ITHACA, N.Y. – Longtime horseman Todd Karn has been named head equestrian coach at Cornell University it was announced today by Andy Noel, the Meakem*Smith Director of Athletics and Physical Education.

"Todd brings decades of riding, teaching and judging at the national level to Cornell,” Noel said. “Our women will be well served by a professional of this rank and reputation."

Karn has most recently served as the President and Manager of the Hunt Valley Farm LLC in Cazenovia, N.Y., where he offered advanced horse and rider training for competitors in the East Coast's top rated United States Equestrian Federation (USEF)Rated Horse Shows. He produced the Zone II Amateur Owner Champion and an ASPCA Maclay finalist at the Kentucky Horse Park National Horse Show in 2011.

With tremendous experience as a rider, trainer and judge, Karn has been a known name on the equestrian scene for more than four decades. He started his training and teaching career at the Ox Ridge Hunt Club in Darien, Conn., back in the early 1980s.

Prior to coaching, Karn was a national class rider, competing at the 1976 ASPCA Maclay Finals at Madison Square Garden in New York City and the AHSA Medal Finals in Harrisburg, Pa. He has since had great success in the ring, successfully saddling Chital to the Zone I Regular Working Hunter championship in 1983, good for a third place finish nationally, and also riding the top hunter, the Wizard, to the championship in the Regular Conformation at the Devon Horse Show in 1994. Karn still competes to this day.

Karn has also excelled as a judge, receiving his large “R” license in 1985. Since that time, he has judged numerous shows, including the Middleburg Nationals, Hampton Classic and the New England Medal Finals. He has been asked to judge the 2012 Washington International Equitation Finals with Olympian McLain Ward and James Clapperton.

Karn becomes the fifth equestrian coach in Big Red history and follows successful 13-year tenure of Chris Mitchell, who resigned this past spring to become the Director of Riding at Randolph College. Mitchell's Big Red teams won 27 collegiate horse show crowns, including four Ivy League show titles, and he coached 11 riders to national championship invitations, including one rider who earned a spot as reserve national champion.