Melanie Smith (equestrian)
Melanie Smith is an equestrian from the United States and Olympic champion.
She was born in Germantown, Tennessee, and grew up on her parents' farm learning to ride horses. She won several amateur competitions and got better at her sport, advancing into the Grand Prix class in 1976. She won many of the top competitions in this class over her long career in show jumping.
She was on the U.S. gold medal team in the Pan American Games in 1979, riding Val de Loire. She qualified for the 1980 Olympics, but did not compete due to the U.S. Olympic Committee's boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow, Russia. She was one of 461 athletes to receive a Congressional Gold Medal instead. She also won a bronze medal in the individual jumping category on Calypso at the Alternate Olympics. She qualified for the Olympics again four years later in 1984, and helped win the first team gold for the U.S. in Olympic Show Jumping, again riding Calypso. In 1980 she placed second in the World Cup on Calypso, and at the 1982 World Cup, she won. She also rode Calypso to help the U.S. team win the Nations Cup and the World Cup in 1983. She won the show jumping triple crown on Calypso, becoming one of two riders to achieve that honor, as well as the only horse/rider team ever to do it.
Smith was inducted into the Show Jumping Hall of Fame in 1988. Her mount, Calypso, is in the Show Jumping Hall of Fame. Smith was included in the Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame in 1998.
She married Lee Taylor in 1985, and lives on Wildwood Farm in Germantown, where she continues to breed thoroughbred horses for show jumping, hunting, and polo. She worked with her husband on the farm until his death in 2005. Since her retirement, Smith has provided commentary for many major televised jumping events and taught horse clinics throughout the United States, including at her own farm. She has judged competitions and designed courses for show jumping. She wrote the book Riding With Life: Lessons from the Horse, about what she has learned over the years living with horses.
Early life and career
Melanie Ainsworth Smith was born on her parents' farm in Germantown, Tennessee on September 23, 1949. She started riding around the age of two and was involved in competition with horses at an early age through her membership in the local Pony Club. Smith's mother ran a riding school at their farm, and she learned to ride from her mother when she was younger. She was trained by George Morris from 1968 to 1970. After this period of training, she went to live in Stonington, Connecticut, on Neil and Helen Eustace's Stillmeadow farm. The Eustaces bought horses from breeders in Europe, and had them delivered to the U.S. for Smith to ride, including Radnor II, Val de Loir, and Calypso.Smith went on to the Grand Prix tour riding Radnor II in 1976 and won the American Grand Prix Lady Rider of the Year Award as well as the Overall Rider of the Year Award. This event led to the AGA's decision to stop giving out their separate Lady Rider of the Year Award. This was because Smith had helped prove, in winning both awards, that a woman could do just as well in the Grand Prix tour as the men who they were competing against for the Overall Award, so there was no need for a separate award. In 1979, the Supersisters trading card set was produced and distributed; one of the cards featured Smith's name and picture. Around the beginning of 1981, Smith was hired as a rider at Windrush Farms, in Litchfield, CT. She stayed on this farm for the rest of her competition years.
Career in show jumping competition
Smith Taylor had two different mounts at the beginning of her career on the Grand Prix Tour, Radnor II, and then Val de Loir. While riding Radnor II, Smith was named to the second reserve position for the 1976 U.S. Olympic Team. Val de Loir won the AGA horse of the year the same year that Smith won the Lady's and Overall Awards, 1978. Smith was riding Val de Loir when she was on the gold medal team in the Pan American games in 1979. Smith switched mounts soon afterwards to a bay Dutch show jumping horse named Calypso. Calypso's sire was a Dutch show jumper as well, named Lucky Boy, who sired several other successful jumpers. Calypso was a smaller horse for show jumping, at just over 16 hands, but together, he and Smith won many competitions during the years they competed in show jumping. Calypso and Smith became the only horse-rider team ever to win all three parts in the triple crown of show jumping competition; The American Invitational, The International Jumping Derby, and the American Gold Cup.In 1980, Smith and Calypso won a bronze medal in the Alternate Olympics. She qualified for the Olympics again four years later in Los Angeles, and it was there that Smith and Calypso helped the United States Equestrian Team win their first Olympic Gold medal in the sport. Calypso had been injured going into this competition, but he still performed spectacularly. In 1980 she placed second in the World Cup on Calypso, and at the 1982 World Cup, she won. She also rode Calypso to help the U.S. team win the Nations Cup and the World Cup in 1983. Smith retired when Windrush Farm, the farm she had been riding for, went bankrupt. She then moved to Tennessee and married Lee Taylor. Calypso was purchased by Smith's husband, Lee Taylor, as a wedding present and brought to their Wildwood Farm in Tennessee to live there in retirement from 1988-2002. Calypso died at age 29 after a long and successful career and a peaceful retirement together with his rider, Smith.