WELLINGTON, Fla.--Four-time U.S. Olympian Laura Kraut and Sandsablaze, Buddy Brown’s 1976 Montreal Olympic mount, were inducted into the Show Jumping Hall of Fame during the Hall’s Induction Gala in Wellington on March 2.
Laura Kraut accepts award (Photo by KindMedia)The Hall of Fame also presented its International Award to four-time Canadian Olympian Mario Deslauriers, the youngest rider ever to win the FEI World Cup Final, a title he won at age 18 in 1984.
Additionally, the Hall of Fame welcomed Francisco “Pancho” Lopez, Katie Prudent’s longtime barn manager, who was inducted last year but was unable to attend, to receive his “Hall of Fame blazer” and give his acceptance speech.
The Induction Gala, held at the Wellington National Golf Club, also recognized 16 others in attendance who have previously been inducted into the Hall of Fame, including Olympic veterans Mary Chapot, Norman Dello Joio, Margie Engle, Leslie Howard, Anne Kursinski, Beezie Madden, Michael Matz, Melanie Smith Taylor and Katie Prudent (1980 Alternate Olympics), as well as Linda Allen, Jane Forbes Clark, Anthony D’Ambrosio, David Distler, Peter Doubleday, Danny Marks and former Olympic rider and current U.S. chef d’equipe Robert Ridland.
Others in attendance included Olympic veterans Buddy Brown, who accepted the induction on behalf of his mount Sandsablaze, McLain Ward, Lauren Hough, Will Simpson, Nick Skelton, and Mac Cone and Grand Prix riders Carly Anthony, Molly Ashe Cawley, Heather Caristo-Williams, Lucy Deslauriers, Cathleen Driscoll, Elle Ehman, Lillie Keenan, Marilyn Little, Carlee McCutcheon, Brittni Raflowitz, Schuyler Riley, Callie Schott, Jimmy Torano and JJ Torano.
Induction into the Show Jumping Hall of Fame is an honor bestowed annually upon select individuals whose accomplishments and contributions to the sport have set them apart and whose influence has had a significant impact on the sport of show jumping and the equestrian community.
LAURA KRAUT
Hall of Fame ateendees: Front row (l-r): Margie Engle, Laura Kraut, Katie Prudent, Mary Chapot, Melanie Taylor, Jane Forbes Clark, Leslie Howard, Beezie Madden; Back row (l-r): Pancho Lopez, Norman Dello Joio, Peter Doubleday, Robert Ridland, Linda Allen, Anne Kursinski, David Distler, Michael Matz, Anthony D’Ambrosio, Dan Marks © KindMedia
With several decades’ worth of experience and an impressive résumé, Laura Kraut has had an illustrious career representing the U.S. on the international stage.
She has competed successfully in four Olympic Games, winning three medals, three World Equestrian Games, winning two medals, the 2023 Pan American Games, winning team gold, and many FEI World Cup and Nations Cup events.
Kraut’s first major team came in 1992 when she was named as alternate for the Barcelona Olympic Games.
She made her Olympic debut at the Sydney Games in 2000 with the all-female American team, then helped the U.S. win team Gold at the Beijing Olympics in 2008.
She returned to the podium at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 and the Paris Olympics in 2024, earning team silver medals at both events.
Her 2024 podium appearance made her the oldest American to win a medal at the Olympics since 1952 and the oldest female American to win a medal since 1904, breaking her own record from 2021.
Kraut helped secure medals at two of the three World Equestrian Games in which she competed, earning team silver in 2006 and team gold in 2018.
She has helped the U.S. finish in the top five at all five Nations Cup Finals in which she’s competed, including a bronze medal in 2016 and silver in 2017.
In her first Pan American Games in 2023, she helped the U.S. to the team gold medal and placed fourth individually.
She has also competed in nine World Cup Finals.
Kraut’s mother, Carol, encouraged her and her sister, Mary Elizabeth, to take their first riding lesson when Kraut was just three years old.
Since then, Kraut has credited much of her success to her relationship with her horses and to Mary Elizabeth’s help with the organization and horse-care side.
Kraut is highly ranked on the All-Time money list for career earnings, having won over 100 Grand Prix.
Alongside her competitive accolades, she was named the American Grand Prix Association Rider of the Year in 2001 and the USEF International Equestrian of the Year in 2021.
She was also presented with the U.S. Olympic Committee Jack Kelly Fair Play Award in 2003.
Based in both Florida and Great Britain, Kraut and her longtime partner Nick Skelton run a successful training business that focuses on developing prospective show jumpers, both riders and horses, to their full potential.
SANDSBLAZE
Sandsablaze had a storybook career that was never meant to be and may be unequaled in show jumping history.
The chestnut thoroughbred foaled in 1967 was meant to be a hunter and not a jumper.
When he became a jumper, most thought of him as a back-up and not a first stringer; but with rider Buddy Brown he defied the odds and became one of the most dominant horses of the 1970s, going from the hunter and equitation ring to become a Grand Prix champion and a standout on U.S. teams in Nations Cups, two Pan American Games and the 1976 Montreal Olympics.
Known as Pappy, Sandsablaze was purchased as a 4-year-old after Joe Darby had shown him in the 1st Year Green Hunter Division.
He was intended to be a junior hunter and equitation horse for Brown, but Brown, contrary to what everyone else thought, believed the fearless Pappy could handle jumper courses.
He started him in some 3’6” schooling and junior jumper classes and frequently found himself falling in both the schooling and show rings.
It never fazed Pappy who always got back up ready to try again, and he was soon doing bigger classes against top open jumpers.
Pappy carried Brown to the win in the AHSA Medal Finals in 1973. J
ust one year later, Pappy was selected with Brown, still a junior, for a USET European tour, mostly to help them both gain experience.
Brown never regretted passing up that year’s Maclay Finals as he and Pappy capped off the tour with a record-setting performance at the Dublin Horse Show, turning in three clean rounds to win the Grand Prix of Ireland, a win that surprised everyone including Bert de Nemethy who questioned even entering Pappy.
Brown was the youngest rider ever to win that hallowed Grand Prix, a record he still holds.
Pappy and Brown ended that year as part of winning Nations Cup teams at Washington and New York.
In 1975, Brown and Pappy won the Cleveland Grand Prix and then, as the team’s anchor, clinched the team gold medal for the U.S. at the Pan American Games in Mexico City.
They ended the year with two more Nations Cup wins at New York and Toronto where they also won the Puissance, clearing the wall at 7’1” to claim the win.
In 1976, Brown, still only 20 years old, and Pappy rode on the U.S.’s fourth-place team at the Montreal Olympic Games.
Pappy bowed a tendon at the Games and sat out most of the following year, showing in just one class prior to indoors.
He and Brown won six classes during indoors including the Presidents Cup at Washington.
They anchored the Nations Cup teams at Washington, New York and Toronto, where all three Nations Cups wound up with jump-offs.
Pappy went clean in all three jump-offs, leading the U.S. to wins at Washington and New York.
In 1979, shortly after helping the U.S. to another Pan American Games Gold medal at San Juan, Puerto Rico, Pappy had his amazing career end prematurely.
After jumping the final fence in the jump-off in the Sussex County Horse Show Grand Prix, the little horse with the incredible heart, a horse whom most felt should never have been able to do what he did, broke his leg but added to his legend once again by finishing as winner of his final class.
Show Jumping Hall of Fame Inductees
Since 1987, the Show Jumping Hall of Fame has inducted William C. Steinkraus, Bertalan de Némethy, Idle Dice (1987); Patrick Butler, August A. Busch, Jr. (1988); David Kelley, Ben O’Meara, Frances Rowe (1989); Arthur McCashin, Kathy Kusner, Brigadier General Harry D. Chamberlin, San Lucas (1990); Adolph Mogavero, Whitney Stone, Morton "Cappy" Smith, Pat Dixon (1991); Eleonora "Eleo" Sears, Mary Mairs Chapot, Barbara Worth Oakford, Snowman (1992); Dr. Robert C. Rost, Joe Green (1993); Frank Chapot, Gordon Wright (1994); Mickey Walsh, Trail Guide (1995); Pamela Carruthers, Jet Run, Richard "Dick" Donnelly and Heatherbloom (1996); Edward "Ned" King, Bobby Egan and Sun Beau (1997); Fred "Freddy" Wettach, Jr., Melanie Smith Taylor, Johnny Bell (1998); Rodney Jenkins, Sinjon, Franklin F. "Fuddy" Wing, Jr. and Democrat (1999); Carol Durand, Touch of Class (2000); Eugene R. Mische, Lt. Colonel John W. Russell, Bobby Burke, Untouchable (2001); Harry R. Gill, Clarence L. "Honey" Craven, Calypso, Gem Twist (2002); J. Russell Stewart, Sr., Main Spring (2003); Snowbound (2004); Michael Matz, For The Moment (2005); Conrad Homfeld (2006); Joe Fargis, Karen Golding, Marcia "Mousie" Williams (2007); Dr. John Steele, Abdullah, Miss Budweiser, Riviera Wonder (2008); Neal Shapiro, Balbuco (2009); John D. Ammerman, Leonard A. King, Jr., Good Twist (2010); Jane Forbes Clark, Gabor Nicholas Foltenyi, Hap Hansen, Larry Langer (2011); Starman, Nautical, D. Gerald Baker, Charles “Sonny” Brooks (2012); Daniel Marks, VMD, Seamus Brady, Steve Stephens (2013); F. Eugene Fitz Dixon, Jr., Major General Guy Henry, I Love You (2014); Elizabeth Busch Burke, Katie Monahan Prudent, Susan Hutchison (2015); Anne Kursinski, Fran Steinwedell, Walter Devereux, The Natural (2016); Norman Dello Joio, Hunter Harrison, Authentic, Sympatico (2017); Peter Doubleday, Robert Ridland, Colonel John W. “Gyp” Wofford, Bold Minstrel (2018); Leslie Burr Howard, David Distler (2019), Margie Engle, Sapphire (2020); Beezie Madden, Mason Phelps, Jr. (2021); Anthony D’Ambrosio, Linda Allen (2022); and Francisco “Pancho” Lopez, Cedric (2023).
