Pat Smythe

{{short description|British equestrian (1928–1996)}} {{other people|Pat Smythe|Patrick Smythe (disambiguation)}} {{multiple issues| {{more citations needed|date=March 2019}} {{original research|date=March 2019}} }} {{Use British English|date=August 2014}} {{Use dmy dates|date=August 2020}} {{Infobox sportsperson | name=Pat Smythe<br /><small>{{nobold|{{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|OBE}}}}</small> | image= Pat Smythe 1954.jpg | caption = Smythe in 1954 | birth_date = 22 November 1928 | birth_place = East Sheen, London, UK<ref name=sr>{{cite Sports-Reference |url=https://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/athletes/sm/pat-smythe-1.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200418040605/https://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/athletes/sm/pat-smythe-1.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=18 April 2020 |title=Pat Smythe Olympic Results |accessdate=22 April 2020}}</ref> | death_date = 27 February 1996 (aged 67) | death_place = Miserden, Gloucestershire, England | height = 170 cm | weight =67 kg | sport = Equestrian |show-medals=yes | medaltemplates= {{MedalCountry|{{GBR}}}} {{MedalOlympics}} {{MedalBronze | 1956 Stockholm | Jumping team}} }}

'''Patricia Rosemary "Pat" Smythe''', OBE (22 November 1928 – 27 February 1996) was a British show jumper. She competed at the 1956 and 1960 Summer Olympics, winning a team bronze medal in 1956. She served as president of the British Show Jumping Association in 1983–86 and as vice-president from 1987 to 1996. She also wrote many books on equestrian themes, largely for children.<ref name=obit/>

==Early years== Pat Smythe was the last of three children, the other two being Dicky and Ronald Smythe. Dicky died from pneumonia at the age of four. Her parents were Eric Hamilton Smythe and Frances Monica Curtoys, who were born in the early 1900s. She was born in East Sheen and at the age of 10 moved to the Cotswolds. Later she was a boarder at Talbot Heath School in Bournemouth.<ref name=obit/>

Pat nearly died from diphtheria when she was five. Although she recovered fully she had to learn to walk again. Hardship and suffering were to feature predominantly throughout her professional and personal life. Her father died of ill health when she was in her late teens and her mother was killed in a car crash<ref name=obit/> when she was 23.

==War years== World War II brought times of separation for the family. In early 1940 her father was sent to Biskra in Algeria to heal his arthritis. Her mother remained in London working for the Red Cross. During her father's return from North Africa via France, her mother set out to find him. They met in Aix-les-Bains and escaped from France under enemy fire on the very last boat leaving Bordeaux just before the Germans occupied the city.

Pat was sent to the Cotswolds for her safety, along with her pony, Pixie. Her brother had been evacuated to Newquay, in Cornwall, where his school had relocated. It was during that time, while getting into an entanglement with several horses, that Pat met the King in the middle of the road. Unaware of who he was, she said to the driver of the car he was travelling in ''Shut up! Can't you see I'm trying to get these horses out of the road!''

In early 1941 Pat and her parents moved to a house in the Cotswolds. Her parents had to work hard and their house was turned into a guesthouse. In 1949, after her father's death, Pat and her mother moved again, to Miserden, in the Cotswolds.

==Ponies and horses== Smythe's 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/Arab-cross pony named Pixie. Pat competed on Pixie at local shows, even after Pixie was blinded in one eye in an accident. Pixie was later mated and gave birth to a filly, who was named 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 move to the Cotswolds that her first taste of showjumping came with Finality. After varied success at gymkhanas and the numerous injuries 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, owing to financial pressure, had to be sold.

Pat's next horse was the grey mare Carmena. 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 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 an ex-racehorse, he was initially named Fourtowns.

Tosca was Pat's next purchase. She had been born in 1945. It was her most successful partnership after Finality, with them winning many medals and major showjumping prizes of the day. Tosca was one of the horses she most often competed with 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 be that after 1965 she produced several more foals.

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

Later showjumpers 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.

In 1963 she married her childhood friend Sam Koechlin, a Swiss lawyer, businessman and Olympic equestrian, and became '''Patricia Koechlin-Smythe'''. This meant a move to Switzerland and it was there that many of her books, including several pony books for children, were written. She accompanied Sam on business trips all around the world until he died in 1985, whereupon she moved back to the Cotswolds.

They had two daughters. Smythe died from a heart disease aged 67.<ref name=obit>Tim Fitzgeorge-Parker (29 February 1996) [https://www.independent.co.uk/incoming/obituary-pat-smythe-5626406.html OBITUARY : Pat Smythe]. ''The Independent''</ref>

==Books== Smythe was a prolific writer and by the age of 30 had published 11 books.<ref name=obit/>

===Biographies=== *''Flanagan My Friend'' *{{cite book|title=Joies du jumping (Jump for joy)|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YVlBNQAACAAJ|year=1955|publisher=Éditions Corrêa}} **English version ''Jump for Joy: Pat Smythe's Story''. E. P. Dutton, New York (1955) *''Jumping Around the World'' *''Leaping Life's Fences'' *{{cite book|title=One Jump Ahead|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=D1XiAAAAMAAJ|year=1956|publisher=Cassell}} *''Tosca and Lucia'' *''Florian's Farmyard''

==={{anchor|Non-fiction books}}Nonfiction=== *{{cite book|title=A Pony for Pleasure|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dXQIAgAACAAJ|year=1970|publisher=Stephen Greene Press|isbn=978-0-8289-0108-6}} *''Bred to Jump'' *''Horses And Places'' *{{cite book|title=Pat Smythe's Book of Horses|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=k9hFAAAAMAAJ|year=1955|publisher=Cassell}} *{{cite book|title=Pony Problems|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ek1t0SNm0fIC|date=1971|publisher=S. Greene Press|isbn=978-0-8289-0131-4}} *{{cite book|title=Show Jumping|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WOkOAQAAMAAJ|year=1968|publisher=A. S. Barnes}}<ref>Although these books are instruction manuals, they are also biographical since they contain anecdotes about her horses.</ref>

==={{anchor|Fiction books}}Fiction===

===={{anchor|Three Jays Series}}Three Jays series==== *{{cite book|title=Jacqueline Rides for a Fall|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nHwNAQAAIAAJ|year=1957|publisher=Cassell}} *''Three Jays Against The Clock'' (Cassel, 1958) *''Three Jays on Holiday'' (Cassel, 1958) *''Three Jays Go To Town'' (Cassel, 1959) *''Three Jays Over The Border'' (Cassel, 1960) *''Three Jays Go To Rome'' (Cassel, 1960) *''Three Jays Lend A Hand'' (Cassel, 1961)

===={{anchor|Adventure Series}}Adventure series==== *''A Swiss Adventure '' (Cassell, 1970) {{ISBN|9780304936762}} *''A Spanish Adventure '' (Cassell, 1971) {{ISBN|9780304938483}} *''A Cotswold Adventure '' (Cassell, 1973) {{ISBN|978-0304291878}}

==References== {{reflist}}

==External links== {{Commons category|Pat Smythe}} *[http://www.collectingbooksandmagazines.com/ponybook.html An article about collecting old pony books, featuring her fictional work] *[https://web.archive.org/web/20151220210727/http://www.janebadgerbooks.co.uk/ponybooksfile2/patsmythe.html An website with cover scans of her books, including information about her literary work and her life] *[http://www.ponymadbooklovers.co.uk/page14.html A website with cover scans of her fictional work] *[http://www.zip.com.au/~lnbdds/home/patsmythe.htm An article about her career and background on family] *[http://www.olympics.org.uk/gallerysimple.aspx?PH=57&type=&Page=6&game=&AT=&sport=0 A picture of her receiving her bronze medal in the 1956 Olympics]

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Smythe, Pat}} Category:1928 births Category:1996 deaths Category:English female equestrians Category:Olympic equestrians for Great Britain Category:British female equestrians Category:Equestrians at the 1956 Summer Olympics Category:Equestrians at the 1960 Summer Olympics Category:Olympic bronze medallists for Great Britain Category:British show jumping riders Category:English children's writers Category:Olympic medalists in equestrian Category:People educated at Talbot Heath School Category:Pony books Category:British women children's writers Category:20th-century English writers Category:20th-century English women writers Category:Medalists at the 1956 Summer Olympics Category:20th-century English sportswomen Category:Officers of the Order of the British Empire