Simply say “Menlo” and everyone in the hunter/jumper world knows you mean the Menlo Charity Horse Show, held every August for the past 36 years at the Menlo Circus Club in Atherton to benefit the Vista Center for the Blind and Visually Impaired.
From lead line tots to some of the world’s most accomplished riders and trainers, the full spectrum of equestrian life is on show at Menlo, perhaps most prominently on Saturday, when generous show patron Pat Hitchcock O’Connell sponsors “Hitchcock Day” in memory of her father, Alfred Hitchcock. Mrs. O’Connell, who with her husband Joseph stabled their horses at the Menlo Circus Club for many years, personally presents awards all day Saturday, including plush horses to all the lead-liners.


Some of the lead-liners who took home those plush horses this year carried familiar names such as Shaw, Sereni, Endicott, and Considine-Rickard, among others. Menlo’s rings have seen the start of many a promising rider’s show career.
Lauren Hough was a familiar sight at Menlo in her childhood, when her trainer parents Linda and Champ Hough dominated the hunter rings. Lauren has gone on to represent the U.S. in Olympic and Pan Am Games show jumping competition, and at press time had just won the Hampton Classic Open Jumper 1.45m Speed Class.
Competing this year in the Adult Amateur Jumpers, college student Holly Kilham Charlebois began her show ring career with several years of lead line appearances at Menlo. Her father, John Charlebois, who trains at the Portola Valley Training Center and sponsors the Charlebois Farms Junior/Amateur Owner Hunter Classic at Menlo, is quick to share the credit for Holly’s successes, saying, “I teach Holly about life, and her mother (Nicasio trainer Elizabeth Kilham) teaches Holly about riding. She’s the greatest kid in the world.”



Parents at Menlo were ringside for all the classes, from Pony Hunters to the $40,000 Menlo Grand Prix. Lauren Hester’s mom, Marsha, watched as Lauren unexpectedly scorched the field to bring home the first Grand Prix win of her career with her own Oxford. She narrowly edged out pros Missy Foley on Bay Rose LLC’s Oberon in second place, and Rachel Yorke on Alex and Cathy Mendez’s Karl du Chateau in third.
Trainers, as well as parents, had their share of excitement, too, a notable example being the $10,000 Maple Leaf Farm Ryman Memorial Speed Class. Karl Cook, fresh off his double gold medal victory at the North American Young Riders Championship in Virginia, won the Speed Class over his trainer, Guy Thomas, and other pros like AHJF/WCHR Professional of the Year John French, and Kristin Hardin, both of whom are extending their expertise to the developing Arabian sport horse hunter/jumper world. Karl and Guy are both riders who have been seen in the ring at Menlo from an early age, both with parents cheering them on from ringside, and in Guy’s case, with parents Lu and Butch Thomas coaching him through the years, as well.



Menlo’s 36 years of success are due to many factors, including the tremendous support of Menlo’s many generous sponsors, as well as the show’s hard-working, 150-plus volunteers led by founder and co-chair Betsy Glickbarg, and the competitors who return each year with 700 world-class horses. But there’s a bigger purpose to the show.
When the horses go home and the tent comes down, the money raised by the Menlo Charity Horse Show, considered the most profitable charity horse show in the country, enables the Vista Center for the Blind and Visually Impaired to help their clients remain independent and embrace life to the fullest. That’s a goal everyone considers a win.