Amanda Steege hit the headlines when she was championed in the $50,000 World Champion Hunter Rider (WCHR) Peter Wetherill Palm Beach Hunter Spectacular at the 2021 Winter Equestrian Festival (WEF). Her ride was Cheryl Olsten’s scopey 10-year-old Belgian Warmblood Lafitte De Muze.
This was the fourth time Amanda and the Darco gelding have contested the class, but this was the first time they have won the prestigious accolade.
Amanda is a leading show hunter producer, trainer and rider who is based at Ashmeadow Farm in Califon, New Jersey and in Ocala, Florida.
Amanda grew up in Massachusetts and hails from a horsey family; both her parents were instructors in the hunter/jumper industry and worked in Sterling at Saddle River Farm for Hank and Marion Hulick.
As a junior rider, Amanda was successful in the pony hunter, junior hunter and equitation classes. Her most famed small junior hunter was One In A Million. Amanda won the 1991 Massachusetts Medal Finals and competed in the Medal and Maclay Finals.
Amanda took a break from horses and graduated from Boston College with a degree in psychology. It was after her studies that she decided to become a professional horsewoman and founded her business Ashmeadow Farm, which now has two bases. Amanda spends half of her year in Ocala and the other half in Califon.
She trains both professional and amateur hunter riders, and her clients have clinched titles up and down the East Coast. Amanda is also known for her production of young horses and she is currently supported by ProElitePro horse feeds.
In the hunter jumper ring, Amanda has racked up an enviable tally. She has had tremendous success in international derbies and has also been the World Champion Hunter Rider for the northeast region several times in a row.
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Lafitte De Muze has been a big winner for Amanda. In 2019, he was champion of the $50,000 National Horse Show Hunter Classic and in 2018 netted the $50,000 WCHR Professional Challenge at the Capital Challenge Horse Show. He was also awarded the 2019 WCHR Hunter of the Year, earning the Peter Wetherill Cup.
Other top horses Amanda has piloted include Kingpin, Mirror Image and Majestic, both previous winners of the Devon Horse Show, among others.
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