By Canadian Horse Journal 

July 13, 2023 — The once celebrated United States Show Jumping Olympian, Rich Fellers, has pleaded guilty to engaging in illicit sex with a minor.

Fellers was arrested on June 7, 2021, after an indictment by a Grand Jury for four counts of second-degree sexual abuse of Maggie Kehring, a former student. Kehring was only 17 at the time the allegations of misconduct took place in her apartment in Portland, Oregon. The U.S. Center for SafeSport issued Fellers an interim suspension on February 9, 2021, along with his wife Shelley Fellers.

Fellers competed in the 2012 London Olympic Games as a U.S. Team Rider and is the 2012 Jumping World Cup Champion. He is best known for his partnership with the Irish Sport Horse gelding, Flexible, with whom he competed in seven World Cup Finals. Before their suspensions, Rich and Shelley ran Rich Fellers LLC out of Timberline Meadows in Oregon city. Shelley filed for divorce in March, 2021.

Fellers had been released on bail after being booked by the Tualatin Police Department in Oregon, June 7, 2021, into the Washington County Jail. (Photo Courtesy of the Washington County Jail)

Fellers, now 63, appeared in a federal court in Oregon on July 11 where he pleaded guilty to interstate travel to engage in illicit sex with a minor, and on July 12 he again appeared in court in Washington County District Court in Oregon, and pleaded guilty to two state charges of second-degree child abuse. U.S. media has reported that Fellers has agreed to be sentenced to four years in prison on the federal charges, as well as a 30-month concurrent sentence on the state charges. As part of a plea agreement between state and federal attorneys, he is expected to serve his sentence in a medium-security federal prison instead of an Oregon state penitentiary.  

As reported in Chronicle of the Horse, Russell Prince, attorney for Kehring, stated: “For all the horrible people in the equestrian community that said terrible things about Maggie, I think there can be no clearer vindication for what she’s been through [than this],” said Russell Prince, attorney for Kehring. “There’s quite a few people who owe Maggie Kehring and the Kehring family some heartfelt apologies.”

- With files from Horse & Hound, The Chronicle of the Horse  

Photo: Rich Fellers competing on Flexible in the 2010 BMO Nations’ Cup at Spruce Meadows, Alberta. Credit: Robin Duncan Photography