There aren’t many web resources on Pat Smythe; it’s best to rely on the books she wrote at the height of her fame and her later autobiography, Leaping Life’s Fences. British Pathé has come up trumps however, and you can spend hours there looking for footage of all the showjumping greats from Stroller to Mr …
Tag Archives: Pat Smythe
Manmade Monsters and Chimeras
There are periodic mutterings about the discovery of a “speed gene” for Thoroughbreds, but on the whole, horse racing takes what is now a refreshingly old-fashioned approach to horse breeding: no artificial insemination, no embryo transfer and absolutely no cloning. The sire and dam actually have to meet in person, as it were, and the …
Can You Hold Out Till Christmas?
Jane Badger has a preview of her new stock of pony books here, with scans of covers, including Veronica Westlake’s Ten Pound Pony (price, not weight) and Dream Pony by J S Goodall. I’m intrigued by the latter, which has, Jane says, “a gypsy girl heroine, rather than a gypsy out to steal your pony.” …
Rivals
Pat Smythe competing at Madison Square Gardens on Prince Hal in 1952 (I think) against Shirley Thomas of Canada. No hard feelings between Shirley and Pat – they later went on a road trip from Ottowa to Florida together, hunting with every pack they could find on the way.