A Quarter Century at The Carolina Horse Park

The Carolina Horse Park in Raeford, North Carolina was founded in 1998 because local eventing enthusiasts needed a new place to run the Southern Pines Horse Trials. Twenty-five years later, it is the site of the Setters’ Run Farm Carolina International CCI and Horse Trials, and much more. With a full schedule of horse shows in a variety of disciplines, it has become a beloved Carolinas destination, not just for horse people, but for nature-loving members of the community.

By Pam Gleason

Setters’ Run Farm Carolina International CCI4*-S

When it comes to eventing at the Carolina Horse Park, it seems that Will Coleman can’t be beat. Coleman made it three in a row in the Yanmar America CCI 4*-S at the Setters’ Run Farm Carolina International on March 19, 2023, when he cruised to victory in the prestigious eventing competition. His mount this year was the 11-year-old Holsteiner gelding Chin Tonic HS, owned by Vickie Castegren of the Hyperion Stud. Coleman took home the top prize in 2021 aboard Off the Record and won with Dondante in 2022.

“I feel like a pretty lucky guy,” said Coleman after his win. “Mostly, I’m just proud of the horses and our team, our program, and my wife, staff, coaches, vets, farriers . . It takes a village and I’m thankful to have a really nice group of people helping me.”

Will and Chin Tonic certainly made it look easy, finishing on their dressage score of 19.4, which set a record for the lowest score ever at the competition. They were flawless in the stadium, and then hit the cross-country finish line exactly on the optimum time, making them one of a handful of combinations to avoid time penalties over Ian Stark’s challenging track. “I think the key to getting the time here is to be pretty efficient and quick in the beginning, because that’s the most open part of the course,” said Coleman. “I thought Chin Tonic was great through that whole section.”

Elizabeth Halliday-Sharp was second on her spectacular up-and-coming mount Miks Master C (owned by Ocala Horse Properties), while Will Faudree, a Southern Pines local, was third on the 16-year-old Irish gelding Pfun owned by Jennifer Moser. Faudree and Pfun were also third in 2021 and 2022: they had their own “three-peat.”

The Carolina International was celebrating its tenth anniversary this spring, and the event was an important preparatory outing for the Land Rover Kentucky CCI5*, one of just two 5-star eventing competitions in North America. In addition to the featured CCI4*-S, Carolina also had CCI1*, 2* and 3* divisions, as well as National horse trials from Training through Advanced. It brought in some 230 entrants from around the region.

Heart of the Horse Park

The Carolina International may be the best-known competition at the Carolina Horse Park, but it is far from the only attraction. In fact, the park holds equestrian events 35 weekends of the year in a variety of disciplines and for horses and riders of all levels.

It is true, however, that eventing is at the heart of the park and is its reason for being. Lefreda Williams, who is currently on the CHP board of directors, was one of the founders of the park 25 years ago. An eventing rider, she relocated from her native Ohio after coming to Southern Pines one spring to train with her friend and coach, the legendary Olympic eventing rider Mike Plumb. Plumb had a winter training base in the area, as did the renowned United States Eventing Team member Denny Emerson. In the late 1980s, Williams founded the Southern Pines Horse Trials, which were run annually on the grounds of the Walthour-Moss Foundation: 4,000 acres of conservation land that serves as the home base for the Moore County Hounds, the oldest foxhound pack in North Carolina. By the middle 1990s, the horse trials had outgrown the Walthour-Moss Foundation property, which was not set up as a competition venue. It was clear that the local eventing community needed its own space.

“We started looking for land in Southern Pines first,” said Williams. “But first of all, land in Southern Pines was very expensive and we couldn’t afford it, and second there wasn’t really a piece big enough for us. Then Denny Emerson found this land for sale in Raeford, about nine miles away, and it looked to be perfect: it had some open land and some terrain to it, and we decided to try to build a horse park there.”

Roger Secrist, a businessman turned land developer whose wife Mari was also an eventer, joined Williams in her efforts, and in 1998 they founded the Sandhills Equestrian Conservancy (now the Carolina Horse Park Foundation), a 501c3 charitable organization that raised money to buy the property and start building the park. They hired Captain Mark Phillips, then the chef d’equipe of the United States Eventing Team, to design the cross country course, which had levels all the way to Advanced. The Southern Pines

Horse Trials moved to its new facility in 2001.

The following year, 2002, the Longleaf Pines

Horse Trials, the oldest horse trials in North Carolina, relocated to the park from a private farm, and the year after that, the Five Points Horse

Trials held its first event there. In 2004, the park was the site of the inaugural United States Eventing Association American Eventing Championships, which are now awarded to different locations around the country. Today, the CHP also holds its own schooling events called the War Horse Event Series. This series “provides horses and riders at every level the building blocks to improve their skills,” with divisions starting at “Green as Grass,” and going up to Modified. There is a schooling day on the Saturday before each Sunday show, allowing riders to practice any phase of the competition, and riders may elect to ride all three phases or do a combined test or dressage test of choice.

As the eventing calendar expanded at CHP, so did the park, adding additional acreage through the years, as well as new world-class arenas, stabling and viewing pavilions. Other disciplines arrived at the park as well. These included the Stonybrook Steeplechase, a historic meet that was revived at the park in 2001 and ran there for 16 years; hunter-jumper shows, dressage shows, and the Southern Pines and Timberland Combined Driving Events, which are annual competitions that attract elite athletes from far and wide. The calendar gained a major addition in 2021, after the Sedgefield hunter-jumper shows, a recognized series with a devoted following, lost their Greensboro, North Carolina venue to development. The CHP and Sedgefield’s management partnered to run Sedgefield’s nine “C” dates and one USEF “A” date, and now the CHP holds 10 weekends of Sedgefield at the Park, giving hunter jumper riders almost as much prominence as eventers.

All of this is very much in keeping with the horse park’s mission.

“We consider the Southern Pines area to be a three-legged stool for equestrian,” said Bryan Rosenburg, who is the chairman of the CHP Foundation. “There’s the Walthour-Moss Foundation, the Moore County Hounds and the Carolina Horse Park. Those three things together are the backbone of the equestrian community, and it’s why people like to locate here. . . we promote events that support our local equestrian community.”

Community and Conservation

Although horses are at the heart of the horse park, the CHP is also devoted to conservation. The park’s 315 acres includes areas set aside for wildlife and the CHP is committed to good stewardship of the land.

For instance, after a recent acquisition of about 60 acres, the CHP started a prescribed burning program to restore the longleaf pine habitat that is crucial to the survival of iconic Southeast flora and fauna, such as the fox squirrel, which recently reappeared in the area after a long absence. There are educational events at the park to provide information about the environment and local wildlife: falconry and raptor demonstrations, “Lunch with Coyotes,” and an annual Halloween “Bats at Sunset” walk, for instance.

To help promote the connection between the park and the community, the CHP holds an annual Painted Ponies Art Walk and Auction, in which businesses sponsor local artists to decorate 14 life-sized fiberglass horses that are displayed on Broad Street in Southern Pines for seven weeks. The horses are then auctioned off, which has been a successful fundraiser for the park while emphasizing the importance of horses to the area. Events at the park are free to spectators, and the CHP encourages everyone to come out and enjoy a day surrounded by horses and nature. At the Carolina International, for instance, there was a Kid Zone near the parking area with face painting, bounce houses and a climbing tower.

Future plans for the park include expanding stabling, adding more all-weather arenas, and perhaps even a covered arena that would enable the park to include different types of events, such as Western or Arabian shows.

“A covered arena with lights is on our dream list,” said Lefreda Williams, adding that the CHP will need to do quite a bit of fundraising to make this a reality. But covered arena or not, she says she is thrilled with how the park has grown over the years and what it has become: a world class equestrian facility with eight full time staff, a dedicated board of directors and some 400 enthusiastic volunteers without whom the park could not survive.

“It’s just a wonderful place to show,” she said. “There’s always room to lunge or graze your horse; it’s not just rings and barns. It’s peaceful and quiet and there’s perfect footing because we have sandy soil, so even if it rains, you can go out and hardly make a mark in the grass.

"When we started out we had zero money, but we have gotten so much support, and it has just grown and grown. If you go up to the second floor in the Baker Pavilion and look out those windows, the view is astounding. . . it’s something that in the beginning when we decided to take on this project, I don’t think we ever dreamed it was going to be like this. It’s just amazing.”