History Blog

In 1226, Sir Ulrich von Lichtenstein set out on an epic quest: To win the affections of the woman he loved, he rode from Venice to Vienna, lancing 307 adversaries in tournaments along the way. Fast forward 785 years, and notions of chivalry have changed; affections are conveyed via quick text messages and adversaries unfriended with the subtle click of a mouse. Just what remains for a modern knight to do?

In 1806, Henry Clay, the Kentucky senator and fabled “Great Compromiser” best known for delaying the Civil War, made an investment most horsemen would quickly impugn: he and four friends went in on the purchase of a lame, one-eyed, 18-year-old Thoroughbred stallion for the whopping sum of $5,500 (about $75,500 today).

Imagine waking up in the dorms of the U.S. Equestrian Team’s Gladstone, N.J., headquarters in the 1960s. In the room next door is your teammate, Frank Chapot, a legend in the making. Waiting for you in the aisle way of the adjacent barn is your coach, the venerable Bertalan de Némethy, eager to steal your stirrups away.

Women’s History Month is coming to a close, and as I looked through my blog archives, I realized I hadn’t done a thorough job of featuring women in all disciplines. There are just so many impressive women out there who have paved the way for us that I got caught up in the process.

Just as the public has taken to saying we should celebrate our love for our significant others every day—not just on February 14—we should constantly be giving credit to our fore-equestrians (women and men) when it’s due; not just during a month that they’re in the spotlight.

I was home in Kentucky this weekend for my sister’s baby shower. Twenty women together, celebrating the birth of another female (yes, I’m going to have a little niece!). As I gazed around the room, which was decorated appropriately in pink, pink, pink, I thought about what kind of world my niece will be living in. She will be free to do as she pleases and nurtured by my sister and my family to be exactly who she wants to be.

A couple of weeks ago, I gracefully parted ways with my mount while out foxhunting. I walked away hardly worse for the wear, less the pain of having to take flack from most of the men in the hunt. Whether my argument of not riding in my own tack, or having a headache, or ducking to avoid a branch were viable (but also pathetic) excuses, maybe the real problem was that I had sacrificed my seat, as was the male consensus—and as we all know, once that goes, so do you.

On March 5, Beezie Madden and Margie Engle joined fellow show jumping stars McLain Ward and Mario Deslauriers as the United States celebrated a win in the FTI Winter Equestrian Festival’s $75,000 Nations Cup. Engle was a member of the team that went to the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games, and Madden has ridden in two Olympics for the United States—scoring a team gold in Athens in 2004 and a team gold and individual bronze in 2008 in Hong Kong.