Looking Back
Dedication Rewarded
USHJA honors two Lifetime Achievement Award winners
who made their marks in different ways.
By Nancy Jaffer
D
Diana Dodge: A Great Influence in Hunter Breeding
iana Dodge’s grandmother Anna
accurately predicted her future:
“I hear you have a good horse,
and I know what you will be doing. You
will have a farm in Virginia and breed
horses.”
The phrase “good horse” was an understatement. The chestnut colt to which
she referred went on to be named the Best
Young Horse at the Devon Horse Show
(Pennsylvania) as a 2-year-old. And in her
grandmother’s honor, Dodge gave the son
of Tompion her maiden name, Thomson.
Sir Thomson, who died in 1993, has
passed on his legacy through his outstanding progeny and provided the foundation
of Dodge’s scenic Nokomis Farm in Montpelier Station, Virginia.
Her grandmother, who was married
to one of the originators of the Dodge
Brothers automobile company, certainly
appeared prescient. However, she had
something on which to base her assumption. Dodge’s cousins also made their mark
in breeding, albeit in different disciplines.
Isabel Dodge Sloane was a prominent
Thoroughbred breeder whose Brookemeade
Stable sent out Hall of Famers Cavalcade
and Sword Dancer, among many other stars
of racing. And Frances Dodge van Lennep
of Castleton Farms was famed for her Standardbreds and American Saddlebreds.
“This seems to be, literally, a disease
within the women of the family,” Dodge
chuckled about the happy obsession with
breeding horses.
Her background with horses is eclectic.
Born in London to American parents,
Dodge rode in Windsor Great Park as
a toddler and drove her pony through
downtown Windsor in a governess cart
when she was just 4 or 5 years old.
Back in the States, she took lessons under the guidance of a Russian colonel but
tumbled off her mounts on a regular basis
because her tiny legs didn’t reach the end
of the saddle’s skirt.
When her mother remarried, Dodge
moved to Nevada and lived on a large
cattle ranch, riding Western. At Smith
College (Massachusetts), Dodge rode her
own horse to fulfill the physical education
requirements.
A turning point in her life was a trip to
the 1952 Olympic Games in Helsinki. After that, her interest kindled, she pursued
dressage training with German master
Fritz Stecken. Although she rode while
working in computer programming for
General Electric, her show career ended
after an accident in a hunter class at the
Great Barrington Show in Massachusetts.
She soon switched gears to horse
breeding, and a different passion was
born. She purchased Sir Thomson at the
Keeneland Yearling Sale in 1969 in Kentucky. Virginia trainer Delmar Twyman
accompanied her to the sale, where he and
bloodstock agent Stanley Petter convinced
her to bid $200 above the horse’s limit to secure the eye-catching youngster. That investment turned out to be money well spent.
The striking chestnut stallion was
shown successfully in the hunters by
Delmar’s son, Noel, and Dave Kelley. “Sir
Thomson was the most wonderful thing
you could get. He did everything you ever
asked him to do,” recalled Dodge.
Sir Thomson’s descendents have
brought many honors to Dodge, includ-
b
ing a number of breeders’ awards. Nob
Hill, a grandson of Sir Thomson, sired
the 2011 Sallie B. Wheeler National
Hunter Breeding Champion, Ooh Ah,
owned by Leslie Nelson.
Nancy Peterson, the Director of Riding
at Hollins University in Roanoke, Virginia, has known Dodge most of her life.
Peterson’s young stock by Nob Hill, such
as Dauntless and Delphine, have earned
many top honors, including Virginia
Horse Show Association and International
Hunter Futurity East Coast tricolors.
“Diana has established a great foundation with Sir Thomson, a great American
and Virginia stallion,” said Peterson. “[She]
recognized this horse, allowed him to reach
his full potential and had him ridden by the
top pros in the country and was very successful. Then she bred him very carefully,
and the success has just gone on and on.”
Dodge is eager to share her knowledge
and experience with others, wanting to
pass on a legacy of quality U.S.-bred horses. Meanwhile, she gives back to the industry, serving on the board of the VHSA and
on breeders’ committees for the United
States Equestrian Federation.
“Diana has taught me so much,” said
Peterson. “She’s so willing to give advice
and her opinion, but she’s not opinionated. She always has an opinion, but in a
good way! She wants to encourage people
to do this [breed and show], and encouragement is sometimes hard when you’re
competing. But when someone else wins
and it’s a better horse, she’s right up there
saying, ‘That’s a better horse than mine.’
She’s a great lady and a strong influence
on a lot of people.”
December 2011
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Teresa Ramsay
a
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Looking Back
Georgine ‘Gegi’ Winslett: b
A Lifetime of Loving All Horses
E
cumenical horsewoman Georgine
Winslett, known to everyone as
“Gegi,” not only enjoys vast experience with a variety of breeds and disciplines, but also has compiled an equestrian
skill set that runs from instruction and
show management to course designing,
working as a show secretary, announcing
shows, holding key posts in breed registries,
judging and committee work for a broad
range of organizations.
Given a resume that includes jobs as director of special events for the International Arabian Horse Association, executive
director of the American Morgan Horse
Association and youth director of the Appaloosa Horse Club, as well as running
cutting horse contests and roping classes, a
natural question to ask Winslett is which
of the breeds is her favorite.
Without hesitation, she replied: “Thoroughbreds and Thoroughbred crosses.
What I like about the Thoroughbred is the
heart, the brain and the athleticism.
“I really appreciate the horses that do
their best when you seek their cooperation, rather than having to demand their
obedience.
“That’s the way you have to train them
and work with them,” said Winslett, who
always seeks to establish a partnership.
She also understands the need for
discipline, having begun her riding career
on military posts where her father was
stationed with the Army. While he was in
Tokyo during the Korean War, she joined
the Camp Drake Riding Club, receiving
instruction from former cavalry officers. A
highlight of her show involvement there
was a victory in the 1953 NHK Cup FiveBar Class at the Tokyo Horse Show on the
grounds of the Imperial Palace.
Winslett never had her own horse
until she graduated from college, and
that turned out to be a good thing for her
equestrian education.
“As a kid, growing up with my Dad in
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December 2011
the service and us moving around a lot, I
rode horses the Army owned, [those] that
belonged to other people and horses at riding schools. I was exposed to a lot of different types of horses,” said Winslett, a native
of California who grew up in the West and
logged time in a stock saddle, as well as an
English saddle.
“My desire to ride and be around horses
was much greater than a tunnel-vision desire to only deal in a certain type of horse,”
she explained. “It didn’t matter what kind
he was, I wanted to ride him. That gave me
quite an appreciation for the diversity in
horse sports that we have in this country.”
Winslett began teaching under the
supervision of her instructors in Japan and
continued at Jane Marshall Dillon’s Junior
Equitation School in Virginia while she was
a student at George Washington University
in Washington, D.C. Other teaching jobs
followed.
She branched out by becoming the
secretary of the Washington International
Horse Show, then went on to work for the
American Horse Council and Stadium
Jumping Inc., as well as organizing special
events, such as helping with President Ronald Reagan’s inaugural parade.
United States Show Jumping Coach
George H. Morris has a deep respect for
Winslett and what she stands for. “She’s
a great horse lady,” he said. “She’s a lady
of great principle. She’s privy to all disciplines and different breeds. She’s the ‘Old
School.’”
And then Morris offered the greatest
compliment of all: “She’s a real horsewoman.”
Winslett, who lives in Locust Grove,
Virginia, has always been an active volunteer. Today, her many assignments include
membership on the U.S. Pony Clubs’ National Advisory Panel and the competition
management committee of the United
States Hunter Jumper Association.
She believes in the importance of a
Teresa Ramsay
a
broad perspective for equestrians. “We
need not lose sight of our own interests and
goals, but we also need to be aware of the
other groups, individuals and associations
around us that are part of the same, bigger
industry, because horses do not have as universal an appeal and common knowledge
across the population as they once did,” she
pointed out.
“As we have become more urbanized,
the quantity of people with deep knowledge of horses in general is not as great a
proportion of the total population as it
once was,” Winslett continued. “Our success as individuals and individual associations is going to be predicated somewhat
on our ability to work with and reach out
to the other associations that also deal with
the horses, in an effort to preserve places to
ride and conduct horse shows.”
It’s also important, in her view, to introduce our horses to more people so they
begin to appreciate that there’s much more
to horse sports than what they see at the
Olympic level. Preserving these opportunities is vitally important, she believes.
“Land use, the ability to preserve open
space, is critical to the continued success
of horses as a sport and activity. Any threat
to any piece of it is a threat to all of it,” she
emphasized.
The owner of the Winslett Advantage
and TWA horse shows, Winslett continues
to teach at the age of 75. She also hopes to
ride more on a regular basis. Asked whether
she had any plans for retirement, she answered firmly, “None whatsoever.”