1993. He has an extensive clinic circuit and still travels the length and breadth of the country teaching loyal groups of students, some of whom he has coached thru Grand Prix and have achieved their USDF gold medals too. In recent years he has been trying to cut back on some of his arduous travel schedule, but his students have other ideas and are conspiring to make that a pipe dream!

Realizing from his clinic experiences that saddle and strap goods for the industry were designed by saddle and bridle makers and not horsemen, he also founded Laser Equestrian Products in 1989. A large number of his innovative ideas have been copied and can be found in many makes of saddles and bridles. Imitation is the highest form of flattery, so they say!

Jeremy is passionate about the correct fit of a saddle. It is seldom appreciated how much a horse’s anatomy changes with age, the seasons and differing degrees of fitness and condition. As a result he also set about designing his own adjustable gullet system for saddles, having found that those already on the market were either not sufficiently reliable or too time consuming to adjust. His adjustable mechanism, marketed under the trade name Varilock, has been in use for 3 years and is proving to be very successful.

Casual Water

Casual Water (Tigger) is a bay 16 hh, Thoroughbred gelding.  He was born in 1983 and he spent the first eight years of his life in Bogota, Colombia.  He initially trained on the track to race however he never started as a race horse.  He was subsequently sold as a Jumper prospect to a junior rider.  Amy York (Tigger's current owner) purchases Tigger in 1991 while she was stationed to the U.S. Embassy in Bogota.  She rode and competed Tigger in Bogota in both Dressage and Jumping until 1993 when she returned to the United States and brought Tigger with her.

In the U.S. Tigger continued his Dressage career, starting at 4th level when he arrived in the U.S.  He has been competing at Grand Prix since 2001.  In 1996 he was the sixth placed Adult Amateur horse in Prix St. Georges, and he has competed in many GAIG and BLM finals from Prix St. Georges through Grand Prix.  Although with a horse of his age, there are no guarantees, the plan is for Tigger to continue to compete at Grand Prix next competition year.