Farbenfroh
Farbenfroh, winner of the individual gold medal at the 2002 World Dressage Championships and of the team gold medal at the 2000 Olympics with Germany’s Nadine Capellmann, was humanely destroyed on Dec. 19 following surgery on a front leg. He was 14.
The surgery had been successful, but the chestnut gelding by Freudentaenzer became fractious in the recovery stall as he awoke from the anesthesia and fractured the head of his femur (see Dec. 31, p. 41).
Farbenfroh finished fourth individually at the 2000 Olympics and also won the individual bronze medal at the 2001 European Championships. He’d suffered a series of injuries since winning the World Championship and shown only sporadically.
For nine years Farbenfroh was a member of Capellmann’s barn at Wuerselen, a suburb of Aachen, and their relationship had become much more than an athletic partnership.
“I am incredibly sad,” Capellmann said after his death. “Genius and madness lay close together,” she added. “Some days, he just did not want to work, was easily distracted, looked left, looked right. On other days this outstanding horse seemed to explode in his movements, was highly concentrated on his exercises, delighting audience and judges, just like he did at [the 2002 World Championships]. Thank you, Farbenfroh.”
Patricia L. Motion
Show rider and foxhunter Patricia L. “Patty” Motion of Bluemont, Va., died on Dec. 9 after a long battle with breast cancer. She was 43.
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Mrs. Motion enjoyed numerous successes in the show ring and on the steeplechase course, and she was an active member of the Piedmont Fox Hounds (Va.). More recently she could be found cheering on her daughters, Elizabeth (Lillibet) and Mary, at local horse shows.
Until her death, she was the manager of Neverland Stables in Bluemont. She was a life member of the U.S. Equestrian Federation.
Her riding mentors included Joanne McClelland, Meg and Gary Gardener, Kathy Doyle-Newman, Trip Hoffman, Dorothy Smithwick, Mrs. A.C. Randolph, Jeannie Rofe and John Ward.
In addition to her daughters, Mrs. Motion is survived by her husband, Andrew Motion, and her mother, Jean Busby.
Memorial donations may be made to the Lombardi Cancer Center at Georgetown University Hospital, Office of Development, Research Building, Suite E501, 3970 Reservoir Rd., Washington, DC 20057 or to the Piedmont Environmental Council, P.O. Box 460, Warrenton, VA 20188.
Michelle M. Holliday
Michelle Marie Holliday, formerly of Anderson, S.C., died Sunday Dec. 19 from complications following a heart attack. She was 50.
Ms. Holliday was a writer and an equine artist. She was a member of the Equine Art Guild and the Anderson Artist Guild. She was a cardiovascular nurse for more than 30 years and the former president of the Anderson County Humane Society.
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Ms. Holliday is survived by her father, James F. Holliday and his wife, Anna Mae Holliday, of Anderson, S.C.; brothers James K. Holliday of Albuquerque, N.M., John F. Holliday of Wichita, Kan., David M. Holliday of Anderson, S.C., and Thomas P. Holliday of Fairplay, S.C.; sister Mary Ellen Neely of Hope Mills, N.C.; and an aunt, Patricia Sabo of Warren, Mich.
Memorial contributions may be made to The Anderson County Humane Society, P.O. Box 2262, Anderson, S.C. 29622, or The American Heart Association, Memorials and Tribute Processing Center, P.O. Box 5216, Glen Allen, VA 23058, or St. Joseph Catholic Church, 1303 McLees Road, Anderson, SC 29621.
Abraham L. Waintrob
Noted equestrian photographer Abraham L. (Budd) Waintrob died on Dec. 30. He was 96.
A life-long New Yorker, Mr. Waintrob worked closely with his late brother Sidney and late sister Lilian, under the logo of Budd Studio. During the later half of the 20th century, they followed the horse show circuit. He and Sid, known as “The Boys,” traveled the world taking pictures of horses, horse shows, Thoroughbreds, jumpers and European royalty.
The real story of The Boys was their part-time passion–photographing artists. These artists, unknown at the time, were unable to afford their portraits, which were all shot in available natural light. They paid the brothers for their stunning black-and-white portraits with their (now priceless) works of art.
Artists of the highest caliber, such as Alexander Calder, Henry Moore, Edward Hopper, Sonia Delaunay, Hans Hartung, Eduardo Chillida, Georgia O’Keefe and Giacometti came their way.
“The horses were our financial base, and the artists were our avocation,” said Mr. Waintrob in a 2002 interview. Their work is also part of the permanent collections at the Smithsonian Institution’s Archives of American Art and the National Portrait Gallery.
His grand nephew, David Stekert, who continues the work of Budd Studio and directs the Waintrob Project for the Visual Arts, Inc., is Mr. Waintrob’s sole survivor.