128 SIDELINES APRIL 2013
FOR HORSE PEOPLE • ABOUT HORSE PEOPLE
Dani Moritz
As a young man trying to fund his college career, Rick Cram
turned to horse shows. In 1987, he began his frst horse show
business called RSC Horse Show Services. He built jumps in his
mom’s backyard and held his frst horse show with approximately
20 horses at Ramblewood in Aiken, South Carolina.
RSC Horse Show Services later became Progressive Show
Jumping, Inc. (PSJ), which is based out of Highfelds Event
Center, a 60-acre facility in Aiken that began as a hay feld. Both
the company and the event center are owned and operated
The Cram Family Keeps
The Show World Jumping
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Special Section - South Carolina
by Rick and his wife, Cathy Cram. Rick takes care of the show
management and facility operations and Cathy manages the
corporate offces and does a lot of work behind the scenes.
What started as a very small operation has evolved into
something on a much bigger and grander scale. PSJ now hosts
three different circuits - fun shows as well as the PSJ and USEF
circuits. “Gradually as our business built, Rick acquired other
horse show dates from the USEF,” said Cathy. “We started with
two shows and now we have nine USEF shows that we host
between January and April.”
Rick and Cathy started the fun shows about four years ago after
Cathy ran into a former PSJ competitor at the store who told her
she was not competing in the PSJ circuit because it had gotten
too competitive.
Cathy was shocked to hear that, but set out to fx the problem.
“After I got home from the store, I told Rick ‘you won’t believe this
but I think we need to start PSJ all over again’ and he looked at
me like I had three heads,” Cathy said.
So PSJ started their fun show series, which has classes for $10
and under and is ideal for new competitors or people with green
horses.
Despite hosting events almost every weekend and operating
three different types of shows, PSJ is still very much a family
business. Rick and Cathy rely on family members, a small support
group and their two daughters, Celia, 9, and Elizabeth, 8, to run
the show. “The girls have had to learn how to get their homework
done in the backroom. When customers come in they know to
be quiet and how to address them properly. I think that has been
good for everyone,” said Cathy, of her daughters growing up
within the family business.
Celia and Elizabeth don’t seem to mind. “We have such great
horsemen in our community with kids that are close in age of
my kids,” said Cathy. “They all meet up at Highfelds on show
weekends and jump the little kids’ jumps and have a blast, I
guarantee all our kids sleep well at night.”
Cathy and Rick Cram, with Rendezvous Road.
Photo by Mary G Wyatt
The Crams on a family trip to
Montana in the summer of 2012.
Photo courtesy of Cathy Cram