By Don RosendalePhotos by Tracy Emmanuel
Millbrook regularly is featured as an equestrian nirvana in Ralph Lauren photo layouts, as well as countless New York Times Magazine and Town and Country spreads. The “Millbrook Hunt Country" that surrounds the tiny village of that name offers one of the country’s oldest and most famed foxhunts, two of the country’s premier Three Day Events (Fitch’s Corners and of course Millbrook), a decent medium goal polo league at Mashomack, and fancy boarding stables where for a mere $1,500 a month your horse will get better care than your son at Hotchkiss. But one thing that’s been missing until now has been someone with international and Olympic credentials to teach you how to ride. That drought ended this fall when Peter Wylde unpacked his tack trunk at Winley Farm. Wylde brought with him the Olympic gold medal earned in Athens in 2004, a World Equestrian Games bronze, a pair of Pan Am Games silvers and a reputation as a talented, patient teacher of other riders. Wylde is movie star handsome – the comparison to Joseph Cotten is sometimes made – and as a Tufts graduate, well-spoken. As a teenager, he won the Medal Maclay at the National Horse Show, arming him as the best teenage rider in the country. And from there it was all uphill.
Winley Farm has been a Millbrook landmark for more than a century. Its 155 grassy acres, at the village’s edge, were for decades the home of Amory Winthrop, a patrician equestrienne. She died in 1998, and two years later, sisters Ester and Judith Goelkel arrived from Germany with a business plan to breed European “sport horses." The Goelkel sisters built an equestrian “village" that, in teenage lexicon, would be called awesome. It has an indoor riding arena as big as a soccer field, with a concert hall sound system and innovative “walls" made up of overhead garage doors that can be rolled up on balmy days. The horse stalls are as big as some people’s living rooms, the heated viewing rooms overlooking the riding arena belong in Architectural Digest, and the brick paved aisles are wide enough for a Bentley to drive through without a side mirror brushing the blankets outside the stalls. There is a machine that looks like a Brobdingnagian revolving door that cools down horses after a workout by walking them in circles, and special heated shower stalls.
But by 2013, the stalls stood largely empty. Wylde, who had been training in Europe for the last decade, was at a horse show in Palm Beach, Florida when Judith Goelkel suggested he might take over Winley as a facility for what in the horse world are called “hunters" and “jumpers." A decade ago, Wylde had been based at Dan Lufkin’s estate a few miles away, so he was familiar with Winley. “I knew it was spectacular, like no other place in the world," he says. “So it didn’t take long for me to decide to accept the offer." He accepted in a New York minute, moved to Millbrook, and, to set down roots, he and his husband/business partner Eduard Mullenders bought a home on Tower Hill, 10 minutes from Winley. “I'm here for the long run," he promises.
The local equestrian set got a taste of Wylde training last week at the first clinic he offered at Winley -- two days, 90 minutes each day, starting with groups challenged only by obstacles no bigger than a curb and working up to some serious fences. The clinic sold out within a day. The first flight was a group of five pre-teen girls on their show ponies with tails so perfectly groomed they must have gone to Frederic Fekkai on the way to class. Doting mothers (who seemed electrified by Wylde's mere presence) stood by the rail. Wylde lived up to his reputation as a master teacher. He worked patiently with each girl and her pony, always encouraging, never rebuking, getting the best out of each rider, until the end of the 90-minute session. Even to the untrained eye, they were performing better than they were at the beginning. One of the inaugural group was Julie Fink and her pony, Mr. Goodbar. Her mother, Jodie, stood at the rail, ecstatic. Wylde had been diffident about the prices of his stalls and services, but Jodie was willing to talk about the tariff. “It’s $400 for the two-day clinic, 90 minutes each day," she disclosed, quickly noting: “And it’s worth it." And after a pause, “It’s worth every penny. He is an amazing teacher." As for those perfect horse tails, she revealed that the credit goes not to Fekkai, but to Maddie Duggan, who runs the stable in Mabbetsville where that particular squad of riders all board. Winley Farm33 Winley Crescent Millbrook, NY (845) 677-3124
