Guy Henry (equestrian)

Major General Guy Vernor Henry Jr. (January 28, 1875 – November 29, 1967) was a senior officer in the United States Army and a noted horse rider who competed for the United States in the 1912 Summer Olympics.

Son of Guy Vernor Henry, he went on to graduate from the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York in 1898,[3] and distinguished his military career by earning the Silver Star in 1899 during the Spanish–American War.

This included starting horses not by "breaking" them using the traditional western methods, but by training them on the longe, then slowly teaching them to accept the weight of a human on their back.

He also brought dressage methods from both the French and German schools, with a great deal of influence from Baucher, and as senior instructor of equitation at the Mounted Service School at Fort Riley he insisted in teaching new recruits to properly use the aids and promoted the European methods.

Henry competed in all three Olympic equestrian disciplines – dressage, eventing, and show jumping – for the United States during his years in the army.

Guy Henry Jr. in a prewar photo
From left to right: Captain Guy Henry, Lieutenant John C. Montgomery, Lieutenant Ben Lear at the 1912 Summer Olympics .