Pat Smythe - Ponies/Horses

Ponies/Horses

Her first ride was on a small pony known as Bubbles. Although he was her brother's pony, she learned to ride on him but outgrew him eventually. After that, her parents bought her a Dartmoor x Arab pony named Pixie. Pixie was later mated with a stallion and gave birth to a filly called Vicky.

Pat's mother used to be sent polo ponies by a friend of the family, Johnny Traill, to break and be schooled for polo playing. Although they were not hers, when she was older, Pat also helped school and break them.

It was not until Pat's relocation to the Cotswolds that her first taste of showjumping came with Finality. After varied success at gymkhanas and numerous injuries which Finality suffered, Pat was able to compete in her first International Show. Eventually she was asked to join the British team with Colonel Harry Llewellyn, Ruby Holland-Martin, Toby Robeson and Brian Butler in 1947. But the partnership with Finality was not to last. She had been lent to the family by Johnny Traill and, due to financial pressure, had to be sold.

Pat's next horse, the grey mare Carmena, came after the parting with Finality. Although Carmena was a talented and successful horse, Pat admitted that she could never feel the same closeness she had had with Finality.

Shortly after Carmena came another mare, Leona. Leona served Pat well until the death of her mother meant that finances became pretty tight. Being the most valuable horse (at the time), Leona had to be sold.

In 1949, Pat acquired her cheapest horse Prince Hal. Bought as a cheap ex-racehorse, he was initially named Fourtowns. He was renamed Prince Hal after a role of Laurence Olivier.

Tosca was Pat's next purchase. She was born in 1945. It was her most successful partnership after Finality, winning many medals and major showjumping prizes of the day. Tosca was one of the ones she most often competed abroad. After Tosca's retirement from showjumping in the mid 1950s, she bred several foals, including Lucia (by Gay Scot, born 1957), Favourita (by Blue Duster, born 1958), Flamenca (by Tambourin, born 1959), Laurella (by Schapiro, born 1960), Prince Igor (by Shapiro born 1961), Chocolate Soldier (her sixth, by either Bitter Sweet or Cortachy, born 1962), Melba (by Pincola, born 1963), Sir John (by Shapiro, born 1964) and a final foal (name unknown, by Three Card Trick). It may have been the case that after 1965, she produced several more foals.

Lucia herself produced a few foals herself which include Titania (by Schapiro, born 1962), Caruso (by Pinicola, born 1963) and Queen of Hearts (by Three Card Trick, born 1965)

Later showjumping horses included Flanagan (on which she won the Bronze medal in the Team Jumping event at the 1956 Olympic games in Stockholm), Brigadoon, Scorchin, Mr Pollard, Ocean Foam and Telebrae.