Margie Goldstein-Engle

Margie Goldstein-Engle

Margie Goldstein-Engle on Coraya Z; June 7, 2009
Personal information
Birth name	Margie Goldstein
Nationality	American
Born	March 31, 1958 (1958-03-31) (age 53) Wellington, Florida
Height	5 feet 1 inch (1.55 m)[1]
Weight	105 pounds (48 kg)[1]
Sport
Sport	Equestrianism
Event(s)	Show jumping
Achievements and titles
National finals	10x Rider of the Year (American Grand Prix Association)
Personal best(s)	World-record-high jump of 7 feet 8.75 inches (2.36 m) in 1987
Medal record Competitor for  United States Equestrian Pan American Games Silver 1999 Winnipeg Team jumping Gold 2003 Santo Domingo Team jumping Bronze 2003 Santo Domingo Individual jumping World Equestrian Games Silver 2006 Aachen Team jumping

Margie Goldstein-Engle (born March 31, 1958) is an American show jumping equestrian, and a 10-time American Grandprix Association Rider of the Year.^[2][3]

Contents 1 Early and personal life 2 Equestrian career 2.1 Halls of Fame 3 See also 4 References 5 External links

Early and personal life

She was born in Wellington, Florida, to Mona (an elementary school principal and teacher) and Irvin Goldstein (an accountant), and is Jewish.^{[2][4][5][6][7][8]} She grew up in her middle class family in South Miami, Florida, with two older brothers.^[7][8][9] In third grade, she became passionate about horses.^[7]

Because her parents could not afford to pay for more than one riding lesson a week for her when she was 9 years old, to obtain more lessons as a young girl she cleaned out stalls and dog kennels in exchange for lessons.^[10][7][11] Less affluent than other riders, she said: "You're maybe not dressed like the other riders. You don't have the custom things, you don't have the top clothing, and a lot of my stuff was hand-me-downs.... It was more cliquish than anything. They'd more snub you than tease you."^[9]

She attended South Miami High School and North Miami Beach High School, and graduated from Florida International University with a 4.0 GPA, majoring in business education.^{[8][9][10][12]} She married her husband, horse veterinarian Steve Engle, in 1995.^[8][13][14]

Equestrian career

Goldstein-Engle won 6 World Cups and 20 Nations Cups between 1984 and 2005.^[2] The FEI (Federation Equestre Internationale) ranked her as high as # 6 all-time.^[2]

In 1987, she recorded a world-record-high jump of 7 feet 8.75 inches (2.36 m).^[15] Speaking of such high jump event, she said: "You have to figure the horse either has a lot of trust, or a lot of heart, because once the wall gets over six and a half feet, it looks more like the side of a building."^[16]

In 1991, a 2,000-pound (910 kg) stallion she was riding at a horse show lost its footing and fell while her left foot was still in a stirrup, crushing every bone in her foot and causing nerve damage.^[9][17] Doctors told her she would likely not ever walk normally again.^[9] The following week, she was again riding, and 10 weeks later she resumed competing.^[17] In 1992, a 1,200-pound (540 kg) horse fell on her at a show, breaking four of her ribs, and trampled her trying to get up, slicing open a foot-long gash in her back from her shoulder blade on down with his steel cleats.^[18] In July 1998, a horse that she was riding stumbled on a jump, and she smashed her face, broke her nose, required 40 stitches, and could only see out of one of her eyes.^[17] She rode the next day.^[17] She has also fractured her left shoulder, and broken her collarbone twice, her arm, her wrist, and two fingers.^[9]

At the 1999 Pan American Games in Winnipeg, she won a silver medal with the U.S. jumping team (riding Alvaretto).^[13][19][20] She competed for the U.S. 2000 Olympics team in Sydney, Australia.^[2][3][19] She won a team gold medal and an individual bronze medal at the 2003 Pan American Games, and a silver medal with the U.S. team in the 2006 World Equestrian Games (riding Quervo Gold).^{[2][20][21][22]}

Goldstein-Engel was the American Grandprix Association’s (AGA) only ten-time Rider of the Year. She won the award in 1989, 1991, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1999/2000, 2000/2001, 2003, 2005, and 2006.^[2][19][23] She was also the was the 1991 American Horse Shows Association Equestrian of the Year.^[20]

She set a record with career show-jumping earnings of more than $4 million dollars (which goes to the owner of the horse).^[8][19] She also set a record in 1991 with most AGA wins on the same horse in the same season; she won five races on Saluut II.^[2][19]

Goldstein-Engle has more than 195 Grand Prix victories, and as of October 2011 she was the all-time career leader in Grand Prix wins.^{[2][20][24][25]} She set a record with most Grand Prix wins in a single season (11; on Saluut II), and with two Grand Prix victories in two days.^{[2][7][13][19]} She also became the first rider to have six horses place in ribbons in a the same Grand Prix, and the first to place 1st-through-5th in a Grand Prix.^[2][13]

Halls of Fame

In 2001, she was honored by the U.S. Jewish Sports Hall of Fame, and in 2009 she was inducted into the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame.^[2][13]

See also

• List of select Jewish equestrians

References

External links

• No Hurdle Too High: The Story of Show Jumper Margie Goldstein Engle, by Mona Pastroff Goldstein, Margie Goldstein Engle, Globe Pequot, 2005, ISBN 1592286836

Persondata
Name	Goldstein-Engle, Margie
Alternative names
Short description	Olympic equestrian
Date of birth	March 31, 1958
Place of birth	Wellington, Florida
Date of death
Place of death