With $23 Million Difference, Steve Jobs’ Widow Emulated Bill Gates’ Splurge for Equestrian Daughter in 2016

One of the best-known sports in the world, equestrianism requires a high degree of mastery, balance, and connection between the rider and the horse. It has a long tradition of being included in the Olympic Games, as well. It’s a difficult sport since horses are expensive, and it takes time and practice to train an animal to move stealthily, and form a strong relationship with it.

In 2016, Laurene Powell Jobs, Steve Jobs’s widow, purchased a 3.5-acre property on Quarter Horse Road in Wellington, Florida. Bill Gates, the founder of Apple’s archrival Microsoft, also owned a full street in the equestrian center of Florida at the time.

Why this caused such a buzz during those times?

Both Microsoft and Apple, with their own operating systems and gadgets, have a history of providing consumers with excellent products. When Steve Jobs revealed the iPhone at an Apple event on January 9, 2009, the company quickly became the dominant force in Silicon Valley. The unveiling of this groundbreaking device, which has since become synonymous with the ancestor of all smartphones, stunned the global community. Yet, it seemed that the Jobs and Gates families were also attempting to compete in the equestrian world by investing massive sums of money in their own businesses. Bill Gates bought his daughter Jennifer Gates a street in the Florida village of Wellington for $35 million, which at the time indeed made headlines.

ALSO READ – Steve Jobs and Bill Gates Daughters are Also Arch Rivals but Not in the World of Tech

Laurene Powell Jobs, a former investment banker who married Apple founder Steve Jobs in 1991 and had three children with him, purchased a 3.5-acre property on Quarter Horse Trail in Wellington, Florida. The Daily Mail reports that Laurene paid $15.3 million in cash for the property so that her daughter Eve Jobs could engage in the sport. In addition, Stuart Roffman, who sold his property to Bill Gates, said that Laurene visited him to talk about the properties. He also talks about how Laurene wanted to buy his neighbor’s property that was close to Bill Gates’ property, saying, “She came to visit one of my other properties. She wanted something where her and Steve’s daughter Eve could practice horse jumping. She ended up not buying mine but she did get the one near Gates’.”

New-age rivalry through equestrian sports

Rather than competing in the technological arena, the legacies of the iconic founders seem to be fighting for supremacy in equestrian sports. Eve, at 24, and Jennifer, at 26, both have a deep passion for, and extensive experience in horse riding. Although their fathers battled to provide the world with the greatest technology, their rivalry continued, albeit in a different form.

There have been several instances of Jennifer Gates and Eve Jobs competing against one another at the same events. Eve has had 395 starts, and won 13 of them. In 2019, Eve rode her horse Venue D’fees Des Hazalles to a 15th-place finish at the FEI World Cup Final in Gothenburg. In the 2019 Pan American Games in Lima, Peru, she also won bronze with her squad. Out of 582 total starts, Jennifer Gates has 5 victories. Her team won gold at the 2014 Youth Continental and Regional Championships thanks to her efforts with the horse Lord Levisto. The two daughters of the world’s top technology leaders are evidently carving their own niche.

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What do you think of this new-age rivalry? Let us know in the comment section.