By Kimberly Gatto
Portraits by Melissa Fuller
Several of Anne Gribbons’ most treasured memories occurred when she was a young child in Sweden. “My grandfather was a lifelong cavalry officer and we would go to visit him,” Anne said. “He had a large farm with a number of cavalry remounts and fields of young horses that he would raise.” A gifted artist, he would also draw and paint in watercolors in his free time. “I would sit on his lap as he talked about horses and brought them to life on paper. It was all very magical,” Anne said. “From the very beginning, I was completely and utterly fascinated by horses.”
Anne was about 5 years old when she first sat atop a horse’s back. “Most of the horses were young and not really broke,” she said. “But that was not an issue. My grandpa would select a horse, bridle it and put me up on it, bareback. Some of the horses were kind and sort of watched out for me, while others were not so generous and had some pretty good tricks. I think I fell off almost every day at first, but Grandpa would dust me off and put me right back up there.”
From Sweden to Sweetheart
The little girl held these horse-filled moments close when she returned to her home in Gothenburg, the second-largest city in Sweden. “My father was a sea captain, so we lived on the coast, but in a large city,” Anne said. “Fortunately, riding is a popular sport in Sweden, and there was a big public stable in town.” As a schoolgirl, she began taking lessons at the Gothenburg Riding Academy, a massive operation housing about 80 horses. She took the tram to the stable nearly every day after school just to groom her favorites.
“I learned to ride from military men; they were notoriously strict and tough,” Anne said. Under their tutelage, she learned to sit properly at all gaits and put the horses on the bit. “At that age, of course, I just wanted to jump,” she said. “It was kind of torture for us kids to do the dressage—but we had to get through it in order to be allowed to jump.” Anne progressed quickly in her lessons and soon began competing in jumping at local horse shows. As time went on, several boarders at the stable allowed her to ride and show their own private mounts.
After passing the baccalaureate, Anne was granted a year-long scholarship to study at C. W. Post Campus of Long Island University in the United States. “My father was a captain of the Swedish-American Cruise Line and his ship was often docked in New York, so it made sense,” Anne said. “But college was definitely an adjustment for me since I had never lived away from home.”
In her second-semester English class, Anne met David Gribbons. “It was a small class—maybe 15 kids—and everyone was dressed casually in jeans and t-shirts. Then this guy walked in, dressed in a suit and tie and carrying an attaché. He was a bit older than the rest of us and there because he needed some extra credits for law school,” Anne said. “He was sitting next to me all semester but did not say one word to me. Finally, right before finals, he turned to me and asked if I’d like to go out for coffee.”
The pair soon began dating, but at the end of the semester Anne returned to Sweden to further her studies at the University of Gothenburg. “I wanted to become a journalist and work for the UN,” she said. “Then David came to visit me at Christmas and proposed.” After marriage, the newlyweds settled in New York, where Anne completed her master’s degree while taking night courses at Adelphi University.
Bumped Into Dressage
In the early days of their marriage, the couple inherited a 17-acre farm on Long Island from David’s family. David jokingly named it Knoll Farm due to a raised area, or “bump,” in the middle of the otherwise flat property. The land, which had once served as a dairy and vegetable farm, would subsequently be transformed into a successful riding stable. “When I saw the property the first time, nothing was there except the cow barns. I mentioned to David that it would be a nice place to have horses,” Anne said. “David used to ride Western as a kid and he generally adores animals, so he thought it over. While I was back in Sweden, David took in a couple of boarders and it just grew from there. Neither of us intended for our future to be in the horse business, but it took on a life of its own and swept us along.”
While Anne had originally intended to pursue a Ph.D. in journalism and political science, there was little time for study amidst the daily operations of the farm. “I was running the barn, teaching lessons and training and showing horses,” Anne said. “Eventually we had 25 school horses on site. We built an indoor—the second ever on Long Island—and we stood stallions, and David ran the breeding operation. Within a couple of years, Knoll Farm would grow to house over 70 horses.”
It was around this time that Anne made the decision to focus solely on dressage. “It was not popular as a sport on its own at that time—only as part of three-day eventing,” she said. “In fact, our farm had the first dressage arena ever on Long Island. When David first put up the arena, people would come up and ask us what the letters meant.”
In an effort to hone her dressage skills, Anne began training with Swedish Colonel Bengt Ljungquist, who later would coach the U.S. dressage team to a gold-medal finish at the 1975 Pan American Games and a bronze at the 1976 Olympics. Anne had first met Bengt when he was at the Potomac Horse Center in the early 1970s, then often traveled with her horse to Linda Zhang’s Idlewild Farm in Maryland in order to train under him. “Linda was so generous in allowing us to train at her farm,” Anne said. “It was the place where most of us who were ambitious about dressage went at that time, including those who were looking to become USET riders. We all were there to learn from Bengt—he was my mentor until the day he died.”
Special Horses
Around this time, David purchased a horse called Tappan Zee for his wife to show. “He was my first exclusively dressage horse,” Anne said. “He was an off-the-track Thoroughbred by Royal Charger. After racing until he was 6, he retired with two bowed front tendons. He was a gorgeous chestnut standing over 17 hands with great presence.” Anne had been familiar with the horse, as he was being trained and ridden by family friend Jordan Miller. A gifted young rider, Jordan had successfully developed Tappan Zee to Prix St. Georges, but needed to sell the horse before heading off to college at Princeton.
The news of Anne’s purchase of Tappan Zee spread quickly in the small New York dressage community. “A professional that I knew called me and pronounced that the horse would never make it to Grand Prix,” Anne said. “I honestly was not thinking that far ahead, but that did it! I said, ‘You just wait,’ and hung up the phone.”
With guidance from Colonel Ljungquist and Jordan’s father, Michael Miller, Anne and Tappan Zee proved the critics wrong. Among numerous other achievements, Anne earned her USDF Gold medal aboard the striking chestnut. “We made it to Grand Prix—and the 1976 Olympic trials,” Anne said. “This horse was unbelievable—the most generous, forgiving, ambitious creature there was. I never truly realized how great he was until many years later, when I looked back after training so many other horses. To me, he still stands out as a superstar.”
In the years that followed, Anne developed and competed numerous mounts at the Grand Prix level, including 18 of her own horses, and coached many clients to the FEI level. She also spent a couple of years in Europe on training tours and rode under two-time Olympic champion Harry Boldt and the legendary Herbert Rehbein.
On a trip to a Dutch breeding farm in 1986, Anne spotted a stunning dark grey 2-year-old peering out the window of his stall. While she was not there to look for a horse for herself, something about the horse caught Anne’s eye. After watching him in the paddock, she ended up purchasing the horse, named him Metallic, and brought him back to the U.S.
“Metallic was very difficult at first and would buck everyone off,” Anne said. “But once I let him know that such behavior was unacceptable, he was great. He was a bit arrogant, but he had incredible talent and presence and liked to show himself off. Those are some of the qualities I look for in a horse.”
Giving Up the Olympics
In the early 1990s, Anne brought Metallic and another two of her mounts, including the Holsteiner stallion Leonardo II, to Europe to train under the esteemed Dr. Volker Moritz, who became her second mentor. She competed both horses successfully throughout Europe and later in the U.S. After Metallic, as part of the U.S. team, captured the silver at the 1995 Pan Am Games, Anne’s sights naturally turned toward the Olympics, which would be held the following year in Atlanta. Then fate stepped in.
“Right after the Pan Am Games, I discovered a tumor on the inside of my left thigh,” Anne said. “But I kind of ignored it at first. I was afraid to find out what it could be. It was growing, and my leg would eventually get numb while I was riding, so I realized I could no longer deny what was happening.” As Leonardo II was owned in partnership with another person, Anne felt that she had to let this individual know what was going on, since it could potentially impact her ability to prepare the horse for the Olympics. “They eventually decided to sell the horse to a student of Robert Dover’s,” Anne said. “I loved that horse and I cried when he was sold. Then I decided to ignore my pain and work towards the Olympics with Metallic.”
In the winter, Anne rode Metallic in his first “official” Grand Prix tests under the tutelage of Robert Dover, who had always liked the horse. “Shortly before our first CDI Qualifier, I realized that my leg was getting worse,” Anne said. “I decided that the right thing to do would be to allow Robert, who had no horse for the 1996 Games, to take over the ride on Metallic. It was one of the toughest decisions of my life. It was heartbreaking to give up my Olympic dream, but I knew the horse deserved the chance to go. Jane Forbes Clark stepped in and offered to lease the horse for Robert, who took on the challenge although he only had a couple of months to actually ride Metallic before Atlanta.” The USA went on to earn a team bronze medal at the Olympics.
Fortunately, Anne made a full recovery following surgery to remove the tumor and was able to take Metallic back home and ride him again. She stayed in touch with him until his retirement. “He lived happily until he passed away at the age of 32,” she said.
Judge & Advisor
In addition to riding and training, Anne became a USEF licensed judge in 1976, an FEI judge in 1990, and has been a five-star FEI judge since 2007. While she was riding and competing in Europe, Dr. Volker Moritz—who was undoubtedly one of the world’s best judges—allowed her to sit with him while he judged all over Europe. “It was phenomenal; he had a way to find the essence of every problem and pinpoint it to help the rider. It certainly improved my judging and gave me the confidence to tell it as I saw it, and be as fair as I possibly could to every competitor,” Anne said.
Anne proved to be an excellent evaluator whose ability has taken her all over the world as a judge. She has officiated at numerous CDIs, including four World Cup Finals, three European Championships, and two World Equestrian Games. Additionally, Anne headed the ground jury at the 2018 World Equestrian Games and officiated at the 2022 World Dressage Championships in Denmark. “I enjoy judging, but my heart really belongs to training horses and riders, where you can enjoy the progress over years and be a part of both triumph and tragedy in the lives of the horses and their riders,” Anne said.
Anne served as the USEF Technical Advisor and Coach for USA Dressage from 2010 through 2012. During that time, she guided the U.S. team riders through the World Equestrian Games, Pan Am Games and the 2012 Olympics. With Anne as their coach, the U.S. dressage team—led by Steffen Peters on Weltino’s Magic—achieved an historic feat by capturing every individual medal, as well as team gold, at the 2011 Pan Am Games in Mexico. “It was an incredible moment when the organizers came to tell us they didn’t have enough American flags to raise because we had won all of the medals,” Anne said.
Anne feels her greatest accomplishment during her tenure as Technical Advisor was the creation of a dressage educational pipeline for USEF that involved installing coaches for each level and forming a dressage program for upcoming talent. “This pipeline has developed and been improved over time,” Anne said. “It offers so much support to our elite riders as well as a program to follow for our upcoming and youth riders. I’m very proud of how it has evolved.”
Dancing Toward the Future
In 2001, Anne and David decided to downsize by selling Knoll Farm and moving south. They’re now based in Chuluota, Florida, just outside of Orlando. “At the time we moved here, it was nothing but orange groves and cows,” Anne said. “But now the area is becoming built up. We’re really enjoying the local horse community here.”
Now in her 70s, Anne continues to maintain a busy schedule in which she juggles riding and training with judging, teaching and giving clinics. She’s developing a few young horses and occasionally competes aboard one of her favorite mounts, the 16-year-old DSP gelding Let’s Dance. Anne trained the horse, originally imported as a 3-year-old, to Grand Prix until a series of physical setbacks put their competition goals on a two-year hold. “I feel delighted that, at this point in our lives, we’re both sound and can go out and enjoy working together,” she said.
The name “Let’s Dance” is fitting, as dancing is one of the passions that Anne and David enjoy in their spare time. “We love to dance,” she said, “And often in the kitchen. We also enjoy opera and go as often as we can—we inherited that from David’s mother, who was a staunch opera aficionado. I also do a lot of reading and writing, while David enjoys cooking, building, architecture and antique cars.” In addition, the couple relishes any time spent with their two adopted daughters, Sherri and Laura, and learning of the many adventures of their four active grandchildren.
Looking forward, Anne hopes to continue riding and teaching for as long as possible and indulging in her lifelong love of horses. “I enjoy watching my students grow and succeed, and my horses showing pride in what they learn. I plan to continue riding for as long as I am fit and the horses make progress. Every horse takes a bit of a different route, and it’s always a learning experience,” she said. “That was one of the first things I learned from my grandfather—that every horse can teach you something if you let him.”
Photos by Melissa Fuller, melissafullerphotography33.mypixieset.com, unless noted otherwise
Photo by Sherri Loveland
Photo by Sherri Loveland
Photo by Susan J. Stickle
