An avid horseman since his teens in Pony Club, Mark Weissbecker has achieved success at the highest echelons of international competition by competing, judging and officiating in the sport of Eventing. His accomplishments include placing third at the Rolex Kentucky CCI****, placing eighth at the Burghley CCI**** and winning the USET Fall 3-Day Championships at Fair Hill in 1994 and again in 1998. Mark has represented the U.S. in the Open European Championships in England as a member the USET/USEF Team and was short-listed for the U.S. Olympic Team for Atlanta in 1996.
Mark began riding as a member of the Jericho Forest Pony Club where he succeeded in earning an "A" rating. After graduating from the University of Massachusetts, he managed a restaurant in Old Saybrook, CT, while managing a horse farm in Old Lyme, CT. Holding two full time jobs simultaneously proved to be too much for Mark, so after about a year, he left the restaurant business and stayed with the horses full time - and has never turned back.
Since 1990, Mark has been the head trainer and manager of Winter Book Farm in Southern Pines, North Carolina. Mark also ran Birch Hill Farm in Richmond, Massachusetts, until 2023. He he trains Thoroughbred horses from the race track to become event horses. Those he determines to be better suited for dressage or the hunter/jumper show ring Mark also trains, in order to maximize each horse’s potential in its career.
Mark is a licensed USEF Dressage and Eventing judge; he has had his “r” Dressage rating for 25 years and currently holds his “R” CT (eventing). Mark has also been appointed a USEF Eventing Selector, a position he has held for about 6 years. In the course of his career, Mark has had the privilege of training under the likes of Jack LeGoff and Capt. Mark Phillips thanks to his involvement with the USET and USEF teams. One of Mark’s proudest accomplishments was winning the Team and Individual Inter-Collegiate Championships as a student at UMass, where one of the most famous horsemen of our time, Bert DeNemethy, was the judge.
Winter Book Farm
