Bruce Springsteen's daughter will be competing in the Tokyo Olympics
Equestrian Jessica Springsteen is heading to the Tokyo Olympics as part of the U.S. show jumping team
Music News Bruce Springsteen
*Begins blasting Bruce Springsteen’s Born In The U.S.A.*
Daughter of rock legend Bruce Springsteen and singer-songwriter Patti Scialfa, Jessica Springsteen, will officially compete in the Tokyo Olympics as a member of the U.S. show jumping team. The 29-year-old equestrian and her 12-year-old horse Don Juan van de Donkhoeve will ride alongside team members McLain Ward, Kent Farrington, and Laura Kraut.
“Been dreaming of this since I can remember! Endless gratitude for my team, friends and family for helping me make this a reality. We are Tokyo bound!!” Jessica shared in an Instagram post. “Honored to be a part of this team with [Kraut, Farrington, and Ward]. There’s no horse in the world I’d rather be on this journey with, thank you Don! You’re my horse of a lifetime. Let’s go USA!”
Jessica, who is the second-eldest Springsteen kid, first began riding horses at the age of four at the Springsteen family farm in Colts Neck, New Jersey. She’s currently one the best riders in the U.S., ranking No. 27 in the world.
“I started riding when I was really little. My mom had always wanted to ride so when we moved to New Jersey she started taking lessons,” she told PEOPLE. “Our home is right across the road from one of the top junior training barns—and I went right into that when I was a teenager.”
This will be Jessica’s first time competing in the Olympics. In 2012, she was an alternate at the London Olympic Games, and failed to make the cut for the Rio Olympics. Her teammate Ward is a three-time Olympic winner, with the Tokyo Games marking his fifth appearances at the games. Kraut and Farrington each have one medal under their belts.
The Tokyo Games begin on July 23, with show jumping taking place on August 6 and August 7.
124 Comments
leveraging the awesome advantage of having incredibly rich and famous parents into a career sitting on the back of a horse while it does stuff in a “sport” that no one watches or cares about
Would you rather she try to be a social media influencer or something else equally obnoxious? This is the first time in my life I’ve heard of Jessica Springsteen. Riding on the back of a horse is pretty low on the annoying list when it comes to the activities of the children of celebrities.
Yeah, doesn’t she realize she has to be an actor or actress like every other offspring of famous people?
Why can’t she be more like Kelly Osbourne?
There are untold kids of rich parents who take up equestrian sports. How many go to the Olympics, especially when they’re nearly 30 years old? Sounds like she has worked very hard and consistently to get herself where she is in a sport that, as you noted, offers little in the way of glory or recognition. So what, exactly, is your problem with her other than she was born luckier than you (or me)?
Let’s no get too worked up about this one. I doubt she had any real advantage. At least some of the other team members probably come from some money. Training and feeding a horse isn’t cheap.
There are no poor equestrians. Regardless, Bruce is certainly rich, but he didn’t start that way, and it’s nice he made his money without making the world a worse place, like most rich people.
“There are no poor equestrians.”Gonna need some sort of proof on that one. I mean their may be the odd middle class or lower person who really loves horses and manages to get access to stables to ride and learn and eventually compete bit the vast majority of people in the sport are rich kids.
I don’t think ‘The Blind Side, But With Horses’ ever happened.
I think that’s a movie isn’t it? If not it should be!
I think that’s the plot of a significant number of books for young girls.
A friend of mine owns stables and there are several kids and adults who can’t afford to buy a horse or to house them. She offers trades in labor for lowered rates or free lessons. So, they’ll show up every day, muck the stables and paddocks, feed and water the horses, etc. You can also just pay for the lessons and ride one of her horses. Some of her clients will allow their horses to be used for lessons and ring time for lowered rates. If you’re a regular for lessons, you can show up at any time and ride a horse for however long you want (as long as one is available—which there usually is). This is in the suburbs of LI,NY and a good chunk of her clientelle is lower to middle class with, of course many upper class. Many of her students have become champion jumpers.
She loves horses and wants to share that with as many people as possible and tries to make it as accessible as possible to anyone who holds an interest.
And she does all while reinforcing class boundaries to boot!
There are poor equestrians who work their way up in the way you describe, but they’re about as rare as poor indie bands.
My niece is an avid rider and has even won a few contests. Her family is solidly blue collar middle class, but the stable where she rides makes accomodations for anyone who loves horses, regardless of ability to pay. Equestrian sports are definately heavily subsidized by the rich, but they seem to be remarkably generous about providing access to those from lower means. Contrast this to, let’s say, golf, rowing or sailing.
An ex-girlfriend of mine was from a somewhat well-off family. She wasn’t into the whole equestrian thing, but her younger sister was, and that sister’s boyfriend was literally the stable boy, who had that job as a way to be around and ride horses while being of modest means.
There are no poor equestians…only normal rich and uber wealthy for the most part.
In all fairness, with the possible exception of Soccer, there is NO sport that the majority of the world watches or cares about.
I wanna watch her shoot a bullet through the horses head in the skeet shooting category.
what a weird thing to say.
horseback riding is actually pretty physically taxing; it’s not like sitting in a chair. also agreed that there are no poor equestrians.
Bruce’s other kid is a firefighter in Jersey City. If there’s one rich white guy who isn’t raising his children to be priviliged assholes, it’s the Boss.
There are few things douchier than claiming that a sport isn’t actually a sport and literally nobody likes it because you personally don’t. I don’t give a shit about equestrian sports myself, and I don’t think I know anyone who especially does, and yes, of course it’s pretty damned elitist, but never in a million years would I say that nobody at all likes it, or that it requires no skill, because both of those things are very obviously untrue.
Racing, jumping and other displays of horse skills are sports activities that are almost as old as the classic track and field sports, wrestling and other physical contests that were an important part of ancient cultures. And most Olympic sports, outside of basketball, soccer, tennis — the major pro sports — aren’t given much attention except around Olympic time. I’d say show jumping is closer to middle of the pack in popularity than to the bottom, because horse culture is big in general and show jumping attracts casual viewers — people who don’t necessarily seek it out, but will watch to see if the rider succeed or take a nasty spill. People like that car crash aspect of the sport. It’s amazing to watch a horse smoothly leap over obstacles, its scary when horse and rider don’t make it and crash heavily on the ground. It’s good spectacle.
Weirdly hateful comment. She’s not hurting anyone. She’s worked hard to achieve something she’s passionate about. Think of all the other shitty things she could have done with all that money and privilege. Going to the Olympics is hardly the worst.
LMOA. I’d love to see you try show jumping and then trying say it’s not a sport. It takes some serious physical fitness and skill.
It’s always easy to spot the people who have never ridden a horse, because they’re always complaining that riders just sit there while the horse does all the work.I’d love to see you try an Olympic showjumping course. You’d be on the ground after the first jump. Maybe even before.
LOL
I’m just amazed the Olympics are happening. I don’t recall hearing Japan’s infection rates have gone down and their vaccination rates went up drastically.So this feels like an enormous risk if they continue.
Maybe she’s Bruce’s least favourite daughter?
Maybe she’s “Tougher Than The Rest”?
So have they gone down? Absolutely. I would think the decision to host them lies with Japan and the decision to have people live in attendance in crowds is up to Japan and the people attending. If they ARE having them, then I don’t blame someone who has trained their whole life for deciding to attend or not. That is up to them. If you or I choose to watch any of the events it will be on TV from many thousands of miles away.
They’ve gone down down down down. They’re gone down down down down. What were we talking about?
There also won’t be any unhinged parties and orgies like in past Olympics, so the most you can get out of this is a medal. Olympians today have the silliest priorities.
At this point I think both the Olympic commission and the nation of Japan just want it done and over with.
Real Sports on HBO reported the IOC basically got most countries to move athletes to the front of the vaccine line – and over the neediest recipients. In India, 5% of the population is vaccinated – and 100% of the Olympic athletes. Good times.
So between this and doing a podcast with the former president of the United States, Bruce officially has to stop writing songs about the struggles of the working class now, right?
Horse shit costs so much money he’s probably just forwarding his Spotify checks directly to the equestrian center.
Where do you get your horse shit? I just go to The AV Club!
Eh, I prefer free-range, non-GMO horse shit.
Lol. Like anyone makes enough money off Spotify to get checks
He’s got horses. The cost of horse shit should be very much a positive for the Springsteens.
You can bet Jessica wont be turning her back to the US flag when she wins gold!
It’s like he’s a rich man in a poor man’s shirt!
Well he never had a proper job, and for years couldn’t drive. And the man Born to Run lives a few miles from the house he grew up in. It’s almost like he has an imagination or something.
Springsteen actually jokes about that at the beginning of his Broadway show (a phrase 20 y.o. me would never believe BTW). I think he also mentions it in his book.
I know. 😉
It’s almost like Jim Thompson didn’t kill a bunch of people and bang his sister
Did you guys know horses can’t breath through their mouths or vomit? It’s amazing they’re alive, evolutionary wise.
I knew about the vomiting, not the breathing.
Didn’t they evolve in the same way pugs evolved?
More or less. When we first domesticated horses, they were too small to ride.
Do you know they’re absolutely murderous cunts, and we were right to replace them with the automobile?Seriously. They’re bastards.
They certainly can be.
Rodents also can’t vomit. I learned this when I had a rat problem and learned far more about rodents than I ever wanted to.
So like rats?
Alcoholic horses have THE WORST hangovers.
Wait, what? How can this be true?
It’s true. It’s called obligate nasal breathing. All rodents and ungulates are obligate nasal breathers. The soft palate blocks access to their airway. It allows them to breathe, and also potentially smell predators, while continually eating. Horses and most rodents are particularly restricted in that they effectively can’t gasp for air at all. Other ungulates can to a degree, but if they are trying to then they are in some kind of extremely serious medical distress.
It is kind of amazing and possible troubling that an animal evolved to be exactly what pre-industrial humans needed for transportation.
Champs like us, Baby, we were born to canter
WHOA there! Enough with those jokes! I say thee NEIGH!
Have you had your filly?
well, they blew up the horse girl in tokyo last night
What happened to Busy Phillips?
I’ll miss Alison Brie
Let’s just hope there are no accidents during the competition. I’d imagine that when all those cameras turn on there’s a risk of the horse being blinded by the light.
Ah, the Blue-Collar Noo Joizey hero……has a daughter doing the sports of the aristocracy.
Tally-ho and view-haloo!
Yeah next we are gonna find out his other kids are into Polo, Sailing and Ice Hockey.
You think that last one is a joke but have you seen how much it costs to put a kid in peewee hockey?
Yes. My youngest is gearing up for hockey and it’s BRUTAL.
It’s the hours I couldn’t handle. When I was quite little, I had a friend who was in that whole “real hockey on the ice from the time you’re practically a toddler because that’s where real players come from” thing, and I remember being genuinely horrified at how early the guy had to get up. I had only ever been awake for such unholy times of day while in the midst of hyper Christmas anticipation.
What would you suggest he should do differently? Tell his daughter she can’t pursue her passion because he needs to protect his image? Stop playing songs he wrote fifty years ago when he was a blue collar Jersey nobody? Springsteen seems like one of the most authentic mainstream artists of the 20th century and made a lot of money on nothing but sheer talent, doesn’t really bother me that his daughter is able to pursue her love of horses (other than being kinda jealous.) At least she’s not another completely unfunny trust-fund comedian or something.
I served Springsteen at my work one time, and he had an almost childlike enthusiasm that seemed very endearing and genuine. I gave him his food and he was like, “Is that my burger? It looks awesome!! Thanks so much for everything!”
One my friends worked security at Gillette Stadium and worked the green rooms for shows, which were basically the locker room areas repurposed, for years. He worked the night Springsteen finished the E Street Band 2016 tour by completing ignoring the Foxborough curfew and they played for an amazing four fucking hours straight. He’s seen a ton of big bands and stars and normally they don’t even make eye contact, maybe a nod, and they never come out of the backstage area. You walk them in and you walk them out. In this case Springsteen repeatedly walked in and out of the area and just basically joked around and shot the shit with all the workers. He’s a Giants fan, and knows how much of a sore spot the Giants are to Pats fans, and got into straight up football talk, to the point my buddy forgot he was even talking to Bruce Springsteen. Van Zandt wandered around for a bit too and Bruce joked that everyone was wondering why that dude from the Sopranos is here and Van Zandt was like, the drummer from Conan O’Brien is here too. My buddy argued with Bruce Springsteen about the Tyree catch like he was just another dude at the bar because that’s just what it felt like. He wasn’t even a Springsteen fan but after that night he became one. Springsteen just seemed like he was genuinely interested in talking to people. Nothing performative, just a sincere guy. After the show there was much hooting and hollering and high fives with security as the band went directly backstage about how much they rocked it, but no stopping for small talk. Hopefully to get Bruce an IV. I have no idea how a, I think around 65 year old at that time, can sweat seemingly more fluid than a human should hold. Long story short, Springsteen seems like a genuinely cool guy. He hangs around his NJ home and the outlying neighborhoods and is just a regular fixture there. No security or anything.
I don’t recall suggesting I was gonna suggest anything.
I read the headline and subheadline too quickly and I saw “Equestrian Jessica Springsteen” and my first thought was “here we go with the stupid first names for kids.”Then I realized she was Jessica Springsteen, an Equestrian Competitor. Good luck to her it’s not an easy sport.
You don’t think folks call her “Equestrian Jessica”?
“Equiy” to her friends
Equestrian Jessica rode in from the Olympics last night. With bruised arms and broken rhythm and a beat up old Buick, but dressed just like dynamite.
I mean… I’m sure they do now.
It’s barely a sport. The only reason they have riders is because horses are too stupid to do what dogs can do on their own.
I can’t imagine giving a shit if something is “really a sport” or not.
Dogs don’t do it on their own. There is someone telling what to do.
Got a wife and kids in Baltimore, Jack
deducted stabling fees, got a tax refund back.
It’s nice to get an article about the sucess of a regular blue-collar working class family.
I realize there is a certain amount of skill involved with forcing an animal to do all the hard work. I guess since they compete, it’s a “sport” but this seems a lot less about the triumph of the human spirit and will, than literally every other Olympic sport. Maybe I misunderstand the Olympics.
I’d be more impressed if she did judo, like Kevin’s sister from Home Alone:Judo is as real as it gets. No Home Alone money bought her that black belt, and no relationship to a massively famous person got her a spot on the mat at the Olympics.
I want to see her do Judo vs the Horse!!
There have been some attempts to establish Horse Judo as mainstream sport, but the high number of competitors that were crushed or stomped to death was an inhibiting factor. Plus horses hate wearing that uniform and don’t know how to tie the belt.
Will there be numchuks?!
Sweep the leg, then, bam, horse is dead.
well, Home Alone $$$ undoubtedly made it easier for her to pursue a sport where you don’t get paid money to do it. That’s something that’s common for a lot of the less glamorous Olympic sports, it’s like being anything in this world, it’s easier if there’s money.
True, but trust me: you *earn* every belt promotion and competition placement in judo. It’s hard physical and mental work. I’m sure riding a horse isn’t the easiest thing to do, but personal, first hand experience tells me there’s no comparison.
I am not disagreeing with you at all and have no experience in either judo or horse riding, but your personal first hand experience sounds to only be in judo, so you can’t really definitively say there’s no comparison unless you’ve done both things.
I’ve done both things.
Huh alright. The phrasing of your prior comment very much made it sound like you did not have much, if any, horse riding experience.
Tell us about the horse-riding experience. Like, actual equestrian riding for a period of time, or the pony ride at a carnival?
Once again, my husband has been to judo worlds, and he totally respects competitive riders. I broke my back in a fall form a horse. It’s tough and dangerous.
Let’s see. My husband is a former national judo champion, and I ride horses (and do triathlons). We both respect the other’s sport and fully admit it takes skill.
One of my home town’s modest claims to fame is a world-class show jumping facility, Spruce Meadows. I’ve seen the Boss there watching his daughter twice, in the VIP section, which I peered into form the peanut gallery.
Bruce Springsteen’s daughter will simulate giving head while singing Sparks songs in the Tokyo Olympics
This is what happens when you allow snow boarding in the Olympic games, now everything is a sport!!
Just remember; next time you read an article about the ‘sanctity’ of the Olympics with regards to events like Skateboarding or Bowling, the ‘sport’ of “Letting a Horse Carry Your Ass Around” has been with us for more than a century.
What I’m saying is, fuck that shit.
Letting a horse carry your ass around predates the Olympics. By which I mean the original Olympics, not the cheesy spectacle of commercialized nationalism that de Coubertin thought up.
i mean technically horsemanship has ALWAYS been a rich persons game so fuck em
Horsemanship is one of the oldest competitive sports in human history.
I’d love to see you try and get a horse to “carry your ass around” a jumping course. I’m seeing your ass on the ground before or during the first jump.
Spoken like someone who’s clearly never ridden a horse.You’re also off on your timeline by a few millenia. The first equestrian events were added in 680 BC and quickly expanded. They were the most prestigious (because of the cost of horse ownership), as well as the main way that women could participate in the male-dominated games. Women could enter horses, and as owners had the right to choose the (male) riders for their horses.
It’s particularly humorous when someone decides to be an utter pedant and misses the point completely.
Equestrian made it’s modern Olympic debut in the 1900 games. You want to jerk off to ancient horse history, be my guest, but it has as much relevance to this discussion as the original goddamn Marathon.
Where would I find such an article, in the Strawman Journal?
This just in, resurfaced tweets from Don Juan van de Donkhoeve’s twitter account show him supporting the Jan. 6 insurrection and that he follows both Paul brothers
And that he’d never allow anyone he sired to date a horse of a different color.
Even worse, she’s a pinto.
whoa-oo black beauty, blam de lam
I just came here to say that Bruce looks exceptional for a 71 year old in that photo.
I had a girlfriend that was involved in the show-jumping world in New Jersey about a dozen years ago, when Jessica Springsteen was getting her start. Jessica and her parents were very nice, down-to-earth people. Which was a breath of fresh air in the equestrian world, which has a lot of rich, entitled lunatics.
Bruce should have gone with the 55mm Randolphs.
Why do we have an article fussing over the name of a particular equestrian team member when the REAL star of the article is the epically monikered ‘Don Juan van de Donkhoeve”!?
I refuse to believe that’s a real name.
It will be a pedigree name, not something she named it. They generally don’t make any sense. She probably calls it Sparky or something.
Kent Farrington sounds like the snobby rich character from a 80’s comedy.
You just know she didn’t do track because of the “Born to Run” comments hacks like Barsanti would have deposited, hot and steaming, onto any article about her.
I guess we’re lucky you found a photo with her in it…