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SIDELINESMAGAZINE | October 2026
t 26, Mackenzie “Max” Suffy has
already achieved the goal she set
for herself as a Junior: to become a
professional rider. But her path to getting
there hasn’t been about chasing the biggest
classes or the fastest route to the top. Instead,
Max has spent years riding as many different
horses as she could, working for experienced
trainers and collecting pieces of their
knowledge along the way.
Now, as head rider for Greg Franklin at
Canterbury Farms in Lexington, Kentucky,
and Ocala, Florida, she’s finding that all those
experiences have prepared her for one of the
parts of the job she enjoys most: developing
young horses and helping them find their
perfect partners.
Growing up in West Milford, New Jersey,
Max started in Western tack because her
mother, Michele Suffy, enjoyed it, but quickly
found a local lesson barn that taught English.
“I’ve literally always ridden horses. My mom
rode pregnant with me, and then the second
I could sit up on my own, I was on a horse,”
Max said.
FINDING HER PATH
Max stayed at that barn, Hidden Acres,
until she was 18, riding hunters, jumpers
and equitation. Owners and trainers Brian
and Jolene Cash, along with Jolene’s father,
George Alala, gave her plenty of opportunities
to ride different horses as she honed her skills.
The first competitive horse she owned was
Booji, who “won everything” until an injury
meant some time off.
Booji wasn’t quite Max’s favorite ride when
she first got him, but her mother had picked
him out and knew she’d figure out how to
ride him. He’d had a head-on collision in a
schooling ring before they bought him, so
riding him around the Cashes’ arena while
they taught lessons was a big learning curve.
“He was dressage broke at some point,
so he had a lot of buttons that I didn’t know
how to push at 13, but he really taught me
how to understand what the correct ways
to ask for some of those movements were,
which I appreciate now that I ride a lot of
green horses because I understand how to
teach it,” Max said.
She leased a horse from the Cashes, also
named Cash, whom she competed in the 3’
Children’s Hunters, for a year while Booji
MACKENZIE
SUFFY
Learning All Along the Way
By Lindsay Berreth • Portraits by Kacy Brown
Mackenzie “Max” Suffy with
Daydream, owned by Canterbury