History of the Horse Show
(These two articles were printed in the Peekskill
Star in October, 1972)
By Fred DeChristopher
One hundred years ago Lieutenant colonel Charles Jefferson Wright became
principal of Peekskill Military Academy – the site of the present
new Peekskill High School and the second annual Peekskill Rotary Club
horse shows next weekend.
Appropriately, Cavalry Troop D of the New York Military Academy will
participate in the competition and also stage a precision full-dress
horsemanship drill team exhibition for the Sunday program.
It was Col. Wright who founded New York Military Academy in 1889 and
who became its first superintendent. Col. Wright had resumed teaching
at PMA immediately after the Civil War and ascended to the role of principal
in 1872.
His first Commandant of Cadets at NYMA was Major Belden F. Hyatt who
was the competent drill-master and strong disciplinarian at PMA. He was
succeeded by another graduate of PMA, Captain George H. Hill.
Therefore, the Rotary horse show and its involvement with NYMA are related
historically and nostalgically.
Col. Wright, as a young school teacher, answered the call for Civil
War volunteers in New Hampshire and enlisted in that State’s 16th Volunteers division and when he was mustered out in 1865 he was decorated
for “gallant and meritorious conduct.” He resumed his teaching
career on the PMA faculty.
In 1889 he arranged for the purchase of Glen Ridge House in Cornwall
which had been closed for many years. He resigned at PMA and started
NYMA under University of the State of New York charters dated May 1,
1890, provisional, and June 21, 1893, absolute.
It was in September of 1890 when the announcement was made that Worrall
Hall (now Anida Apartments, 141 Fremont Street), Col. Wright’s
school for young boys at Peekskill had been made a department of NYMA
and for several years afterward, the Cadets of Worrall Hall were carried
on the rolls of the Cornwall school.
In the fall of 1891 the football game with PMA resulted in a 64-0 NYMA
victory. The next Fall, Peekskill won 18-0.
Cavalry activity at NYMA dates back to 1889-90 under the professor of
military science, Lieutenant Charles Braden.
Bard Hall, the preparatory department of the Cornwall Academy, was established
in 1895 to take the place of Worrall Hall at Peekskill.
In November, 1910, Col. Wright died in Matawan, N.J.
An early history of NYMA paid this tribute to Colonel Wright: “His
almost boundless vitality, his personal magnetism, his success as a disciplinarian
and his skill as a teacher soon brought fame and prosperity to the school
(PMA) and “Peekskill” became a synonym for all that was worthwhile
in military schools.”
Thus, the alliance of Peekskill Rotary and New York Military Academy,
through Col. Wright and PMA then and through the horse shows this year
and last is a continuation of something started more than a century ago.
By William Rankin
One of the many features of the Columbus weekend Peekskill Rotary Horse
Shows will be the 1 p.m. exhibition by Troop D, the student cavalry at
the New York Military Academy.
This mounted component was founded in 1911 by an 1894 graduate of the
academy on Cornwall-on-Hudson.
Troop D and the Summer cavalry camp at NYMA are directed by Lieutenant
Colonel Manuel Soto-Assiego who has been at the academy since 1968.
The NYMA director of horsemanship went from college into a 10-year career
with the U.S. Army and afterwards Lieut. Col. Soto attended the Universities
of Madrid and Buenos Aires.
While in Madrid, he participated in the Spanish Cavalry School’s
advanced equitation course. For many years Lieut. Col. Soto has actively
participated in horse shows throughout the country and abroad. He is
assisting the Rotary committee for this show as he did for the show in
1971.
Cadets in all grades and the levels of horsemanship ability are eligible
for Troop D participation.
The Trooper learns to care for his count, to be responsible for its
training and welfare. The Troopers live in their own barracks as a unit.
Activities include mounted drill and related equestrian training, mounted
parades on campus, an annual steeple-chase and participation in off-campus
events such as the Rotary horse shows, road marches, and pleasure trail
rides in the Black Rock Forest reservation surrounding the academy.
Those at the Rotary Club horse shows will thrill to the unique nature
of Troop D – its color and aura of pageantry, its practical application
of trained response and control, its close association with the outdoors
and the horse. The atmosphere of competitive esprit de corps created
on the campus is Troop D’s contribution to highly responsive good
order at NYMA.
Lieut. Col. Soto asserts that “the companionship of boy and horse
creates a keen sense of responsibility…the horse’s dependence
on the boy for his care, food and water instills in the youngster a sense
of unselfish devotion to his equine friend…this character-building
relationship will favorably influence the boy’s good behavior towards
others – both people and animals – for the rest of his life.”
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