Horse Trainer with Farm in Mattituck Shot Dead

A well-known equestrian, who recently established a Mattituck horse farm, with a friend was killed in his East Setauket home on Tuesday evening.

Ross Reisner, 50, was found shot in the chest in his house on Upper Sheep Pasture Road at about 8:45 p.m. Suffolk County police said the gunshot came through a window. No arrests have been made yet.

"I'm in disbelief," Bobby Ginsberg, of Southampton, his childhood friend and business partner, said on Wednesday. "If somebody would have told me a car accident or a heart attack, or something you hear everyday, maybe it would have been easier. To hear he was murdered — I can't even believe it," he said.

Reisner, who was 50, lived with his longtime partner, Kevin Murray, Ginsberg said. He spoke to Murray after he heard Reisner had been killed from a friend who saw a news report. Ginsberg said Murray is "doing as best as he can. He's trying to hold it all together."

Reisner was a fixture on the Long Island show circuit.

"We're shocked and saddened and horrified by this news," Shanette Barth Cohen, executive director of The Hampton Classic Horse Show, said. "What a loss for Long Island's equestrian community and the greater equestrian community."

Riding horses is how Reisner, a New York City native, and Ginsberg met at 13. Resiner found success in the equitation division as a junior and under the tutelage of Ralph Caristo, a top trainer, at Glenview Stables in Hauppauge. He rode in the Medal-Maclay in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

Reisner established himself as a trainer. "Everybody knew Ross. He always had clients at the horse shows. He was always striving to be a great trainer and rider," Ginsberg said.

He still showed in hunter classes. In recent years, he qualified to ride in the $500,000 HITS Hunter Prix finals. He would also show in Florida at the Winter Equestrian Festival.

Reisner was coming off a successful summer at Maple Lane Farm and was looking forward to a busy fall, Ginsberg said.

"Ross was getting ready to take his clients to the Capital Challenge Horse Show in Maryland," which runs Sept. 28 to Oct. 6, he said. Then Reisner was set to go to the United States Equestrian Federation finals in New Jersey in early October, then to Harrsiburg for the Pennsylvania National Horse Show for Medal finals, and finally to Kentucky for the Maclay finals at the end of October.

"When it came to his training and his riding, he was very serious and dedicated to it — he loved to win," Ginsberg said. "On his downtime, he was just one of the funniest people you'd ever to hope to meet," he said, while also describing his friend as lovable. "He could light up a room. He was sort of the one who was always cracking a joke or saying something that made people laugh. That's how I'm going to remember him."

Roxane Mosleh, Ginsberg's girlfriend, said, "Bobby and the team at Maple Lane Farm are simply devastated. We wait for answers and pray for peace. This is a tragedy and it has shattered us."

"It's hard to even imagine that Ross isn't going to be with us anymore," Ginsberg said.

In addition to Murray, Reisner is survived by his mother, who lives in New York City, and three brothers, according to Ginsberg.