LIFE & TIMES of Marylanders, continued...
out to Eutawville, South Carolina, with Diana Dodge as her traveling companion, to work for Eddie O’Brien. Besides learning from trainer O’Brien, there was Matt O’Grady, Bobby Dot- ter and later Mike Smithwick in Maryland. While it was a rare sight to see a female trainer at the race track, she followed her dreams of obtaining her trainer’s license in multiple states to run her own stable which she called Rain- bow Valley. She was known for doing all of her own stable work, including ponying and gal- loping her own horses. Besides training T oroughbreds, she spent
many years standing stallions, Exceedingly, Dreyfus II, Fast Gray, Mr. Wilford, Watauga Lake, Short Crissy and Hail Emperor. She also bred ponies to small T oroughbred stallions to create T oroughbred cross show pony prospects which formed an extension of the racing stable called Rainbow Valley Ponies. As the trainer of these ponies, and her daughter Missy as the rider, they showed on the local CCEHSA, BCHSA and HCHSA circuits. Martha had a passion for rehabbing and/or
retraining off -the-track T oroughbreds using a treadmill. Many of the horses she worked with throughout the years went on to successful ca- reers as a result of her nurturing. T e Maryland Horse published an article titled
“Martha Green Accomplishes Much Unaided” written by Snowden Carter in March of 1981. My mom’s quote probably says it best: “I’m hard to get along with. T ere’s only one way to do things, and that’s my way…But I’m doing what I want to do, and that’s what counts.”
Elizabeth Madlener Submitted by Sandra Newkirk Well-known dressage com-
petitor, trainer, and judge, Eliz- abeth Madlener, died on Janu- ary 9 in Martinsburg, West Virginia. She was 81. Elizabeth’s military family
moved to Stuttgart, Germany, in 1956 where at 13 she was able to take her emerging love of riding to amazing heights. She began lessons with Mar- tin Holzel at his riding school, studying both dressage and jumping and trained alongside his teenaged son, Manfred Holzel who ultimately became the most important con- temporary contributor to the German rider and trainer education system. Here she realized her earliest dream of buying a horse of her own, and with Frauenjager, she competed successfully in local competitions. Culminating her three years in Germany as an emerging equestrian star, she was awarded the German Riding Medal in Bronze, a fi rst ever for a foreign citizen. Upon her return to the U.S., she continued to participate in hunter/jumper competitions
while she attended Old Dominion University in Virginia. She began a career as a high school English and Home Economics teacher and soon married and moved to Seattle, Washington. It was there that she found coach Klaus Albin who rekindled her interest in dressage. She bought two raw race track T oroughbreds, her iconic Gulliver, and Johnathan Swift. With these two horses she attended the 1977 screening trials in California and came to the attention of USET dressage coach Col. Bengt Ljunquist. She moved east in 1978 on the invitation of
Col. Ljungquist to further her training and in October won the Fourth Level Regional Dres- sage Championship and the Reserve U.S. Dres- sage Champion, Fourth Level. She soon compet- ed through Grand Prix and was long-listed for the U.S. Dressage Equestrian Team from 1977– 1980. She earned AHSA, USDF, USET Horse of the Year Awards from 1976 through 1983. From here on, Elizabeth also invested herself in teaching and judging, establishing successful training facilities in Virginia and Maryland. She was appointed to key committees being estab- lished to structure dressage competitions in the U.S., and was chief organizer and executor of the fi rst USDF Instructor Certifi cation Program. She joined the fi rst cadre of the USDF Learn- er Judges program and ultimately achieved the rank of “S” judge. In 1993 she was asked to be the civilian coordinator of equestrian events at the Clinton Presidential Inaugural Parade. Elizabeth became a major contributor in the
U.S. to the understanding of classical princi- ples of dressage, writing many articles for the magazines EQUUS, Dres- sage Today, the Chronicle of the Horse, Practical Horse- man and others. In 1984, Elizabeth un-
Elizabeth Madlener
dertook to save the iconic Potomac Horse Center following the fi nancial col- lapse of its previous owner. She renamed the facil- ity T e Maryland Horse Center and centered her energies on reestablishing the prestige of the Cen- ter as a training mecca for
young career equestrians. Her Career School was awarded formal academic accreditation in 1985. PVDA recognized the importance of the Center by holding major championships at the facility. Her leading position in the area was refl ected as she was elected President of the Maryland Horse Council, a body focused on furthering the horse industry. Elizabeth also wanted the Center to be a welcoming community hub for the general public and of- fered structured riding lessons for all ages. She opened the Center for July 4th
and Christmas activities which brought the whole community 54 | FEBRUARY 2023 | THE EQUIERY YOUR MARYLAND HORSE COUNCIL PUBLICATION
into the many faceted world of horses. James W. Casey of West Virginia died on
January 8. He was 92 years old and still training horses out of Charles Town. His son James M. Casey, DVM, is a member of the North Ameri- can Association of Racetrack Veterinarians and is based out of Laurel Park. James W. Casey logged over 1,000 wins as
a trainer with $23,441,901 in career earnings. While also having a “day job” as a school teacher for many years, he and his wife Eleanor Mac- Donald managed their racing operation out of Taylor Mountain Farm, which became one of the most successful T oroughbred breeding op- erations in West Virginia. T e farm is currently managed by their son John Allen Casey. Casey’s top horse by earnings was Russell
Road, who won the Dancing Court Stakes at Laurel Park in 2010. Russell Road went on to earn $2,001,586 in an eight-year career on the track, winning 31 times.
Jean Horst Gore Submitted by Chris Donovan Jean Horst Gore, age
87, passed on January 8. Gore was a lifetime equestrian born into a family that was not “horsey.” She
com-
peted in the hunter ring, fox hunted with Elkridge Harford, and evented.
Gore had
been heavily involved with the sport of eventing,
competing
in her fi rst event in the early 1970s. She competed at the Preliminary level in the ‘80s and ‘90s on the horses Chore- ographer, High Design, and Run Around Sue. Gore last competed with her homebred
Jean Herst Gore
Faith, Choreographer’s daughter, at the Novice and Beginner Novice levels for 14 years until 2018. After retiring from 70 years of compet- ing, Gore donated Faith to a disabled children’s charity as a therapy horse. In 2012, Gore and High Design joined the
U.S. Dressage Federation’s Century Club and in 2015, she was awarded a U.S. Eventing Asso- ciation’s Vintage Cup. You can read more about Gore’s Century Cup ride at: https://equiery. com/maryland-riders-enter-the-century-club/ Gore was active with Maryland Combined
Training Association (MCTA) from its found- ing as a volunteer, mentor, and board member, including being president
1980 - 1981. She
was the steady rudder that has enabled MCTA to be known as one of the oldest active event- ing associations in the country. If Gore was not competing, she could be found volunteering as a fence judge or prize giver at Area II events.
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