Maryland Combined Training Association
With Help from MCTA . . .
MCTA was founded to encourage participation in the sport of eventing in Maryland by both organizing competitions
and educational activities itself and by assisting others in doing so. Over the years since its first horse trials in 1972
many events have sprung up in the Free State, often with direct and indirect help from MCTA. That help has come in
many forms, including advice, equipment, volunteer training, and the chance to gain awareness of and expertise in the
many, many areas involved in putting on a combined training event. In the days before eventing moved south in the
winter two such heavily MCTA-assisted events became mainstays of upper level eventing in the spring, repeatedly
serving as selection trials for whatever international competition U.S. teams were headed to later in the year. They were
the legendary Ship’s Quarters and the Green Spring Valley Hounds Horse Trials.
Sallie (“Petey”) Robertson, whose sons had been McDonogh
School contemporaries of Bruce Davidson, started the SHIP’S
QUARTERS HORSE TRIALS at her Westminster farm in 1973.
They first served as selection trials in 1976 for the Bromont
Olympics, where the U.S. 3-day team won gold team and gold and
silver individual medals. At right, the individual silver medalist,
Mike Plumb, and his groom prepare for dressage at a later SQ
event. [Today Ship’s Quarters Farm, now owned by Dona and John
Ruth, is more oriented to dressage but Dona is the dressage steward
for the MCTA Horse Trials.]
Cappy Jackson photo
Jimmy Wofford was a regular at Ship’s Quarters, here riding his World Championships mount Carawich in dressage
and Rockingham cross country in 1980.
Cappy Jackson photos
Torrance Watkins was another regular at both
Ship’s Quarters and on U.S. teams in the 1980s.
Here she presents an elegant picture against a
backdrop of the SQ pond and surrounding willow trees.
Cappy Jackson photo
Sometimes MCTA members like Karen Karkow, one of
our most successful Young Riders, kept the “big guys”
company at Ship’s Quarters. Here she rides Killarney,
an off-the-track Thoroughbred that she developed
herself, in the Advanced division. Karen won the
Schaurek Trophy in 1976, ’77, and ’78; Killarney was
Horse of the Year in 1980 and ’81.
Kathy Pickel photo
As a McDonogh alumnus,
Ship’s Quarters was always
a bit of a home-coming for
Bruce Davidson (Sr.). Here
he rides Dr. Peaches in 1987
in what must have been, to
judge from the big smile on
his face as he crossed the
finish line, a great cross
country round.
Cappy Jackson photos
* * *
In the 1980s the upper level GREEN SPRING VALLEY HOUNDS HORSE TRIALS were held in Glyndon at the
Master’s Cave Farm of Linda and Peter Green on Geist Road, just a stone’s throw from where the MCTA Horse Trials
are held today. Both founding members of MCTA, Peter was organizer and course designer/builder while Linda helped
with just about everything else. Linda had competed in some of the earliest events in the U.S., while Peter rode for the
team in the 1980s.
Organizer Peter Green winning a Preliminary division at Fair Hill on Ben Vorlich.
At Peter’s GSVH Horse Trials, MCTA member Bonnie Lanphear gallops Dirty Harry on cross country while another member, Merriweather
Hudson (Morris) parts company with China Pin at the Sheep Chute.
Cappy Jackson photos
Also at the Green Spring event, possibly in 1984, Kim Meier flies one of the
huge fences in fine form. Later Kim was MCTA’s leading senior rider in
1993 and ’94, while her horses won high score honors in 1995, ’96, and ’97.
Cappy Jackson photo