Joe Fargis is a world-class rider, trainer and teacher whose show jumping career earned his place in the elite category of Who's Who in world sports by way of two Summer Olympics. At the 1984 Los Angeles Games, Joe and Touch of Class earned team and individual gold medals in show jumping. Four years later at the Seoul Olympics, Joe piloted Mill Pearl to garner team silver and 7th individually.

Joe's many accolades include being named the 1984 Horseman of the Year by the American Horse Shows Association, and Lifetime Achievement Awards from the US Equestrian Federation (formerly AHSA) and the US Hunter Jumper Association. He has been inducted into the Show Jumping Hall of Fame, Virginia Horse Show Association HOF, the Virginia Horse Center HOF, and the Pennsylvania National Horse Show HOF.

On Friday, October 26, Washington International Horse Show welcomed Joe into the WIHS Hall of Fame for his many decades of involvement, contributions as competitor and judge, and for his service on the Board of Directors. The 60th anniversary of the prestigious indoor show also celebrated the historic performance by Touch of Class and Joe when, as newly minted gold-medal Olympians, they were victorious in the 1984 President's Cup Grand Prix.

There's so much more to Joe than his competitive record. He's articulate and his brain is as good as gold. For this thinking horseman, however, winning isn't the end all and be all.

"Of course, you're elated and happy when you win something, but on a day-to-day basis, if you can deal with the horse and have some success and deal with the rider and have some success, I think that's just as important as the biggest win possible," Joe said. "I mean, you have to survive on a daily basis with little victories. That's what I like — just every day doing something good for the horse and good for the rider."

Joe's next words raised the bar on cultivating an attitude of gratitude when he said, with his characteristic humility about success and accolades, "But I never feel deserving. I'm appreciative and I'm flattered. I'm not going to reject it" — he grinned — "but I'm always astounded. Always. Always. Always. I never feel I'm the better rider because I won whatever – there are plenty of good riders out there."

It comes down to the horses: Joe puts them first and foremost. After all, riders are "wingless" without them, but the equestrian world — neigh, the entire globe — keeps changing. Showing used to be a fun sport, albeit seriously competitive, because everyone wants their horse to win, but as more people took up riding, showing turned into big business, evolving from being seasonal to a year-round circuit. Today's expenses to compete hunters and jumpers, even on the lower levels of the A-circuit, add up to megabucks the higher you go. Although winning is everyone's goal, Joe feels strongly about the horse's role in sport and our responsibilities to these magnificent animals.

"I think this culture of winning needs to be more goal-oriented with the emphasis shifting to the journey," said Joe. "The courses are more difficult and riders are getting better and right now it's easy to buy a made horse and go in the biggest classes and be a good rider, but it's not the whole picture. The world is changing. There are not so many people interested in the basics, the theory, the technique. It's not at all about the winning — in the end, you realize it's about the process."

The goal is a partnership, but you don't have to compete in the Olympics to win the trust of a horse and learn to communicate. You can experience that glorious bond, whatever your level or sport or discipline. You don't have to aspire to the Olympics to be your very best with your horse.

That's the journey. Over the years, Joe has helped an astronomical number of horses. He might be in the saddle or on foot teaching a lesson or a clinic. He brings knowledge, experience, and common sense horsemanship — a priceless skill set — to each schooling ride, lesson, clinic, and every class no matter what level of importance of the competition.

Joe "gets" horses and starts each clinic setting the record straight to participants and auditors, whoever is in earshot. "It is never the horse's fault – ever," he reiterated. "The horse didn't intend to get up in the morning, ask to be tacked up and go in the ring to jump. We ask them to do that. It's never the horse's fault. The horse has no agenda, period. It's not out to "get you" so get that through your head."

Then he added: "I wish everybody would consider the horse first — everybody."

When asked how he would like to be remembered, Joe replied: "For being kind to horses. — well, to all animals, but especially kind to horses. In the end, the achievements are just your name on a trophy. I mean that. I wish I could impart to people that horses are incredibly generous and depend on us, that we should treat them with tremendous respect."

Joe doesn't just talk the talk; he walks the walk where horses are concerned and speaks the language of Horse fluently. He didn't dream as a kid of a lifetime career in the saddle, but he got the best possible start right in Vienna, Virginia, when he was in second grade and accompanied a classmate home to the farm where he lived with his mother, Jane Dillon, founder of the Junior Equitation School. Of course, Joe started taking lessons once a week and the rest, as they say, is history.

Unlike most pony-crazy kids, Joe, the ultimate working student, admits that he didn't know at any point that he would focus his life on horses. "It just evolved," he said. "I resisted school. I resisted everything else but horses. I had fun and horses grew into a bigger and bigger part of my life. It all started with Mrs. Dillon, then I went to Frances Rowe [for 12 years], then I went to Bert de Nemethy [US Equestrian Team Coach, 1955-1980]. Everything just happened nicely. I didn't plan it at all."

Joe's early equestrian education involved the school ponies and horses at the Junior Equitation School. "I don't know if I was good or bad, but I was having a good time," he recalled. "I remember learning to deal with what we had and getting the horse to do the best it could without overfacing it. That's a goal we all should have – trying to have the horse perform to the best of its ability and talent without too much interference from humans."

Joe learned many valuable lessons from schoolmasters, whatever their level of proficiency. He's humble about the many horses that turned sweet for him after being problems for others, explaining: "We as humans give them conflicting signals and maybe that human was giving the horse signals that it just didn't understand. It isn't that riders are good or bad. They just weren't communicating with the horses."

Communication and partnership are essential aspects of horsemanship. Over the decades Joe has helped a great many horses to improve from zero to a jumper level of 1.30meter or 1.40meter. Only horses with incredible heart, athleticism, soundness and work ethic achieve the highest level, Grand Prix. That 1.60meter (in jumper lingo: meter-60, etc), means leaping big, painted fences up to 5'3" in height with spreads to 6'7".

Those grand prix classes are behind this horseman, who is busier than ever teaching and training from his Sandron base in Middleburg at Mary B. Schwab's Stoneleigh Farm in Middleburg. They met in the1995 and Mary B ended up owning several horses with Joe and they scored some impressive wins up and down the East Coast, from Florida to the Hampton Classic and beyond with such notables as Edgar 12 and Diams III, to name just two.

"What I appreciate most about Joe is his sensitivity to horses," said Mary B, as she is known. "He's a great horseman, and he's there for the horses through the whole process. He's willing to be there from the beginning through good times and bad, all the way to the very end."

As an owner, Mary B has several favorite moments such as the first time Joe won a Grand Prix with Edgar 12 in Florida. He had been riding the horse for two years and, on this occasion, had a bad case of flu and considered scratching after he walked the course. They ended up one of two clears and won the jump-off. Mary B still owns a few horses, trained by Joe although he no longer competes in the big classes.

Asked about this change of pace, Joe said, "You get older and you get creakier. Life goes on and you get up and do what you do every day. It hasn't been difficult transitioning from doing everything to doing not so much although the "not so much" part is that I'm not jumping high jumps anymore, but I'm doing a lot of stuff."

He's a respected clinician and enjoys teaching clinics all over North America and in 25 countries: "Thanks to horses I've traveled around the world." He has a barn full of amateurs under his tutelage and also teaches locals who ship in for lessons. A staunch supporter and board member of Upperville Horse Show, Joe helped change the face of the oldest show in the nation. It's grown bigger and better on both sides of Route 50 with amenities and improvements such as great footing and more prize money to attract big-name riders and horses. On the jumper side, a spectacular grand prix and hunter derby ring boasts state of the art footing and drainage. Three FEI-rated 4-star jumper classes and a National Grand Prix lead up to Sunday's finale, the $216,000 FEI Grand Prix.

"Upperville's more jumper-oriented — it's just great, but I also think we shouldn't forget the hunter side," Joe said. "It's been a tradition and we have to keep it going."

Joe was 10 when he first showed a pony under the oaks with Mrs. Dillon's mentorship. That's when he fell in love with Upperville and, over the decades, he has won there riding hunters and jumpers. He learned "old-fashioned horsemanship from Mrs. Dillon and Frances Rowe, who got their riders and horses out of the ring. This old-fashioned concept, based in the horse's versatility, is in danger of fading into the annals of equestrian history, which would be a serious loss to the horse world. Imagine growing up like Joe, riding ponies and horses who showed in the summer, hunted in fall and winter, sometimes even raced at point-to-points and sanctioned meets in the spring. Talk about schoolmasters on the hoof…

Joe didn't just ride in the ring, he foxhunted with several packs for many seasons, earning his colors with Fairfax Hunt whose country included what is now Dulles Airport during the formative Mrs. Dillon years. When he went to ride with Frances Rowe, her Foxwood Farm was in the heart of Deep Run Hunt's country. He was 15 when he first galloped Thoroughbred racehorses belonging to Randy Rouse, the late Master of Fairfax Hunt, who had a racetrack on land that became Wolf Trap Farm Park. Joe rode in several races, winning once over timber at Glenwood Park. With all that mileage, it's no wonder that he clicked with Touch of Class, a failed racehorse and mare who proved herself to be Olympic gold.

Soft-spoken and calm, Joe only shouts so people can hear him when he's teaching. His wisdom is mind-boggling. He believes in consistency and keeping it simple. He never ever asks a horse to do something beyond its ability. An amazing teacher with the best attitude, he's considered one of the best clinicians here in the USA and abroad. To aspire to ride like Joe is founded on treating each equine with kindness and respect.

One regular engagement on his busy calendar is judging at the Hampton Classic. "I have judged leadline for as long as I can remember and there are always 100 kids in it although there weren't that many, to begin with," Joe said. "Some parents blame me because I gave their child a blue ribbon in leadline and they got hooked on riding because of it. The parents say 'look what you've done to our family!' I get that a lot."

One thing for certain: Joe's out there, doing what he does best and enjoying what he's doing. Thinking first of the horses, he's darn good at improving riders.

It's never too late to ride like Joe. You don't have to jump big fences — just be willing to get the barnacles scrubbed off your basics. It's Horse and Rider, in that order — a gentle reminder to always put the horse first.