Never in the history of jumping horses has there been a more colorful combination than thirty-one-year-old Melanie Ainsworth Smith of Germantown, Tennessee, and the great eight-year-old Dutch-bred gelding, Calypso. Smith was voted America’s Horsewoman of the Year for 1980 by the American Horse Show Association. She rode Calypso for Marc St. James’ Windrush Farm at Litchfield, Connecticut, and her new jumper, Grand Siecle, to victory at the Royal Horse Show in Toronto, Canada. Smith, the only woman member of the team that includes four males, scored no-fault rides to catapult the United States Equestrian Team to victory and to cinch the top individual rankings. In 1981 Smith captured two of the horse world’s most renowned awards on Calypso – the American Gold Cup and the Grand Prix President’s Cup. It should come as no surprise that she was selected as the Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame’s 1982 Amateur Athlete of the Year. Truly a superstar in the equestrian world, Melanie Ainsworth Smith has made the state of Tennessee very proud.
