Bea and Derek di Grazia have been smack dab in the middle of the national and West Coast eventing scene for a long time. Derek is a native of the Carmel area who spent several years back East. He and Bea, a Vermont native from a renowned equestrian family, met on the East Coast as up and coming international competitors.



Derek is a Rolex Kentucky and Fair Hill Three Day event winner as well as a team member at the 1986 World Championship Three Day event. Bea’s resume includes most of the world’s biggest competitions, including Badminton and Burghley. As young riders, the couple studied with the likes of Jimmy Wofford and Jack LeGoff. Hardworking, famously energetic and equipped with a sturdy sense of humor, the couple has carried forward those legends’ legacies in their work with horses and riders ever since.
Bea and Derek moved out West in 1984 to run the Pebble Beach Equestrian Center. In 1992, they moved to their own, small operation, Stillwater Farm in Carmel Valley. They have enjoyed being a part of their sport’s growth and have witnessed its ups and downs as competitors, coaches, trainers and members of various committees.
Bea sidelines very successfully in dressage shows, as does Derek in jumping classes on the hunter/jumper circuit. At their 12-horse Stillwater Farm, they have client and personal horses at various stages of development. Most of their own horses for the past 25 years have been Irish Sport Horses, a breed with a long history of success in the three-day world. Derek’s most advanced mount is Kildare Cavalier, who qualified for this year’s Fair Hill CCI***. Because Derek is Fair Hill’s course designer, as he has been for many years, the pair did not compete there.
Derek is one of just a few international level course designers residing in the United States. In the late 80s, he designed his first cross-country course at the former Wild Horse Ranch in Napa. Since then this endeavor has taken up a good bit of his time.
Like Derek, Bea has served and continues to serve on various industry committees. She has been a USEF team selector for the past two years, and spent much of this year evaluating the competitors pointed at August’s World Equestrian Games.
California Riding Magazine editor Kim F. Miller enjoyed a chance to speak with Derek about he and Bea’s perspective on the sport and other topics.

Kim: How would you assess the state of eventing on the West Coast right now?
Derek: The West Coast has had its highs and lows. A lot of it revolves around having a competition calendar that gets people where they need to go. That means both enough events, and at the right time to prepare for the bigger events. At this point, we are doing pretty well with One and Two Star three-days in the spring (Twin Rivers) and fall (Galway Downs). If we want to do a Three or Four Star, we have to travel.
The ideal is to develop enough horses to support a Three Star on the West Coast; however we definitely have enough events now to prepare for those higher-level competitions and to develop our horses. We are seeing more Preliminary horses in the West which will eventually mean more competitors moving up to the Intermediate level.

Kim: As riders, you and Bea were nurtured through the United States Equestrian Team’s developing rider program, under the tutelage of Jack LeGoff. Is today’s young rider development program doing what needs to be done?
Derek: I think the development area is lacking right now. The program now is providing clinics to these young riders, however they need more guidance on a regular basis in order to be fully prepared to move up the levels. Somehow, there needs to be a system for finding out who the talented riders are and then being able to develop them on a continual basis. Not just their riding, but as horsemen who are likely to stay in the sport. Bea and I, David O’Connor, Mike Huber, and Wash Bishop are among those who came up through the USET program with Jack, and we’ve all been in the sport for 25 or 30 years now.
Kim: Whose job should it be to develop young riders?
Derek: The federation has to be involved. I think our current eventing chef d’equipe, Captain Mark Phillips, has done a great job for our team riders. Realistically, he has to concentrate on the team riders and those at that level. What we need is a program that helps riders develop to that level. The concentration needs to be on getting riders to the top end of the sport.

Kim: Are you and Bea working with any up and comers that fit that description?
Derek: Yes. We’ve been working with (18-year-old) Tiana Coudray. We think she has a lot of potential and a good horse (King Street). She approached us to be a working student and has been great to work with. I know there are other professionals around the country that do the same and are making their individual effort to develop young talent.

Kim: Is it a good time to be an up and coming eventer?
Derek: Yes. The era of relying on what I call the “old guard” is coming to an end. It’s a great time for young riders (I don’t mean chronological age) with a nice horse to make their mark.

Kim: What are the biggest challenges for these international hopefuls?
Derek: Probably getting sponsors, which leads to horsepower. You can’t do it yourself. There was a time when top riders like Bruce Davidson and David O’Connor had great owners. Between them, they probably had 10 horses going at the Advanced level at any given time.

Kim: What is the secret to getting sponsorships?
Derek: That’s hard for me to answer. I think there are people who are naturally good at that and others who would have a very hard time developing those kinds of relationships. The problem is, some of those people are the riders that you want to have on the team. We’ve got to find a way to get support and horses to those riders that show that level of talent.

Kim: What trends in the sport cause you concern?
Derek: Getting riders to move from the middle of the sport’s pyramid, the Preliminary Level, to carry on to Advanced. There is a significant attrition from the numbers you see at the Preliminary level to the numbers that you eventually see at the Advanced level
The qualifications required to compete at FEI-level events makes it more difficult for riders and horses to qualify. The qualifications are needed for safety reasons, but in terms of participation, we need a few more events scattered throughout the calendar to make it easier for riders to qualify. If you want to ride in an FEI-level event, you have to be pretty dedicated to want to travel to the necessary qualifying competitions that are required.

Kim: As a course designer, how do you know when you’ve done a good job?
Derek: In addition to looking at the results, I always want to watch the course ride and see if there are any jumps that are not riding as well as I would like. After it’s over, I look at the jumps to see where horses take off and land, to see just what the horses were doing when jumping. I’m interested in rider reaction and input.
In the end, you need to sort it all out. By watching, you figure out whether a problem was the design or placement of a jump or whether it was being ridden differently than had been planned.

Kim: To what extent have safety concerns affected course design?
Derek: It is always a huge part of designing a course. It affects placement, construction and sequence of the jumps.

Kim: Are the relatively new frangible pins a big part of safe jump construction?
Derek: The U.S. Eventing Assn.’s course design committee spends a lot of time on that. Frangible pins are already used on certain types of jumps and we are trying to get them used more. They can only be used on certain types of fences, jumps with rails or logs of a certain diameter and weight.

Kim: How long do you and Bea plan to continue competing?
Derek: We really don’t think about it. We both really like riding and competing. So long as I have a good horse and I feel good I will keep going. I’m not going to stop because I’m a certain age.

Kim: Have you and Bea ever suffered burn-out in the sport?
Derek: There have certainly been periods of ups and downs. When you put so much time into a horse, but don’t get where you wanted to go, obviously it can be a big disappointment. But for us, there’s always been something new to work on or for.

Kim: You and Bea have always given a lot of volunteer time to the sport.
Derek: We’ve done our fair share. Obviously, it does take up time but we like being part of the sport and have wanted to give back where ever we can. Our work with Young Riders as well as our various committee work is the best way we know to do that.

Kim: Thank you!
Derek: You’re very welcome.