Category Archives: Sports > Equestrian

A naturally talented horsewoman, Evelyn Freda White excelled first as a show-jumper and later as a racehorse trainer, but it was for her colourful personality that she was best known in the horse world.

New Zealand racehorse trainer

New Zealand horse driver, trainer and equestrian

Hedwick Wilhelmina McDonald’s greatest achievement as a racehorse trainer does not appear in record books; nor does her real name. She trained the winner of the 1938 Melbourne Cup, but because women were not permitted to be professional trainers in Australia at the time, her husband temporarily took over the role. As for her name, most of her life she was known simply as ‘Granny’.

Cynisca was a Spartan princess and athlete. At a time when women weren’t allowed to compete – and married women weren’t even allowed to attend – the Greek Olympiads, an exception was made for the chariot races, where women could enter as owners of the horses. Although the women weren’t actually expected to race, Cynisca competed in the four-horse chariot races and won in 396 BC and 392 BC, becoming the first woman to win in the games. She was not allowed to collect her prize in person. According to the Greek travel writer Pausanias (C.E. 143–176), two monuments were erected in Olympia to commemorate Cynisca’s victories, including a statue of her and an inscription in the sanctuary of Olympia in her honor. Other women later won the chariot racing, including Euryleonis, Belistiche, Zeuxo, Encrateia and Hermione, Timareta, Theodota and Cassia.