History of the Radnor Hunt Horse Trials
Excerpted from USEA Events A-Z: Radnor Hunt Horse Trials by Jessica Duffy
The Radnor Hunt Horse Trials takes place each year in mid-October and has roots dating back to the 1960s when a group of intrepid riders founded a horse trials at the Maryland farm of Joannah Glass, District Commissioner of the Middletown Pony Club. The group included Glass, Lana duPont Wright, the first woman to compete in Olympic three-day eventing and member of the silver medal winning team at the Olympic Games in Tokyo, and Kathleen Crompton, Master of Foxhounds for the Vicmead Hunt.
Glass later returned to her hometown of Malvern and in 1972, Glass and Sheila Hundt helped the Radnor Hunt Pony Club host its first horse trials, an event that would grow into the prestigious Radnor Hunt International Three-Day Event.
“The Radnor Hunt Three-Day Event was the premier event in the country and nearly every American Olympic rider cut their teeth at Radnor,” said Richard Walkup, prior Chairman of the Radnor Three-Day Event and current Chair of the Radnor Hunt Horse Trials.”
Over the years, the Radnor Hunt International Three-Day Event hosted the Junior and Young Rider Championships and Intermediate Championships in addition to international one- and two-star levels and national Preliminary, Intermediate, and Advanced divisions. The tradition continued until 2006, the last year that Radnor offered international divisions.
After it became untenable to host international divisions, a group, spearheaded by the iconic Marilyn Taylor, got together to pivot the International Three-Day Event to the Radnor Hunt Horse Trials of today, which started by hosting Training and Novice levels, added Preliminary in 2016 and added Modified in 2022.
