Penwick is a new up and coming eventing facility located in Sussex County in northern New Jersey owned and managed by Chelsea Palmer. To learn more about eventing, please click here. To learn more about the professionals running Penwick, please see below.
Chelsea Palmer started riding at age three, when her mother passed along her love of horses to Chelsea. Chelsea rode in weekly lessons for many years until she was old enough to begin working at the barn, where she started to do turnout for 70+ horses every Saturday morning. Chelsea’s first horse was a young fiery red headed mare off the track that nobody would ride, under the guidance of Sally Hinkle-Russell a Grand Prix jumper rider in Connecticut, the horse and Chelsea became successful in eventing and jumpers. From this little mare, Chelsea fell in love with off the track thoroughbreds (OTTB) and her talent for green and “crazy” horses was found (and continues to this day!). Chelsea was an active member of the US Pony Club, attending the show jumping championships in Kentucky. It was through Pony Club that Chelsea found her love for eventing. Chelsea spent a summer in the mountains of Vermont at Vershire Riding School, training twice a day and riding in some of the top Area I events. During and after college, Chelsea worked for a number of years on Wall Street, in the Mergers and Acquisitions industry and the Currency Trading Market. She was very successful but decided to follow her dream of becoming a professional rider and trainer.Throughout her riding career Chelsea has been able to ride and work with many talented dressage, jumper and eventing teachers, including Sally Hinkle, Michael Page, Marilyn Payne, Susie Gornall and Cathy Morelli.
Sally gave Chelsea her first job teaching riding lessons at her farm, Mystic Valley Hunt Club, to children and adults. Being apart of a large lesson program gave Chelsea the opportunity to instruct all different types of people and learn to teach with different styles. Under Sally Hinkle and other mentor’s guidance Chelsea’s passion for the training and riding of the “ultimate” athlete was solidified and she has spent to date her riding time and horse education focused on training and caring for the competitive event horse.
Currently Chelsea is competing her Thoroughbred gelding, Roc King at Preliminary and Kir Royale a Swedish Warmblood Gelding at the Training and Preliminary levels. She is also starting to prepare her future eventing star Regal Affaire, a Cleveland Bay/Thoroughbred colt, to be started this Spring and she is training several clients horses including Blonde Ambition, a Dutch Warmblood/ Arab cross gelding, Finnian's Chase, a Connemara pony gelding, Leigh's Quest, a Cleveland Bay Thoroughbred cross gelding, Her Majesty, a Cleveland Bay Percheron cross mare and Belle Starr a paint mare.
Marion Georgiev joins Penwick Monday through Saturday to teach our more advanced students. Marion has a very rich riding history that started in Zambia. As the youngest of six children living on a large farm, she was able to ride dozens of horses at all levels of training. Her formal training throughout her childhood came from Pony Club and she graduated as an "A" Pony Clubber. Marion attended Olford on a riding scholarship where she became hooked on dressage. It was here she began to realize that a good rider can ride almost any horse to its potential, but it takes a great rider to improve the potential of a horse. Under the tutorship of Betty Arnold and her son Peter Bowker, Marion trained and schooled "talentless eventers" up through Grand Prix horses giving her the true skills of a trainer. Her current mentors include Cathy Morelli and Michael Page, with whom she trains with on a regular basis.
Marion is currently competing Meenies Beauty, her Irish Draught mare in 4th level. She also has several horses in full training with her including: Shimmer, a Thoroughbred Clydesdale cross mare, Samburu, a Thoroughbred Cleveland Bay cross mare, Butterscotch, a Quarter Pony cross, and Ashe, a Quarter Horse Gelding.
In Marion's words, "I am very sure about one thing, if I am galloping across country toward the scariest jump of my life; I want my horse's hindquarters under me, his poll up, his eye on the jump, and his neck free to move wherever it needs to take that fence safely." This is exactly what she teaches to all of her students. For a horse to be truly balanced, there are five things they must individually be taught for any half halt to work. If you want to know what they are, come have a lesson!
Jennifer Waters
Jen has been involved with horses since she was a baby. Her parents owned a video company that taped horse events all over the west coast and she attended her first horse show shortly after birth. Jen grew up in the company of cutting horses and working cow horses. She worked as a loper and a groom for several of the top cutting trainers on the West Coast and branched out to English when she was seven years old. She took lessons with Sue Lightner and showed at local shows and in the Sacramento Area Hunter Jumper Association (SAHJA). At ten, she decided to enter SAHJA's Riding for Reading event where the top riders would earn money for their school library. Unfortunately, her English horse came up lame just before the event so she grabbed her mom's cutting horse, threw an English saddle on her, renamed her "Last Resort", and headed for the arena. The mare was not impressed but the judges were and Jen was able to purchase several books for her school. Not surprisingly, the school now had a nice collection of horse literature!
In the cutting world Jen has worked with trainers like Tim Smith, Scott Weis, Chris Benedict and many others. She showed not only her mom's horse but frequently ended up riding other competitors' horses with only a short warm-up before her class. That is why she became known her as the "cutting catch rider."
During the summer it was not unusual for Jen to head off to various trainers to spend time riding and working with them, exposing her to a variety of horses and training methods. Jen's first visit to the east coast was spent training in New Jersey with Janeen Smith; in recent years she worked for Christophe Theallet and Marie Lange in Northern California. Christophe is a graduate from ENE French National Riding Academy, Saumur, the French National Riding Academy. Marie graduated from Bollerup, one of the Swedish National Riding Schools. Jen learned a great deal about the care and upkeep of a stable of top horses but those pesky bills started to pile up, she came home to work in the "real" world. Although she did continue to work part-time for Gina Duran, an FEI trainer in central CA. She worked as a credit specialist in a large equipment company for several years. However, she missed her true love - working with horses who hardly ever lie to you.
In the fall of 2007, she found Chelsea and Penwick Stable and it seemed that they were meant to be. She is able to learn as much as she can absorb and loves working with horses of all shapes and sizes. She especially loves working with the problem "child" because where is the fun in riding a push-button horse? As someone who has moved through the horse world with exposure to cutting, hunters, jumpers, dressage and now eventing, Jen hopes to be able to pass on her knowledge and experience to not only the horses she rides but the folks who love them, both children and adult alike.
Jen is now teaching our beginner students in addition to helping Chelsea run the barn and work with the babies!
