So who were the other two?

[Weatherford]

I read this in the obituary for Georganna “Georgie” Prime Davis and I was particularly interested in the qualifying for the USET Three Day Team in 1958… and wondered who the other two women were. Anyone know?

She sounds like an interesting woman - wish I had known her…

[B]GEORGANNA PRIME DAVIS

[/B]Georganna “Georgie” Prime Davis died peacefully at home in the Genesee Valley on Oct. 25 after a long struggle with declining health. She was 78.

Originally from Lake Placid, N.Y., [B]Mrs. Davis was the first woman to qualify for the U.S. Equestrian Team’s three-day event team. In 1958, at the Wofford Cup Qualifying Event held in Colorado Springs, Colo., Mrs. Davis finished second on Gipsy Hill, behind a Polish citizen and professional trainer who was not eligible for selection.

However, international rules held that Olympic three-day eventing was “too rigorous” for females, so Mrs. Davis and the next three finishers (all women) were passed over for selection.

A September 1958 Sports Illustrated article entitled “An Embarrassment Of Ladies” pointed out that “The Wofford was both a surprise and a success … but all the wrong people won… The red-faced USET Selection Committee had to reach down to fifth place to get their first candidate for the team.”[/B]

[more online…]

Denny? Mike Page? Do either of you know??

[AllyCat]

[QUOTE=Weatherford;2824977]
I read this in the obituary for Georganna “Georgie” Prime Davis and I was particularly interested in the qualifying for the USET Three Day Team in 1958… and wondered who the other two women were. Anyone know?

She sounds like an interesting woman - wish I had known her…

Denny? Mike Page? Do either of you know??[/QUOTE]

Guessing…Lana DuPont? Wish I knew. Can’t wait to see the answers.

[Weatherford]

No - Lana was later ('64 Olympics)…

[lizathenag]

Could have been Lana

Even though she didn’t “make” the team until 1964.
or possibly
Iris Winthrop or Margaret Lindsay Warden who were early supporters.

great question.

[sofiethewonderhorse]

I think Jan Camlin (do not know her maiden name) was one of these riders.

[RiverBendPol]

Oh gosh…She’s the mother of The Dreamy Mike Davis, who operated on my young horse 2 weeks ago.

I’m guessing Ann Getchell could answer this question-She knows everything and Iris is her sister.

[denny]

The person who would know is Gen Burton.

[subk]

[QUOTE=lizathenag;2825104]
Even though she didn’t “make” the team until 1964.
or possibly
Iris Winthrop or Margaret Lindsay Warden who were early supporters.

great question.[/QUOTE]

Miss Warden did much for horse sports, but was not herself a rider.

Hunters Rest (or her mom) might know.

[RAyers]

While I don’t know the time, I do know my old jumper trainer, Dion Dana, rode in the national 3-day when it was at the Broadmoor in the Springs and she was the same age as Georganna. Could she be one?

Reed

[retreadeventer]

Yes General would know, however, he told me at Fair Hill he was moving from Virginia out to Arizona to live with his daughter and son in law. He was to take a plane out Saturday following Fair Hill to live there…sorry to see him go!

[BigRuss1996]

I called Bruce tonight and he also didn’t know but suggested maybe Donnan (Sharp) or maybe Mike (Plumb) would know. He also suggest Gen Burton. So… I may track Donnan and/or Mike down and try to find out if either of them know. He said if he had to guess his guess would also be Lana as being one of them.

I love a good trivia question : )

[QUOTE=denny;2825688]
The person who would know is Gen Burton.[/QUOTE]

[Snapdragon]

BigRuss, I hope you can track this down! I’m really curious. Would love to read the SI article about it–tried to track it down via Google, but no luck.

Maybe someone attending the convention, or someone from USEA with access to archives (are there archives?), will know!

Also interesting that the convention is at the Broadmoor Hotel this year, almost 50 years since the women made their mark at the very same place! I’m assuming the hotel has been updated since then!

So the 1958 Woffard Cup was the qualifier for the Pan Am team. This is copied from the USEA website:

It was apparently pretty slow going in those early years. “Although the USET and the AHSA both set up three-day event committees,” said Fritz, “these committees’ main interest was the three-day event as the basis of developing riders and horses for international competition.” There wasn’t much in the way of a grass roots structure in the '50’s and for those of us eventing today, there would have been an even more dramatic difference. Women were considered incapable of riding at the Olympic level, so the huge statistical preponderance of women in the sport hadn’t yet taken place. Not until 1964, when Lana du Pont (now Lana Wright) became the first woman to ride in an Olympic three-day event at Tokyo, did that flood gate open.

Fritz continues, “In 1955, the USET sponsored the first National Three-Day Championship for the Wofford Cup, named for the first president of the USET, Colonel John (Gyp) Wofford. The event was held in the Metamora Hunt area north of Detroit. National USET Championships were held at the Broadmoor Hotel in Colorado Springs in 1957 and 1958, the latter being the selection trial for the 1959 Pan American Games.”

[RiverBendPol]

Ann reports her sister, Iris, their dad and Col. Appleton were among the pioneers of eventing in the late '50’s, early '60’s but that Gen. Burton would be the man with the info.

[TB_or_not_TB]

Conflicting data?

According to the Olympic Games Website, women were allowed to compete in eventing in 1952, not 1958 like the article quoted states. Of course, wikipedia states that it was 1964 that the first women competed.

[Snapdragon]

I finally found this quote:

Women have long been active in equestrian competition, but were not admitted to the Olympics until 1952 in dressage, until 1956 in jumping and until 1964 in the 3-day event;

Apparently, Lis Hartel was the first woman to compete in an equestrian event in the Olympics (1952), in dressage. She won a silver medal, and had had polio earlier in her life!

[BigRuss1996]

Lana duPont Wright, who has medaled in three different Olympic equestrian disciplines, has been riding all her life. In 1964 Lana made Olympic history when she was selected as the first woman to ever compete in the Equestrian three-day event at the Olympic Games in Tokyo. While her trip was less than perfect, she says of her ride and her mount, Mr. Wister, “we proved that a woman could get around an Olympic cross country course, and nobody could have said that we looked feminine at the finish.” Later, Lana decided to focus on combined driving events, and in 1991 was part of the gold medal winning team in the pairs division at the World Championships. Today Lana has again changed her discipline to endurance riding and most recently placed second in the USET Endurance 100 mile Championship aboard Nathan’s Pride. Lana has been able to combine her love of driving, eventing and endurance riding by establishing and helping run the Fair Hill International Weekend, one of the premier competition stops in the U.S.

[QUOTE=TB or not TB?;2829016]
According to the Olympic Games Website, women were allowed to compete in eventing in 1952, not 1958 like the article quoted states. Of course, wikipedia states that it was 1964 that the first women competed. [/QUOTE]

[Snapdragon]

Apparently, I can’t stop myself. First woman from the U.S. to compete in equestrian in the Olympics:

SCARBOROUGH-ON-HUDSON, N. Y., April 1 – Marjorie Haines of Gwynedd Valley, Pa., was selected today as the first woman rider ever to compete for this country in an Olympic equestrian event. The 24-year-old costume designer was one of four named for the 1952 Olympic dressage team at the completion of final tryouts staged in the picturesque show-ring at Sleepy Hollow Country Club.

[Jeannette_formerly_ponygyrl]

unfootnoted, but

I emailed a fairly reputable source who suggests it was Patricia Galvin who was third, and either Marion Ritchie or Jan Karabin was 4th.
Galvin apparently went on to ride on the 1960 dressage team.

The “Polish professional” mentioned in the obituary was actually Lithuanian, and was my first riding instructor (and Kim Severson’s I’m told), Jonas Irbinskas.

I often read obituaries like this and think it would be great if they ran a couple years earlier, before the person died, so there could be an opportunity for us to meet these interesting elders. Wouldn’t that be cool?

[fooler]

[QUOTE=TB or not TB?;2829016]
According to the Olympic Games Website, women were allowed to compete in eventing in 1952, not 1958 like the article quoted states. Of course, wikipedia states that it was 1964 that the first women competed. [/QUOTE]

This is the quote from the website:
Prior to 1952, equestrian sports events during the Olympics were contested by men only. In fact, the riders had to be military athletes. More specifically, they had to be commissioned officers. In 1952 these restrictions were lifted, and since then men and women have competed against each other in the equestrian events.

All it states is that civilian men and women were allowed to complete in Olympic equestrian events beginning in 1952 - no specific displine noted. So I guess one could infer that men and women began competing in all 3 recognized displines in 1952. Badly stated paragraph.

[Divasgroom]

[QUOTE=Jeannette, formerly ponygyrl;2829449]
I emailed a fairly reputable source who suggests it was Patricia Galvin who was third, and either Marion Ritchie or Jan Karabin was 4th.
Galvin apparently went on to ride on the 1960 dressage team.

The “Polish professional” mentioned in the obituary was actually Lithuanian, and was my first riding instructor (and Kim Severson’s I’m told), Jonas Irbinskas.

I often read obituaries like this and think it would be great if they ran a couple years earlier, before the person died, so there could be an opportunity for us to meet these interesting elders. Wouldn’t that be cool?[/QUOTE]

I emailed a very reliable source and got the same information plus the fact that Trish is now the Princess de la Tour Dauvignon and living in France. Hmmmm, same source?