Michael Barisone was once celebrated among the world’s leading dressage trainers. Then, in a shocking turn, the former Olympian ambushed his student with a 9mm handgun.
Lauren Kanarek, 45, was living with her boyfriend, Rob Goodwin, on Barisone’s 60-acre horse farm in Long Valley, New Jersey, when she was nearly killed. The gunfire ripped through her lung, severed part of her breast and exited through her back.
Kanarek survived—and eventually lived to recount what happened.
Barisone, now 62, said he had no memory of pulling the trigger. His defense team successfully argued that he had been temporarily insane during the attack.
After spending time in a psychiatric ward, he was released in 2023, avoiding the 10-to-20-year prison sentence he could have faced.
Now, after filing a series of lawsuits, Barisone is mounting an aggressive campaign to repair his reputation.
That effort included inviting a reporter into his home and describing the woman he shot as the “scum of the earth.”
Speaking with The New Yorker, in his kitchen, he compared his story to “a Josh Grisham novel combined with Fatal Attraction combined with Yellowstone.” He called Kanarek “scum of the earth” and portrayed himself as a “terrific guy who snapped, as anyone would have.”
Dressage champion Lauren Kanarek was shot by former Olympic coach Michael Barisone at his 60-acre Hawthorne Hill horse farm in August 2019.
Kanarek was accused of threatening Barisone and his girlfriend while she lived at the farm.
As he defended his actions, Barisone showed the reporter a letter from a stranger who supported him after his acquittal. The writer described Kanarek as a “giant of wickedness” and thanked Barisone, saying that “good people can survive this kind of horrible torment and come out the winner.”
“I will get to Trump,” Barisone said. “And I will get this undone. Watch me.”
He also vowed that, if he could assemble another team and reach a World Cup or World Championship, he would become “the biggest comeback story in the history of sports.”
The 2019 shooting marked the violent climax of a bitter dispute between Barisone and his student and tenant. The case was later featured in the Netflix documentary series Untold: The Shooting at Hawthorne Hill.
Barisone said Kanarek and Goodwin had broken a verbal agreement to leave the property after completing their training. Police were called to the farm several times during the 10 days before the shooting.
Barisone’s attorney said at the time of his client’s indictment that Kanarek and Goodwin threatened and harassed his client, filing a complaint against him to SafeSport-an Olympic and Paralympic anti-abuse organization.
Barisone was charged with attempted murder, before being sensationally acquitted by reason of insanity at trial
Following the shooting, Kanarek was placed in a medically induced coma, and underwent extensive surgery to repair damage to her left lung. She testified on March 31 that Barisone had threatened her and her fiancé while they lived and trained in his farm
Mary Haskins Gray, Barisone’s girlfriend, however, claimed that Kanarek made threats against her and Barisone on social media.
‘We were terrified of what it was building to, and what was coming next,’ she said. ‘[Barisone] was absolutely petrified and terrified.’
Kanarek admits that she did write ‘unflattering’ things online about the pair, she stops short of calling them ‘threats.’
She added that Barisone’s temperament was unpredictable. He could be ‘hilariously funny, charming and nice.’ she said.
‘On other days, Barisone seemed angry, and even screamed at a staff member. At that point, you would know better to keep your distance.’
Kanarek is a United States Dressage Federation and US Equestrian Federation Olympic Bronze Medalist.
