A former Olympic rider who shot a trainee at his New Jersey farm claims he is preparing for a return to international sports, according to a published report.
Michael Barisone, 62, now operates a dressage farm in Loxahatchee, Florida, about 20 miles from Palm Beach.
The former Olympian was a member of the 2008 Beijing Summer Games squad, records show.
He shot award-winning equestrian Lauren Kanarek at his sprawling Morris County farm in August 2019, according to trial testimony.
Kanarek was struck twice in the chest during the gunfire, police said.
The rider survived the attack and contacted emergency authorities from the scene, recordings show.
“I’ve been shot in the heart,” she told 911 dispatchers.
“Michael Barisone shot me,” she said.
Kanarek later recalled how she could not breathe properly following the gunfire, comparing the sensation to “being in a pool and stuck under a raft that someone was on.”
Barisone also fired a shot at her fiancé, Robert Goodwin, during an ensuing struggle, prosecutors said. The bullet missed him.
The coach had faced up to 60 years in prison for the attempted murders of Kanarek and Goodwin, according to prosecutors.
The trainer was formally charged with two counts of attempted murder and one count of weapon possession, court records show.
During his criminal trial, doctors testified that he was legally insane and suffered from delusions and paranoia.
In April 2022, a jury found him not guilty by reason of insanity, court records show.
Barisone was then sent to a state psychiatric facility, records show.
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In November 2023, he was released from psychiatric state custody, officials said.
He remains permanently banned from equestrian events for shooting Kanarek, officials said.
Yet the former competitor claimed in an interview with the New Yorker that he is readying a return to top-level competition.
“If this goes right, if I can make another team, a World Cup, a world championship, I will be the biggest comeback story in the history of sports,” he said.
The acquitted trainer described himself to the magazine as the true victim of the encounter. He referred to himself as a “terrific guy who snapped” at the pair, whom he called the “scum of the earth.”
“I want my dignity back. I want my reputation back,” he told the publication.
Barisone has never denied that he was the gunman in the August 2019 shooting, according to court filings.
He has since filed a slew of lawsuits, including an action claiming the shooting could have been avoided, records show.
Before the shooting, the horseman had competed in the Grand Prix and won more than 100 competitions, according to sporting records. He also gained widespread attention after teaching television host Stephen Colbert dressage, which he called “horse ballet.”
In his recent interview, the trainer lashed out at the equestrian industry, calling it an “incestuous cesspool of filth” and labeling horse dealers “shysters.”
The dispute that led to the shooting began after Kanarek started training with Barisone in March 2018 at his Florida facility, records show.
Barisone later permitted the trainee and Goodwin to reside in a vacant apartment on his New Jersey property while her lessons continued, according to records.
The living arrangement quickly soured, court records show. Barisone maintained the couple breached an oral agreement requiring them to vacate the residence once the training concluded.
Police officers were dispatched to the farm repeatedly in the 10 days leading up to the shooting, records show.
The coach told the magazine he is now drafting a memoir titled “Pure Evil.”
In the manuscript, Barisone wrote that his former self died during the shooting from “a shattered dream and a broken heart.”
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