Georgina Bloomberg’s true grit

Georgina Bloomberg was at the June 3 French Open match in which Novak Djokovic tore his right meniscus. The accomplished equestrian – who has bases in North Salem, New York City and Wellington, Florida – said she had always seen tennis as more of a social sport. But as she watched Djokovic play on, winning a five-set battle against Argentina’s Francisco Cerundolo and a crowd that wanted the Argentine to win, she began to think differently about Djokovic, tennis – and herself.

“It was incredible,” she said, “to have that much determination and resilience not to give up.”

Determination and resilience have always been hallmarks of a great athlete, helping define Bloomberg’s 20-year career in professional show jumping, in which horse and rider are judged objectively as they try to clear a course of fences, or rails, within a ring as fast and as cleanly as possible. (This is as opposed to hunter, in which horse and rider are judged subjectively on form.)

Bloomberg has broken her back twice as a result of a vertebra displacement condition known as spondylolisthesis and had her spine rebuilt in 2011, requiring an eight-month recovery. This was en route to winning such events as the $210,000 Central Park Grand Prix in New York in 2014 and the $127,000 Adequan Grand Prix in Wellington, Florida, the following year; anchoring the U.S. team with double-clear rounds for its win in the 2014 Furusiyya Nations Cup in Gijon, Spain, and, in her major games debut, helping the U.S. claim the team bronze medal at the 2015 Pan American Games in Toronto. Since then, her finishes in international competitions have been almost exclusively top 10.

More recently, she’s been getting back in shape after the birth of 8-month-old son Sebastian. And while she said she’s comfortable with her progress – she certainly looked to be in fine form in the $125,000 Old Salem Farm Grand Prix in North Salem on Mother’s Day as baby Sebastian and doting big brother Jasper, 10, cheered her on – she acknowledged that it’s taken longer to bounce back from giving birth the second time around.

So she’s taking her time and not judging herself, realizing that she’s not the same rider or person she was in her 20s. That doesn’t mean, however, that Bloomberg is slowing down in or out of the show ring. It was a couple of years ago that she became ambassador for Lugano, the Newport Beach, California-based diamonds and jewelry brand, with a store in Greenwich (Page 11). Bloomberg said she has known Lugano co-founder Moti Ferder and his brother, Ilan Ferder — a Wellington-based rider and owner and trainer of horses, who also buys and sells them – for a while. Lugano is also a brand sponsor of the Longines Global Champions Tour, whose eight-year-old league competition Bloomberg joined as owner, captain and rider of the New York Empire team of six international equestrians.

As for Lugano’s one-of-a-kind pieces – which include such equestrian offerings as pink diamond stirrup earrings, a ceramic horseshoe pendant and a diamond horse brooch – Bloomberg pointed to their understated elegance, with an intricacy of detail down to the backing or clasp that makes them beautiful against your skin, inside or out.

The jewelry ambassadorship and “The A Circuit” series of four young-adult horse show novels reflect one side of Bloomberg. The other is a philanthropist devoted to rescued animals and underserved riders.

“I try to do as much as I can,” she said. “Dogs have always been my passion.” Indeed, all animals have. Born and educated in New York City, the second daughter of onetime Big Apple Mayor Michael Bloomberg and his former wife, Susan Brown, Georgina began riding at age 4 and soon garnered an array of junior jumper and hunter honors. She knows how important it is for riders to dress properly for competitions. That’s why in 2006 she founded The Rider’s Closet “to ensure,” her website says, “that riding apparel is accessible to scholastic riding programs, pony clubs, therapeutic and veterans programs, equine charities, equestrian camp programs and individual riders in need.” In 2019, the nonprofit merged with the Equus Foundation, dedicated to horses living out their lives in dignity. She calls the merger with Equus “an honor.”

In addition to her sport horses, Bloomberg’s own North Salem menagerie has had retired horses (including a former New York City carriage horse); rescued dogs; other rescued animals such as goats, rabbits, miniature horses and mules; and, in a nod to E.B. White’s “Charlotte’s Web,” a pig named Wilbur.

But while she has rescues and fosters animals, what she really loves is being a go-between who sets rescues from high-kill shelters in places like Florida on the path to forever homes. Her efforts earned her the 2016 Compassion in Action Award from The Humane Society of the United States.

It’s a busy life, one that sees Jasper competing in the pony ring, cementing the Bloomberg equestrian legacy. (At Old Salem Farm’s “Spring Horse Shows,” he walked the course with his mother before her event.) But riders, unlike tennis players, can compete professionally into middle age. At 58, Laura Kraut made history as the oldest American to medal at the Olympics in 72 years when she and the rest of a show jumping team that included Brewster’s two-time gold medalist McLain Ward took silver at the Paris Games.

“I’m not ready to hang up my stirrups,” Bloomberg said. “Not yet.”