Biography
Robert was born in Hamilton, Massachusetts and grew up fox hunting with the Myopia Hounds and showing on the local circuit. After seeing his first Ledyard International Three-Day Event in the mid 1970’s his attention was quickly drawn to the ultimate equestrian sport of Eventing. Throughout the 70’s and 80’s Hamilton was headquarters for Jack LeGoff’s USET Three-Day Event squad. This had an early and profound influence on Robert, as he knew from a young age that representing his country internationally would be his goal.
After graduating from the University of Massachusetts with a degree in Mass Communications and a minor in Music Piano Performance, Robert turned an allotted six-month “trial-run” in the horse world to a successful business and competitive career that has now spanned three decades.
Major competitive accomplishments of Robert’s include an 8th place individual performance at the 2000 Sydney Olympics Games aboard his career-making mount Chevalier. This pair also earned top 3 and 4-star placings at Rolex Kentucky, Fair Hill International and the Burghley Horse Trials in the UK.
In 2003 Robert again represented the USA, this time winning team gold at the Pan American Games on the handsome grey Dalliance. The duo went on to future successes at Fair Hill International and Rolex Kentucky, in addition to being the top American finishers at Burghley.
A resident of Southern Pines, NC since the early 1990's, Robert was partner in C&C Sporthorse, Inc. before starting his own venture ROC Equestrian in 2013.
Since stepping back from international competition in the mid 2010's, he has turned his full attention to building ROC Equestrian as a multifaceted coaching, training and sales/sourcing business. As a USEA Instructors Certification Program (ICP) Level 5 member (highest), Robert is among the most respected trainers/coaches in the U.S. His students consistently earn top placings at major FEI 1*-5* competitions in North America and Europe.
Over the last several years, Robert has held virtually every volunteer leadership position in the sport, chairing both the USEF Active Athletes (2001-2008) and USEF Eventing High Performance (2009-2012) Committees. He was the Chairman of the USEF Eventing Selection Committee for Olympic, World and Pan-American Games from 2013 until the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. In April of 2022 Robert was hired to be the interim Chef d'Equipe of the USEF Land Rover Eventing team to lead the program through to the Eventing World Championships in Pratoni, Italy. Following the team's silver medal winning result, Robert was hired in the autumn of 2022 to be Team US Eventing's full time Technical Advisor/Chef d'Equipe.
Robert and Chevalier-Burghley 2001
In his free time, Robert enjoys reading, playing his grand piano, tennis, skiing and traveling.