ARCHIE
COX
“I
Am Very Fortunate”
Horses
have always loomed large in Archie Cox’s life. As
a junior rider on the East Coast, he was already competing
on the national level; in 1985 he was the first male rider
in ten years to win the United States Equestrian Team
Gold Medal. He also was earning ribbons at the AHSA Medal
and ASPCA Maclay finals. Riding for the equestrian team
at New Jersey’s Drew University, he repeatedly captured
individual and team regional and national Intercollegiate
Horse Show Associate titles.
In
the spring of 1992, Archie moved to California, where
he worked for the next several years with top trainer
Karen Healey. In December 2000, he opened his own business,
Brookway Stables – named 
after
his grandparents’ farm in Maine – at Middle
Ranch in Lakeview Terrace. There he typically has thirty
to thirty-five horses in training and twelve to fifteen
students/clients, from pony riders to older amateurs.
Of
his students, Archie says, “I should be proud, but
it’s almost more like ‘Oh, my gosh!’
I am very fortunate to have students who have won the
junior and senior Pacific Coast Medal Finals and California
Professional Horseman’s Association Medal Finals.
Brookway horses have been Champion or Reserve at Devon,
Harrisburg, Washington, the Metropolitan National Horse
Show, and the National Horse Show in West Palm Beach.
We’ve had seven USEF national champions, and my
student Matthew Sereni won the 2003 ASPCA Maclay Finals.”
Archie
serves on the board of directors of the United States
Hunter Jumper Association, American Hunter Jumper Federation,
and Pacific Coast Horse Show Association – “and
I’m trying to find time to judge. It’s something
I really enjoy, and I think it helps me competitively.
There are many things I notice as a judge that I do as
a rider, and they’re just wrong!”
“I
really love teaching,” Archie adds. “I like
to see the relationship between horse and rider develop.
And I’m very fortunate to have had great success
choosing horse-and-rider combinations. But again, I am
also fortunate to have great customers who have confidence
in the choices I make.”
Reprinted
with permission of Practical Horseman, November 2005 issue.
