In the middle of nowhere, and in the center of everything.
Whether you crave a tranquil mountain getaway or a culture-rich city fix, visit Tryon International, where both options are at your fingertips. Tryon International offers the best of both worlds—truly—and is conveniently located between Charlotte, Asheville, Greenville, & Spartanburg.
Our mission is to celebrate the magic of the horse, from carousel to competition and beyond. The active lifestyle of all who love horses extends far beyond the stable, and so do our amenities and events! Tryon International is a destination for all who want to connect to nature, encounter a new level of adventure, and find inspiration in every experience.
Honoring Legendary Horsemen and Horsewomen of the Tryon Region
The area of Tryon previously spanned counties across both North and South Carolina, and has long been rooted in equestrian sports and lifestyles. The Tryon Block House Races, the famed steeplechase of the Tryon Riding & Hunt Club, has belonged to three different locations throughout the region in the last seventy-five years to land most recently at Tryon International’s Green Creek Race Course. Countless equestrian icons have lived, worked, and competed in Tryon, with a select few honored by each of our main Hunter/Jumper rings. Learn about Tryon’s legendary equestrians below!
Gordon Wright
Known as the teacher of teachers, Gordon Wright brings the most fame to the Tryon area. Riders such as Bill Steinkraus, George Morris and Victor Hugo-Vidal continue his teaching methods with great national and international success.
His book - Learning to Ride, Hunt, and Show - is still widely considered one of the most informative and relevant texts on training horse and rider. Initially self-taught, he worked primarily out of Saxon Woods Farm in White Plains, New York before becoming the oldest person to list in the World War II cavalry (in his late 30s) at Fort Riley. There he gained the majority of his formal training.
In addition to showing, Wright actively fox hunted with Golden's Bridge and Fairfield in New York. It was a fox hunting trip that brought him to Tryon. Gordon eventually started the Greenville County Hounds - the Southern branch of Golden's Bridge - and Fairfield and wrote his last book, The Riding Instructor's Manual, while living in Tryon.
Carter P. Brown
Credited as the man who put Tryon on the map, Carter P. Brown first came to the area in 1917. He purchased a former tuberculosis sanitarium in the hills of Tryon in 1918 and there the Pine Crest Inn was born. The establishment facilitated much of the population growth in the equestrian segment.
Brown built a stable at the Pine Crest Inn and rented horses to guests and locals, taking them in to the mountains for stunning views from the peaks. He founded the Tryon Riding & Hunt Club in 1925 and created the Tryon Hounds that same year. In 1926, he decided that the town needed a horse show, so he promptly found some land for what became the Tryon Horse Show.
The Tryon Riding & Hunt Club officially took over the show in 1929. It grew to be the biggest social event in the town - businesses closed their doors on Wednesday afternoon and donned their Sunday best to watch the horses and hounds.
Austin Brown
Born in Tryon in 1927, Austin Brown has the distinction of being the winner of the first three of four Block House Races.
The twenty-year old Brown won the inaugural race in 1947 on his horse Bluish. He repeated the victory in 1948, finished second in 1949 and won his third in 1950, all on the same mare.
Brown began his equestrian career as a young child. In 1943, at the age of 16, he became a licensed steeplechase jockey: He excelled in this course for eight years and was the leading amateur Steeplechasé rider in 1951
As an adult, Brown maintained his involvement with the equestrian activities in the region. He served two terms as president of the Tryon Riding & Hunt Club, the organization his father founded in 1925.
J. Arthur Reynolds
In 1939, J. Arthur Reynolds answered an ad for “Huntsman Wanted" and went to work as the first professional huntsman of the Tryon Hounds. He built J. Arthur Reynolds Stables across the street from the Block House and hung his shingle as a professional trainer.
When the Carmichael family bought the Block House in 1956, J. Arthur worked with their horses alongside farm manager Red Frazier. He trained numerous champions during his time in Tryon, though his most famous pupils were his own children J. Arthur, II ("Bucky.") and Betty.
When the Carmichael family returned to the mid-west in the early 60s, Reynolds followed. J. Arthur and his children worked at their Laughin' Place Farm in Niles, Michigan. The Laughin' Place Farm trophy was donated to the TR&HC in 1962 and was repurposed as the award for the Grand Champion Amateur Owner Hunter in 2003.
Bucky Reynolds
Destined to follow in his father's footsteps, Bucky spent his youth in Tryon, foxhunting and showing horses for the family's farm. His accomplishments include riding his father's horse, Steve's Poppet, to win the Grand Prix a Madison Square Garden in 1969. With tremen dous success training hunters as well, one of his most famous, Gozzi, was on the racetrack a yearling and was inducted into the National Show Hunter Hall of Fame. His junior career frequently pitted him against his younger sister Betty, who he went on to train for many years. With a natural eye for picking a winning horse, Bucky currently serves as a USEF judge.
Betty Reynolds Oare
Betty Reynolds Oare, National Show Hunter Hall of Fame member, won her first blue ribbon at the National Horse Show in 1957, representing the Tryon Hounds. Well-known for the bold, galloping approach to fences she developed in the hunt field, Betty piloted Colonymas to the Junior Hunter Championship at the 1959 WIHS. Additionally, Navy Commander was named
Horse of the Year in the Regular Working Hunter division in 1962 with Betty aboard. The newest addition to Betty's string is a grey mare carrying the moniker, "Tryonite." Now a respected USEF judge and owner of EMO Stables with husband Ernie Oare, Betty still competes in the Amateur-Owner Hunter division.
Jarrett Schmid
Jarrett Schmid arrived in Tryon from Mamaroneck, New York in 1958. Schmid's famed working hunter Naute Mia traveled south with her, occupying pride of place in one of the two barns on the property adjacent to the original Block House Steeplechase course. Before his retirement during a formal ceremony at the Washington National in 1962, Naute Mia had accumulated 43 championships and 222 blue ribbons, most of them at A-rated shows. Because of his spirit and drive, he earned the nickname "The Magnificent Outlaw."
During her nearly fifty years at her farm Saxon Woods, Schmid not only raised and trained horses for the show ring and the race course, but served as Joint Master - with Gordon Wright - of the old Greenville County Hounds. She also chaired the Block House Steeplechase for the Tryon Riding and Hunt Club for 12 years, increasing purses exponentially by attracting national sponsors to the races. Schmid passed away in 1992.
The early years
in the words of CEO Mark Bellissimo
“Roger and Jennifer Smith, who are business partners in Wellington, and dear friends of mine and my family, live in Polk County and have a great passion for the area. Over the years, we attended the Block House Steeplechase with them and we were enchanted with both the locale, the equestrian heritage, and the energy of the people in the community.”
“While we viewed this as a business opportunity, we were equally inspired by the prospect of trying to re-energize a community with a vision and a business strategy that could be a strong driver of economic activity and stimulate interest in the area. It is not often that one gets an opportunity to be part of such an ambitious plan.”
“Most times people are on bronze plaques for sacrificing their lives, or donating large sums of money; this was one of those rare instances where a group of organizations and people gave their “heart and soul” towards the success of a project that has the potential to generate hundreds and thousands of permanent jobs and millions of dollars of annual economic impact. ”
CEO Mark Bellissimo recalls the incredible efforts that brought Tryon International to life:
When we first proposed the ambitious schedule to complete and open the venue in 6 months, many people from the area thought we were crazy and did not think it was possible. They didn’t think a local work force was available or capable of such an ambitious effort. We held our first horse show in July 2014 and prior to our official grand opening event in June 2015, we engaged over 60 companies and subcontractors, employed over 700 people, moved two million cubic yards of earth, built miles of sidewalks and roads, installed miles of cabling, built 6 barns containing 800 horse stalls and close to 100 structures including 3 bedroom homes, retail structures, office complexes, and much more. We opened the venue on time to great excitement and support from the community and people are still in amazement to what has been built.
We decided to thank the community and dedicated the facility to all the individuals who have participated in the success. A bronze plaque sits prominently at the entrance of the venue with the names of all of the 60 companies and over 700 individuals who worked the site, the plaque reads:
“This facility is dedicated to those individuals in the local community whose hard work and dedication helped build the world’s top equestrian destination.”
