Please join us in honoring
Larry Glefke
at the National Horse Show
Wednesday, November 1st in the Rider’s Lounge
5pm
April 9th, 1947 – September 15th, 2023
Born in Royal Oak Michigan
Larry grew up in Michigan with an early introduction to horses through his father, who was an avid equestrian. Larry worked in his father’s tack store and was a member of the Bloomfield Hunt Club. By his junior year he was already recognized as a top talent.
In the late 60’s and 70’s, Larry was a young professional in both the hunter and jumper arenas, achieving success in both disciplines including jumping 6’9” in a Puissance at Indoors. In the early 70’s, he had his own business in Maryland where he produced and campaigned such horses as Red Road, Warlock, Virginia Slim, Mai Tai and Signed Peace.
Catching the attention Kenny Wheeler, Larry obtained rides at Cismont Manor, including such legends as Bridegroom, Vim, Showdown and Eastern Shore. He quickly achieved national recognition as one of our Country’s top riders. Larry, moved to Virginia by 1974 and rode for Bucky Reynolds, Ed Keen in addition to other well known horsemen and owners. During this time his achievements included Horse of the Year honors, Devon Champions in addition to Washington, Harrisburg, and the National which became business as usual.
In the late 70’s, Larry moved to the Chicago area and rode for Rickey Harris’ Stone Hedge Farm, taking the reins after Ira Zimmerman.
Rickey and Larry both had a strong interest in racehorses. Larry pursued this passion and became a multi stakes winner from 1980 to 1986. Larry earned the title of Leading Percentage Trainer at Arlington Park. He put forth the same passion into the racehorses that he had already established with show horses. In 289 career starts, Larry trained horses to 49 wins, 33 placing (2nd) and 37 shows (3rd) for career winning topping $400,000 and an incredible WPS% of 41%, with an almost 20% win percentage! Some of his best horses were Lucky Legend, Georgeff and Real Devil.
Going back to training show horses, Larry and Trudy started developing ponies, some of those developed and sold during this time including such famous names as Hillcrest Better Than Blue, Buttons and Bows, Strike A Pose, Crystal Vision, Cloth O’Gold and Glenmore Halston. Larry still stayed at the top with larger variety of equines, gathering huge wins and year end titles with horses like Cadet’s Honor and Ever So Dark.
In the 90’s, Lane Change Farm was established and Larry continued to dominate the hunter ring. He developed and showed legendary horses that included Velvet Touch, Elastique and Enchanted. Larry had accumulated a large customer operation and his clients enjoyed great success on horses like Flipside, Hat Trick and Havana.
Larry always exemplified the “show” in Horse Shows. His famous modeling skills added to his gift of making every horse look special and perform beyond its abilities, only increasing his success further.
By the end of the 90’s, Kelley Farmer, the love of Larry’s life, came on board at Lane Change and started taking over riding and training. The partnership had immediate success with horses like Overindulged, Visionary, Social Secretary, Spyglass Hill and Grazy.
By the early 2000’s the focus graduated away from a large client operation to producing, campaigning and selling top Hunters and partnering with a select few investors. The pair set their sights back on the Eastern side of the country, migrating away from winters in California and coming back to winters in Florida. Top contenders at this point included horses like Early Applause, Clearly, Listen, Backstory, Upshot and Scorekeeper. Then along came Larry’s dream class…The Derby. The pair strongly supported the development of the derby classes from coast to coast. These horses included Bases Loaded, Taken, Mythical, Dalliance, Praise, On Q and Red Sky who won repeatedly in addition to continued success with Horse of the Year titles, Devon and all three indoors. Winners of this era included Quotable, Scripted, So To Speak and A Million Reasons. More recently, the horses changed but the titles kept coming…the Derby program saw big new stars like Mindful, Point Being, Baltimore, Kodachrome, Publicized and It’s Me. Division stars like Shameless, Like I Said, Because, Me Too and Consent kept the professional divisions full of quality performers.
Larry will always be remembered as a great rider, passionate trainer, and fierce competitor. His legacy will be carried on by the many people he inspired, mentored or gave a leg up to in the Equine industry. He will be missed by many, and horse showing likely will never be the same.
Larry was preceded in death by his parents David J Glefke and Beverly J Glefke. He is survived by the love of his life Kelley E Farmer, son Mike Glefke, daughter-in-law Anna Lisa Glefke, and grandchild Paul Lawrence “Law” Glefke.
He is also survived by his brother Michael C Glefke and his wife Bonnie K Glefke, nephews Christopher M Glefke and David W Glefke, David’s wife Reilly, and their two children Collins and Briar.
The 140th annual National Horse Show is set to take place at the Kentucky Horse Park October 25 to November 5, 2023. This year’s event will highlight feature classes including:
•$226,000 Longines FEI Jumping World Cup™ Lexington
•$50,000 National Horse Show Hunter Classic
•$25,000 National Horse Show Junior/Amateur Jumper Grand Prix
•ASPCA Maclay National Championship
•Hamel Foundation National Horse Show 3’3” Equitation Championship
•Taylor Harris Insurance Services Adult Equitation Championship
