Hunter’s Edge Stables Hosts Olympic Equestrian Medalist November 29-30 Mac Cone has been riding for a little better than 45 years, and his endurance really paid off earlier this year when he claimed a silver medal at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing as part of the Canadian equestrian team. He visits his family in the Mid-South every year, and this year they convinced him to pass along his knowledge while he was “home for the holidays.” His sister-in-law, Margaret Cone, said, “He is a busy guy. “When he’s not showing, he’s in Europe buying horses. We were just very fortunate to be able to convince him to do this. It’s not often a rider of this caliber holds a clinic in this area.” Cone grew up in east Memphis, and says he began riding a horse his sister acquired when the family bought a home adjoining power lines near Walnut Grove and I-40. “I’m 56 now, and I started when I was 11, so you can do the math...The developer had horses and he told us that we could, too. His deal was that he could keep cows and horses under the TVA power lines (behind the subdivision) if they kept the grass down. So it gave us a place to ride horses. My sister got one and, long story short, I got on and started jumping it over logs and stuff like that, then just kept going.” He gives great credit to a pair of his early riding instructors, saying Richard Watson was “...incredibly invaluable.” He said Watson now lives in Florida, and they frequently see each other there when Cone is training and showing there from January to April. He also praised Jerome Roberson, now deceased, for helping Cone hone his riding skills. He was a member of the U.S. Equestrian Team from ages 20-22. He married and moved to the East Coast, and was offered a job in Toronto in 1978. “So up we went...we’d been there about three and a half years, and in 1982 the World Championships were coming up in Dublin, Ireland and the Canadians approached me about changing spots...The rules said whatever passport you held, that was the country you rode for. I really liked Canada and wasn’t planning on coming back, so I looked into becoming a Canadian citizen. They took my U.S. passport and gave me a Canadian one, and I’ve been there ever since.” He has ridden for Canada in two World Championships and two Olympic Games (1996 in Atlanta and 2008 in Beijing). The team brought home a silver medal at the 2007 Pan-Am games in Brazil. In addition to the silver medal this year, Cone’s teammate Eric Lamaze brought home the gold medal after a “jump off” in the individual show jumping. Cone resides on a farm in Aurora, Ontario, Canada, and says he teaches as his schedule permits. “We do a few clinics ...when our season ends in November, until the first of January when we start showing in Florida, and then occasionally in a “quiet time” we have from April to May.” Beanie and Margaret say they hope to convince Mac to additional clinics here in the future. Bob Martin hosted the event at his Split Tree Farm, and catered lunch for the attendees.