PrintThe man who became the first American to win an Olympic individual equestrian gold medal'at Mexico City in 1968'recalls the gifts and foibles of the horse with whom he jumped into history.
I first learned of Snowbound's existence from the lips of John (later Sir John) Galvin, the Australian-born benefactor of both the U.S. and Irish equestrian teams.
"I've found a horse that might make you a useful hack," he told me, using a vernacular term he often employed. Like many of his remarks, this one proved a considerable understatement.
John Galvin was a very canny judge of a horse, and when he reckoned that a given individual was of Olympic caliber, he wasn't often wrong. A number of Galvin's choices were made available to the U.S. Equestrian Team and shown in the name of his American-born wife or his daughter, Trish (later the Princess de la Tour d'Auvergne).
These included Rath Patrick, who won the dressage Grand Prix at Aachen (Germany) in 1960 with Trish in the saddle and was sixth in the 1960 Rome Olympics; Night Owl, who won Aachen's show jumping grand prix the same year with George Morris riding; the giant San Lucas, Frank Chapot's Olympic mount in 1964 and 1968, when he placed fourth; and the astonishing little express train, Grasshopper, Michael Page's mount in the 1960 and 1964 Olympic three-day event. Yes, John Galvin knew an Olympic horse when he saw one.
Galvin had happened upon Snowbound in California, where he was being shown as a green working hunter by Sacramento's famous all-round champion rider Barbara Worth Oakford, also a noted dealer and instructor. She had rescued Snowbound from the Northern California flat-racing circuit, where it had taken him three years to "break his maiden."
This lackluster career could probably be attributed to temperament, for Snowbound was easily upset, didn't like company, and never hesitated to let you know how he felt about things.
More serious, however, was his history of tendon trouble, which was to continue to bother him on and off long after his racing career had been forgotten.
Snowbound was so gymnastic, and so extravagant with his jumping abilities, that he would sometimes simply place more strain on his physical structure than it could tolerate. He also struggled in off footing, being a horse who jumped more through spring than through strength.
Snowbound arrived at the USET's headquarters in Gladstone, N.J., in early 1964, at age 6, and both Bert de Némethy, the USET's legendary coach, and I really liked him the moment we laid eyes on him.
He was a dark bay gelding, measuring a scant 16.1 hands high, by Hail Victory out of Gay Alvena (hence his registered name, Gay Vic). He was a paternal grandson of the celebrated English sire Blenheim II, and had jumping blood on both sides of his pedigree.
Snowbound had a short back, a beautiful shoulder and a lot of "front," and he moved like the natural athlete he was, with a stride that could extend almost effortlessly. Galvin was first struck by the ease with which Snowbound could leave out strides on hunter courses, and basically he could do it wherever and whenever he felt like it.
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