2006 Audrey Pugh Gutridge Award
Friday, August 25, 2006
Editor’s note: The following presentation was made at the World’s Championship Horse Show on Thursday night.
Sally Jo Briney, Michele Macfarlane, Scarlett Mattson, Paul Briney
Michele Macfarlane
The embodiment of determination and hard work, Michele Macfarlane has established an unparalleled record of success in the horse world. Growing up at Scripps Miramar Ranch in San Diego, California, where she still resides today, Michele and her mother, Ellen Scripps Davis developed an American Saddlebred breeding and show stable without equal. In 1988, Michele became the first woman and second amateur in history to win the Five-Gaited World’s Grand Championship with her stallion, CH Sky Watch. She repeated this win in 1996 with CH Memories Citation in the middle of a season long string of victories that began in Denver in January and included Los Angeles, Scottsdale, Oklahoma City, Del Mar, Lexington, Madison Square Garden and Winterfest.
Michele has personally won World’s Championships in every Saddlebred division at the Kentucky State Fair, many times with Scripps Miramar bred stock. Scripps Miramar Ranch was the first farm to have won all three major World’s Grand Championships at the Kentucky State Fair. CH Sky Watch won the Five-Gaited Grand Championship four times (three times with Mitchell Clark, up), CH Memories Citation won the Five-Gaited Grand Championship in 1996 after previously winning the Three-Gaited Grand Championship in 1993 with Mitchell Clark, and CH Buck Rogers won the Fine Harness in 1988 with Bill Robinson driving. Scripps Miramar owned My Heart who won the Roadster-To Bike World’s Grand Championship in 1988 with Rob Tanner. In additions to her four World’s Grand Champions, her list of World’s Champions and major stakes winners include CH New York New York, CH Shaman, CH Going Big Time, CH Naranda, CH Black Mountain Buck, CH Caravelle, CH The Fire Fox, CH Storm Chaser, CH Like Thunder, CH Catalina Flight, Great Catherine, Fountain of Youth, Tropical Gale, Wall Street Week, Something’s Up, Sky Blue, CH Maker’s Mark, CH Miss Rockette, CH Sprinkles and countless others.
Michele managed the breeding career of the Scripps Miramar-bred Chubasco, who led all the performance and futurity sire ratings for an unprecedented number of years and still leads in futurity earnings of his get. Other stallions who have contributed to the success of the Scripps Miramar breeding program have been the foundation stallion, Flashy Bourbon Peavine, Fountain of Youth, CH Maker’s Mark, CH Sky Watch, CH Buck Rogers, CH El Cortez and currently the young World’s Champion Dr. Zhivago.
Michele is also an accomplished whip, having won coaching and carriage driving competitions across the continent. With the coach and four, she personally drove HRH Prince Phillip, Duke of Edinburgh, the president of the Federation Equestre Internationale and other FEI dignitaries at the Santa Anita Racetrack in preparation for the Equestrian Games at the Los Angeles Summer Olympics, which lead to Michele and her team representing the American Hackney Horse Society at the games.
Michele continues her interest in coaching and participates in many exhibitions driving teams of both four and six Pinto Saddlebreds. Along with Elisabeth Goth and others, she orchestrated their participation in the closing ceremonies of the Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan. Additionally, Michele has avidly participated in the Pasadena Tournament of Roses Parade since the 1960s. She and the Scripps Miramar unit rode in both the Nixon and Reagan Inaugural Parades.
Beside a grueling show schedule, Michele and her mother masterminded and hosted the remarkable Winterfest Horse Show for ten years as a benefit for the Girl Scouts of America. The show was twice chosen by the United Professional Horseman’s Association as its National Honor Show and each year of its existence was chosen the UPHA Chapter One Honor Show.
She is a member of the Kentucky State Fair Hall of Fame, received the American Saddlebred Horse Association’s Lurline Roth Sportsmanship Award, the San Diego Sports Hall of Fame’s Brietbard Award and was the AHSA/Hertz Equestrian of the Year for 1996. She has served on the Board of Directors of the American Saddlebred Horse Association, the USEF Saddlebred and Owners Committees and continues as a director of the California Saddle Horse Breeders Association.
Michele has contributed to the horse business in innumerable ways and has brought prestige to the show horse industry on a world-wide scale.
Michele Macfarlane and Don Trunk
|