On paper, Chocolate Horse Farm trainer Tommy Greengard had career options outside of the horse world. With a degree in environmental science from UC Berkeley, he didn’t need to sign on for the long days, long weeks and ups and downs of life as a professional equestrian.

He could have kept riding as a hobby.

But, really, there was never a career question for Tommy. “I’ve been totally fixated on horses since I was 3,” he shares.

He began riding for Andrea Pfeiffer’s Chocolate Horse Farm as much as his college schedule allowed. At the end of 2020, he stepped into the assistant trainer position, along with earning his degree and graduating the following year. “I was in the right place at the right time.”

Living The Dream

Ever since, Tommy is living the dream – typically riding between 12 and 15 horses a day, coaching clients and thriving in a development and sales partnership with Andrea.

“It’s been amazing,” Tommy says. “I’ve been fortunate to have had a really great couple of years and the opportunity to ride some really special horses. And, I love the teaching and coaching, too. We have a great clientele, ranging from kids just learning to trot and jump for the first time, to those competing all the way up the levels.”

At presstime, Tommy planned to campaign five horses in the Eventing Championships at Galway Downs, four in the FEI divisions and one in the Modified Training Challenge.

Tommy and his own Joshuay MBF will take their three-year partnership to the next level in the Defender CCI 4*-L. Bolstered by remarkably consistent victories up the levels, Tommy had planned on Galway for Josh’s 4*-L debut for the past year. However, a mild fetlock injury last fall at Tyron International appeared to derail that plan.

“We thought, ‘Oh well, he’ll be out for six months to a year, then we see where that puts us.’”

Stepping Up

But Josh and his veterinarian Jill Thornton, DVM, of Sonoma Marin Veterinary Services, had other ideas.

“He came back better than he was before he got hurt,” Tommy states. “Dr. Thornton is super amazing and creative and she really took his rehab very seriously. She fine-tuned it so he didn’t lose much fitness and we could bring him back stronger and fitter than before.” A daily hour of under-saddle walking on a hill was a key to Josh’s remarkable recovery.

“We finished 5^th at the CCI 3*-L at Rebecca Farm in July, and wondered what’s next?” Tommy recalls. Josh answered that question with super CCI4*-S outings at Twin Rivers Ranch and Woodside earlier this fall, with 3^rd and 1^st place finishes, respectively.

The amped-up atmosphere at The Eventing Championships will play to the Dutch Warmblood’s strengths, Tommy predicts. “He is a phenomenal competitor because he is so focused. He’s been in a lot of big rings – like the Kentucky Horse Park – and the bigger the atmosphere, the better for him.”

Tommy’s expectations are deliberately not so big. “He’s checked off every box in my mind and then some this year. I’m going to try to stay focused, give him the best ride possible and not get too balled up about the outcome. I know he’s ready for this job and the cards will fall where they fall.”

That’s Me Z is another Tommy ride to keep a special eye on. The highest scorer, nationally, at last year’s 5-Year-Old Young Event Horse Championships moves up to the Pro Series Equine CCI 2*-L. He is the front runner for the Holekamp/Turner Grant helping a North American bred horse travel to Pau, France for the FEI Eventing World Breeding Championships for Young Horses.

The More The Merrier

Riding multiple horses is Tommy’s happy place. “It keeps me a bit more objective and focused on the big picture, versus getting bogged down in the details.” His self-admitted weakness for sweating the small stuff is one of the few things Chocolate Horse’s Andrea Pfeiffer thought she could help Tommy with.

“I can’t take much credit” for Tommy’s accomplishments, Andrea told California Riding Magazine when Tommy joined her program. “I got to step in with a young man who already had a very strong background.

“If I had to pick on him, I’d say he can be too detailed oriented,” she continued. “I have to say sometimes, ‘It’s OK you missed that trot step.’  I try to get him to relax about the process a little. He is very driven, wants to do everything right and never half-way.”

Tommy acknowledges that Andrea has indeed helped him to relax. She joins an illustrious list of horsemen to shape Tommy’s fate with horses.

Way Back When

The morning of his sixth birthday, at precisely 8 a.m., is an indelible memory. The three years prior, “I’d sit and watch my mom take lessons at Mill Creek Equestrian,” he says, referring to the now-gone horse world hub in Malibu’s Topanga Canyon. “You couldn’t take lessons until you were 6, so that’s what I got to do on my sixth birthday and the rest is history.”

Robyn Fisher guided Tommy through his junior career. “He came to me at 7, and I’ve been able to watch him go from this young boy who dressed as Woody from Toy Story for Halloween to this intelligent, bright young adult,” says the trainer, rider and FEI Level 3 eventing judge.

The dedication was always there. When Robyn moved from Mill Creek in Malibu to Moorpark in 2013, Tommy switched high schools to be closer to the barn. Before he could drive himself, Tommy’s parents, who both work full time, made the long, congested commute from their home in Malibu to Robyn’s R Farms in Moorpark.

Robyn’s emphasis on dressage and the gift of putting Tommy on different types of horses are among her many contributions his horsemanship. She can also take credit for UC Berkeley, when Tommy was looking at schools where he could have kept riding with Robyn.

“Robyn told me I had to go, and that I was going to ride with Andrea and that was that,” Tommy remembers.

All In – All the Time

Tommy’s dedication continues to be backed by that of his parents, Liddy Morrin and Gerry Greengard. Like most parents, they thought that exposing their child to a variety of experiences would be good. At some point, they threw in that towel and chose to “get on board,” Liddy says. “Looking back, it is extraordinary how differentiated and specialized he was at a young age.

“When you know what you want to do, it makes other things easy,” Liddy reflects of now-clear benefits of her son’s singular dedication. “He is an incredibly focused child. He never had any problem keeping his grades up, even though he was away from school a lot.”

She makes a distinction between herself, who “enjoys riding,” and Tommy, who “is extremely interested in all of it: the breeding, buying, selling, nutrition, coaching…He wants to drill down deep on all of it.”

Tommy’s parents are one of several reasons he’s a huge fan of Galway Downs. “It’s a show I’ve been going to since I was a kid and it’s so amazing how far it’s come. Every time we go down there, it looks even better than we thought it was the last time. As a barn, we love the whole experience.”

The VIP experience, in particular, is especially great for his parents, who often bring non-horsey friends to enjoy the show from the comfort of the VIP Pavilion. “It’s funny how something like that makes a difference. There are so many people who aren’t riding at a show, but are supporting us, and Galway Downs makes it way more pleasant experience for them.

Enjoy It!

Going all in on the eventing path has been full of parenting positives.  “There is so much hard work in the eventing world,” notes Liddy. “It shaped him in terms of discipline.” Gratitude is a family priority that Tommy learned to apply to the variety of horses he rode coming up the ranks. “We didn’t try to keep up with the equine Jones,” Liddy notes.

“We were concerned that it is a very privileged world,” she continues. “As a parent, you want your child to understand some of the issues regarding equity and access. From a young age, Tommy didn’t pay attention to the demographics of who was in the ring with him: whether they were adults or what gender they were.”

As the grateful recipient of good coaching, parenting and support, the 2022 Eventing 25 Emerging Athlete Program member is happy to pass on advice to contemporaries heading to Galway for the USEF Eventing Young Rider Championships, presented by USEA.

“The biggest thing I’d say for any big competition is to take a moment and enjoy it,” Tommy shares. “You’ve worked really hard to get here, you’ve done a lot right to get to that point and, before you know it, the weekend will be over.”

Amen to that!