It was a Facebook status update shared and laughed at quite a bit on Dec. 1. Lexey Hall’s tongue-in-cheek declaration of her newly acquired amateur status put a humorous spin on her new U.S. Equestrian Federation designation. She’s no stranger to a Facebook post gone viral—two years ago, a photo of her “equestrian GPS” spread all over the internet.

 
Showing isn’t anything new to Hall, of Huntington, N.Y.; she’s been doing it her whole life. But showing as an amateur will be novel for her. Her life has changed a lot in the last 18 months, as she gave up her professional riding job, got married, and had a son. She decided to take the opportunity of the maternity leave from jumping to sit out from showing for the year needed to qualify for USEF amateur status.

“I’ve worked for a lot of people and I’ve done everything. I’ve been the groom, I’ve been the rider, I’ve gotten to show a little bit. I’ve done everything,” Hall said. “And now for the first time in my life, I’m kind of a customer. I do miss being in the barn every day on one hand, but on the other hand, I love being a mom. I gave up one thing but I gained an amazing thing.”

Hall grew up riding on Long Island but didn’t have a huge, multi-horse junior career. “I rode at a local barn as a kid and mostly rode a lot of green horses and Thoroughbreds off the track,” she said. “I had a nice older horse we paid not much money for—like, under $2,000—and I did the adult hunters on him, but I didn’t have fancy junior horses. I filled the equitation classes as a kid on a jumper who bucked. I was that kid.”

After she aged out of the junior divisions, Hall started working for Heritage Farm in 2006. She spent two years there as a barn manager and prep rider, getting horses ready to show.

“After Heritage, I went to photography school for a year and came out with a whole new career,” she said. “I didn’t ride for that year, but after that I got various jobs on the show circuit. My last job was for John and Stephanie Ingram; I was again a barn manager and schooling rider. They were amazing people to work for, but I met my husband and moved back to Long Island.”

Hall married trainer Michael Zukerman, who runs Lynnewood Stables in Brookville, N.Y., in November 2013 and had her son, Zachary, in August of this year. She had started her business, Lexey Hall Photography, as a sideline during her time as a horse professional, but she’s now focused on building it into a full-time career. She focuses on portraits, especially of riders and their horses.

And what about that equestrian GPS she’s famous for? That all started in 2012, when she was riding for the Ingram family and showing their Superman in the 3’6” performance division at the FTI Winter Equestrian Festival.

“There was a handy round one day, and I had sat there and watched the handy round for an hour. [Trainer] Tom Wright was warming me up in the schooling area and he was trying to help me figure something out about Superman specifically,” she said.

“I’m a little bit dyslexic when it comes to left and right, and he was telling me to use my left leg and pull my right rein and use my right leg and pull my left rein, and in my brain everything got a little mixed up.

“So I went in the ring and despite having watched an hour of the class, I jumped fence 1, then fence 3 and then 2. I came out of the ring and was disappointed in myself and upset.

“The next day when I got on to show, my co-worker Dominique Vonsiatsky had drawn me that little map. It’s hard to see because there’s a fold at the top of the paper, but it says “Help For The Dys-Lexey.”

The groom tucked it under Superman’s bridle and I thought it was the funniest thing and took a picture. I put it on Facebook and a few days later it went all around the world—it was everywhere!”

Lexey Hall showing Superman the day of the GPS incident. Photo by The Book LLC

Lexey Hall and the Ingram family’s Hush. Photo by Mark Denman