Resilient Smith scores huge US win

Tamie Smith nails the Kentucky win that US eventing has craved, while Britain’s Tom McEwen lands second on Nicola Wilson’s former ride

- PIPPA ROOME

“IT just shows anybody can do anything.”

So said Tamie Smith after winning her first five-star title at Kentucky. Tamie was referring specifically to being a woman in eventing, but her words resonate in so many ways, for this was a truly historic and special victory.

On a personal level, 48-yearold Tamie proves you don’t have to start out as a garlanded young rider with massive backing to make it in our sport. In her late teens – when many of our successful riders are gathering up medals – her horse suffered an injury, her parents divorced and Tamie got pregnant. For 10 years, she was a single mother, working office jobs to make ends meet.

In her late 20s, after meeting her husband Dave Smith, she moved to work with horses. She rode in her first international at 32, by which time she was a mother of two as she also has a son, Tyler, with Dave. Her daughter, Kaylawna Smith-Cook, is now 27 and successful at four-star; she rode the guinea pig test at Kentucky. She is also a mother, making Tamie a five-star winning grandmother, albeit a young one by modern standards.

Tamie may not have learnt to ride like a champion at a young age, but she sure learnt grit.

“In this sport you take a beating and the resilient ones keep coming back for more. You hope one day it pays off and today it did,” she said. “I’m honoured, elated, so excited and a bit speechless, honestly.”

This victory was also huge for US eventing. Not since Phillip Dutton topped the scoreboard in 2008 had America scored a home win at Kentucky, but off the back of a team silver medal at last year’s World Championships, the time was right.