Jump for Joy

The phenomenal rise to fame of the reigning Sportswoman of the Year, who followed her triumphant successes in British show-jumping by carrying off for Britain the major prizes in the United States at the end of the year, has aroused the admiration of everyone. Pat Smythe reached the top with no advantages of money or influence; she is London born with no country back-ground, but she has proved herself the greatest British horsewoman of all time, and the only woman who has ever taken on men at the sport on level terms and beaten the lot.

Pat Smythe grew from babyhood in a suburban London home near Richmond Park in which, at the age of four, she first rode a pony. At the age of five she took emphatically to jumping, and by the time she was eight, she had had hundreds of falls and had learnt to school Pixie, her first horse. At ten, she had her first important contest in the 1939 Richmond Horse Show, which Pixie won brilliantly.

The war meant the loss of her home and a move to school in the Cotswolds, providing plenty of opportunity for riding, though her family's reduced circumstances meant a struggle to make ends meet. On the death of her father, she and her mother lived in one room in Bath, and Pat entered adult show-jumping in earnest, between household chores, while her mother taught riding. At eighteen, she was chosen as a member of the British Show-Jumping Team and won her first International cup on Finality, only to be thrown for a triple somersault.

Hardback, dust cover present, good condition. 1954 first edition.