RICHARD MALMGREN
About Richard Malmgren
Trainer, Clinician, Consultant, Photographer, Videographer
Resume
1996 Hilltop Farm - Work Exchange Program
1998 University of Kristianstad
1999 University of Delaware - Busines and Marketing
1999 Hilltop Farm - Marketing and Sales
2005 - 2014 Part of the team that created and Managed the Young Dressage Horse Trainers Symposium
2007 Hassler Dressage - Stable Manager, Breeding Manager, Sales & Marketing Manager, and the Events team
2013 Intensive with Bo Jenå
2014 Worked for US Show Jumping Team veterinarian Dr. Tim Ober
2014 Brought the Swedish Brand PS of Sweden to the USA
2015 Represented Harmony Sporthorses and Offield Farm’s stallion inventory
2017 Purchased Blue Ridge farm
Early years
in Sweden
Richard B. Malmgren was born and raised in southern Sweden, in the mid-1970s. Growing up on a horse farm ignited a passionate admiration of horses early in life. He started riding at the age of seven, beginning with a family Shetland pony named Willika and never stopped. It wasn't long before Richard's passion for horses blossomed into a profession. The humble horseman feels a sense of pride and privilege when looking back at his upbringing in the countryside of Sweden. His time spent there was undoubtedly a beneficial exposure to the European system of riding.
Richard also credits the consistent support of his parents, Lotta & Bengt Malmgren, as one the most significant influences on his riding career and life in general. His father, Bengt, competed at advanced level eventing & showjumping in the 1960s. At an early age, the son was quick to realize that he had a lot to learn from his father. Recalling as if it were yesterday the moment when he started to embrace the knowledge and experience that his father possessed and recognized that he could take advantage of that.
Me standing next to our Shetland pony Willika and my brother Christer in the cart
Me on a borrowed pony I was 9 years old
Me on Lancera training with Olympian Lars Andersson
Me on Lancera at our first competition I was 15 years-old
Almost every little village in Sweden had a riding school and, in the village, where Richard grew up, a new riding school was opening. Richard began to ride his bicycle there and take lessons. He even did extra chores to get free lessons. Soon, he discovered a pony that wasn’t fond of the riding school and was more a one-person pony. So, his family purchased the pony (Kim) Richard started to compete her. Even though she was much better as a jumper, he was set on making her a dressage pony.
Quite rapidly Richard grew too tall for Kim and was in need of a larger pony or small warmblood horse. Richard’s father was set on getting a warmblood horse for his son. When they finally found one, it was a mare named Lancera and the girl was a hot tamale! Lancera was by the Swedish stallion Brabant out of an Astronaut mare. She was steel grey when they purchased her.
The riding school instructor, Annett Jackobson, was well connected with the famous Swedish Olympian, Major Anders Lindgren and Richard was able to take lessons from him as well. Later on Richard started riding on a weekly basis with Olympian Lars Anderson who was a trainer at Flyinge “Sweden’s National Stud” and represented Sweden in the 1988 Olympic Games with the stallion Herkules.
1993 Richard started riding another talented warmblood gelding named Quadrant by Bamtung - Brabant
In 1996 Richard traveled on an exchange visa to the USA to work as a trainee/working student under Hilltop Farm’s Head Trainer Scott Hassler. 1996 was a life-changing year for Richard as he gained lots of experience in not just riding, but management and personal experience during his stay there. He met people who have become lifelong friends and mentors from his year at Hilltop Farm.
In 1998 Richard enrolled at University of Kristianstad to pursue a degree in International Economics. During this time, he remained in contact with Hilltop Farm. He and his horses flew to the US and scouted sale horses in Europe for export to the US. It was during this time that the idea of transferring from the Swedish University to a University in the US started to take shape.
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15 years
with Hilltop Farm & Hassler Dressage
In January 1999, Richard returned to America, continued working with Hilltop Farm, and transferred to the University of Delaware to pursue a business degree in Marketing.
During his years at Hilltop Farm inc, he got great exposure to working around stallions, broodmares, and youngsters. He also experienced stallion preparations, mare performance tests, and inspections of foals. He also learned a lot about the genetic outcomes of offspring while starting them under saddle. Hilltop was breeding about 12-15 mares every year, and there were about 8-12 youngsters at the start of every season. Richard traveled the country teaching “Handling Clinic’s” that trained youngsters for inspections and breed shows. Showing horses in hand at the prestigious breed show Dressage at Devon was a yearly occurrence.
Recognizing that riding horses would always be part of his life, Richard had no ambition to become a competitor. For him, the business aspect of the industry was captivating enough. During his time at Hilltop Farm, he was in charge of marketing the sale of horses and stallions, as well as marketing for all events hosted at the farm.
His marketing duties led to many trips to Europe in search of different stables for sale horses and stallion stations. He was also responsible for establishing relationships with stallions that Hilltop Farm represented in its international program involving frozen semen. Life long relationships were accomplished with Micheal Klimke, Susan & Ingo Pape, Ulf Möller and the Hannoveraner Verband.
Richard played a role in developing and launching one of the most important private educational events in the USA YDHTS “Young Dressage Horse Trainers Symposium.” This nearly 10-year long opportunity spanning from 2005 - 2014 was exciting and rewarding. Seeing young horse trainers of that caliber come together and quench their collective craving for learning and connecting with like-minded people gave great hope for the future of dressage training for young horses. A few presenters that were part of YDHTS were Scott Hassler, Ingo Pape, Michael Klimke, Ulf Möller, Anne Gribbons, Steffen Peters, and Oliver Oelrich.
In the fall of 2007, Richard joined the team at Hassler Dressage, in Chesapeake City, Maryland, where the new training, educational facility, Riveredge, was being built. Richard served a lot of different positions during his six-year run at Hassler Dressage. He was a Stable Manager in the beginning and Breeding Manager at the end. At times he worked part of the events as Sales & Marketing Manager, along with being hands-on with the horses. That’s the beauty of working on a horse farm; you get to wear many different hats.
Richard met his future wife, Jessica Jo “JJ” Tate, in 2006 while she lived in West Chester, Pennsylvania, and took lessons with Scott Hassler at Hilltop Farm. Three years after she was selected to join the YDHTS team, Scott Hassler asked if she could run her business, Team Tate Dressage, out of Riveredge West. She and Richard started to date, and in December 2011, they got married in the Florida Keys.
5 years
with M&T Services
In the Fall of 2013, Richard resigned from Hassler Dressage and helped his wife, JJ Tate, drive her horses to Wellington, FL. Afterward, he flew to Sweden and arranged to work with Bo Jenå for a period of time. He planned to have horses at his disposal from friends in Sweden. This was also the most prolonged time Richard had spent in Sweden since leaving in 1999.
He returned to America and was back in Wellington just in time for New Years’ Eve. His new winter job was with the US Show Jumping Team veterinarian Dr. Tim Ober for the 2014 season in Wellington, while he was launching his business. His business include long lining horses, marketing horses for sale, photographing, video recording, and equine marketing products. Richard was the person responsible for bringing the Swedish Brand PS of Sweden to the USA in 2014.
In 2015 Richard was asked to represent Harmony Sporthorses and Offield Farm’s frozen stallion semen inventory in the USA. Richard and Nicole Hausman, a former coworker at Hassler Dressage, jointly started a company named Sporthorse Legacy, which would market the semen in the US.
After Florida season in April 2016, JJ & Richard move to Landrum, South Carolina where JJ was leasing a training facility only 25 minutes from the beautiful, newly built Tryon International Equestrian Center where the 2018 WEG was held. At this time, Richard was also traveling back and forth to Maryland, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey on a regular basis to help his clients with the long lining.
During December 2017, the farm became available for purchase and had been renamed Blue Ridge Farm. Team Tate Dressage is based out of this farm, and we are fortunate to call this incredible place our own. 2018 was a busy year spent making Blue Ridge Farm look spectacular for the World Equestrian Games in Tryon. We were approved to be the host facility to the US Equestrian Dressage Team pre-camp leading up to the WEG, we were also part of the WEG farm tour.
