Neither the Indio horse show nor the Working Hunters Ladies To Ride class are still in existence, but a snapshot of Peggy Wohlford and her mare After Dark are proof that they were once fixtures on the California show circuit.
When the photo was taken at the Riverside County Date Festival Horse Show (Calif.) in Indio in 1969, Wohlford had just aged out of the juniors at 19 and was starting her amateur career. The pen jump was one that competitors never forgot: a four-sided in-and-out set up in the middle of the ring that could be jumped in any direction.
Why does this particular photo rank among Wohlford’s favorites? “Well, first of all because I’m jumping 4’. You couldn’t pay me enough money to jump 4’ these days!” she said. “In that particular picture, the stars aligned: my equitation looks awesome, her ears are pricked, she’s jumping it great; it is just a really great picture.”
After Dark was a Canadian Thoroughbred who was built more like today’s warmbloods than the Thoroughbreds that were typical of the time. “I think, especially in the working hunter division, she just looked athletic,” recalled Wohlford. “And she jumped that way. She didn’t look fragile; she was powerful, almost a little hard to sit on because she jumped so well.”
Wohlford bought After Dark as an 8-year-old and competed her in the junior hunters, equitation and medal classes as well as in junior jumpers. “I rode her in everything. I mean, back then, you didn’t get to have a horse for each phase of riding. She kind of did it all,” said Wohlford. “She was steady-eddy, easy, never quick, always dependable, and jumped amazing. I mean, that was her biggest claim to fame.”
In the barn, After Dark was called Frieda after the curly-haired Peanut’s character because of her similarly curly mane. Wohlford retired her after competing her for six or seven years in the juniors and amateur owners. She tried unsuccessfully to breed her, and owned the mare until she passed away.
“I have a trophy that I still look at today called the F.B. Hart,” said Wohlford. She and After Dark won the trophy in a medal class where the riders were required to trade horses and jump the course again. “It’s kind of something of pride. She was champion at most of the California shows: Del Mar, Indio. I took her to the Arizona circuit and showed pretty much every major horse show in California. She jumped 4’ like it was nothing—really a spectacular jumper.”
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Wohlford took an eight-year break from horses, beginning with After Dark’s retirement. She also stopped riding to have her two children, Emily and Ben, but she says that the horse bug has never left her for long.
This also isn’t her first run-in with The Chronicle of the Horse. The horse that brought her back into the show ring after her time off was Numbers, who was featured on the cover with Joanie Boyce in the irons on March 25, 1977. Wohlford took out a full-page photo and obituary for the gelding when he died in 2002 at age 33.
She also stays connected with multiple generations of equestrians online. Six years ago, she started scanning photos from her old horse magazines and uploading them to Facebook. It led to the creation of three Facebook groups that celebrate historical equestrians, the most popular of which is the Equestrians From “Back in the Day” group. The 21,700 members, a number that increases daily, post and comment on old photos, bringing up memories of horse shows and past acquaintances.
“It started with posting pictures like [the one of After Dark] and it just took off,” said Wohlford. “The thing I take pride in is that it brought a lot of old horse people back together again, finding each other, reminiscing; it’s a very cool site.”
Wohlford’s husband, Dr. Larry Wohlford, recently retired after running a successful equine veterinary practice in California for 26 years. The Wohlfords traded their 3.5 acres in the San Francisco Bay area for 30 acres of rolling, green fields in Southern Pines (N.C.). “It’s been my childhood dream and we’re lucky enough to be able to do it,” said Wohlford. “We’re kind of kicking back and enjoying the horses.”
Now 64, Wohlford competes in the adult amateur hunters with her Westphalian gelding Coltrane but misses the earlier days of horse showing. “It was just a time when you could own one horse and have them do absolutely everything. I kind of miss those days,” said Wohlford. “I have to say that I’m really happy that I got to do it when I did it, in the very early stages, because it was really fun.”
