Smythe, Pat (1928–1996)

English horsewoman and show jumper. Name variations: Patricia Smythe. Born near Richmond-upon-Thames, England, in 1928; died in 1996; married Sam Koechlin (a Swiss lawyer), in 1963; children: two daughters.

Won Prince of Wales Cup for England as member of Nations Cup Team (1952); won bronze medal and was first female show jumping team member at Stockholm Olympic Games (1956); won European Ladies' championship (1957, 1961–1963); won British Jumping Derby (1962).

English horsewoman Pat Smythe was born in East Anglia in 1928 and grew up riding ponies in Richmond Park near London. After her father died, the family moved to Gloucester-shire, and she was evacuated during the World War II bombings. As a child, Smythe helped to run her mother's guest house and made deliveries with a pony and trap; she also worked on local farms and schooled horses. When she was 14, Smythe got her first horse, Finality, with which she competed at her initial International Show at White City in 1946. Her performance was so impressive that Harry Llewellyn, head of the British show jumping team, invited her to join the team for their first tour abroad. At the Horse of the Year Show in 1950, Smythe tied for first place with Llewellyn in a famous jump-off.

Smythe went on to win several White City and Harringay Horse of the Year Shows, and competed in European and North American tours. In 1950 in Paris, she set a European record height of 6′10⅞″ for women jumpers. In 1952, Smythe became the first female rider on a Nations Cup Team, and won the Prince of Wales Cup for England. During a ten-year stretch starting that year, she was victorious in a record eight British Show Jumping championships, an accomplishment for which she was made an Officer of the British Empire (OBE). Smythe also won the European Ladies' championship in show jumping four times. In 1956, she became the first female member of an Olympic show jumping team, and won a bronze medal for England at the Stockholm Games. Smythe also won the British Jumping Derby in 1962. After the 1960 Rome Olympics, Smythe retired. She married Swiss lawyer Sam Koechlin in 1963 and had two daughters. After the end of her jumping career, Smythe continued to train horses and published several children's books along with her 1992 autobiography Jumping Life's Fences.

Elizabeth Shostak , freelance writer, Cambridge, Massachusetts