Show Women

Mrs. George B. St. George wore gold tassels. Mrs. John Hay Whitney, sitting with U. S. Attorney General Frank Murphy, sported her famed, chandeliery diamond earrings. Mrs. Bronson Williams' velveteen jacket was tufted with patent-leather buttons, like the upholstery of a lady's phaeton. Mrs. John W. Stafford carried a Cellophane evening bag exposing her gewgaws. Mrs. Byron C. Foy was completely bareback.

Such sights, for three generations, have been the trimmings of opening night at the National Horse Show in Manhattan's Madison Square Garden, biggest of the 300-odd shows held in the U. S. each year. But after 55 years, the National is definitely established as a major U. S. sport event. Though starchy socialites peered at one another from arena boxes last week, the galleries were packed with fans to whom the competition in the ring was more exciting than the competition in the boxes.

Some of the spectators came to see the saddle horses with their set-up tails and elegant, high-stepping gaits; others for the toy-like harness ponies and their top-hatted or aigretted drivers. As usual, however, the biggest drawing card was the jumping events.

Because Irish, French and English military teams, old favorites with the fans, had a previous engagement this year (thus narrowing the international field to Mexican, Chilean, U. S. cavalrymen), the twelve principal civilian events for hunters and jumpers* received more than customary attention during the eight days of the show. Because 75% of the hunters and jumpers exhibited at U. S. horse shows nowadays are ridden by women, the spotlight focused on the jumping Jills.

Most famed U. S. jumping Jill is Mrs. John Hay ("Jock") Whitney, a spirited, devil-may-care rider who has been winning blue ribbons on the horseshow circuit for 15 years. Before her marriage to Croesusrich young Whitney in 1930, Mary Elizabeth ("Liz") Altemus was well known in the hunt country around Philadelphia. After acquiring the 2,200-acre, million-dollar "Llangollen" estate near Upperville, Va., Liz Whitney became the most glamorous horsewoman in the U. S. Her drawing-room gum-chewing, social-worker hairdo, haphazard clothes were aped by many lesser socialites. Her riding technique became the very pattern for aspiring horsewomen. Her money-fed horses were the envy of the show-ring. Two years ago at the National she rode her Grey Knight to three blue ribbons in one day and wound up with the hunter championship.

Last week, after virtually deserting show rings for a year (while hobnobbing with Hollywood folk), Liz Whitney reappeared at Madison Square Garden. To the galleries' shouts of "Come on, Liz!" she rode four of her entries. But at week's end, no Whitney horse" had qualified for the championship final.

Among the five who qualified was Alvin Untermyer's Hexameter, ridden by Patricia Bolling, a 99-lb., 22-year-old wisp whom many experts consider the most skillful young horsewoman in the U. S. today. Though Hexameter was nosed out of victory by his stablemate, Illuminator, spectators who had kept their eyes on the horses agreed that Liz Whitney had lost her reign.

* A jumper is any horse that jumps. A hunter, a horse suitable for riding to hounds, is judged not only on its ability to clear barriers but also on its way of going, manners and conformation.

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