Pat Smythe

Patricia Rosemary "Pat" Smythe, OBE (22 November 1928 – 27 February 1996) was a British show jumper.

Her parents were Eric Hamilton Smythe and Frances Monica Curtoys, who were born in the early 1900s.

Her father died of ill health when she was in her late teens, and her mother was killed in a car crash[2] when she was 23.

They met in Aix-les-Bains, and escaped from France under enemy fire, on the very last boat leaving Bordeaux just before the Germans occupied the city.

It was during that time, whilst getting into an entanglement with several horses, that Pat met the King in the middle of the road.

After varied success at gymkhanas and numerous injuries which Finality suffered, Pat was able to compete in her first International Show.

Eventually she was asked to join the British team with Colonel Harry Llewellyn, Ruby Holland-Martin, Toby Robeson and Brian Butler in 1947.

Although Carmena was a talented and successful horse, Pat admitted that she could never feel the same closeness she had had with Finality.

Leona served Pat well until the death of her mother meant that finances became tight.

It was her most successful partnership after Finality, winning many medals and major showjumping prizes of the day.

Lucia herself produced a few foals herself which include Titania (by Schapiro, born 1962), Caruso (by Pinicola, born 1963) and Queen of Hearts (by Three Card Trick, born 1965) Later showjumping horses included Flanagan (on which she won the bronze medal in the Team Jumping event at the 1956 Olympic games in Stockholm), Brigadoon, Scorchin, Mr Pollard, Ocean Foam and Telebrae.

She married after the Summer Olympics in 1960 to childhood friend Sam Koechlin and became Patricia Koechlin-Smythe.