Melanie Smith

Early life and career Melanie Ainsworth Smith

Smith went on to the Grand Prix tour riding Radnor II in 1976 and won the American Grand Prix Lady Rider of the Year Award as well as the Overall Rider of the Year Award. Around the beginning of 1981, Smith was hired as a rider at Windrush Farms, in Litchfield, CT. She stayed on this farm for the rest of her competition years. Calypso was a smaller horse for show jumping, at just over 16 hands, but together, he and Smith won many competitions during the years they competed in show jumping. Calypso and Smith became the only horse-rider team ever to win all three parts in the triple crown of show jumping competition; The American Invitational, The International Jumping Derby, and the American Gold Cup. Smith has also worked for the younger generation of show jumping riders and young horse enthusiasts. Smith was the coach for the Developing Rider Tours from 2007-2008. The U.S. Equestrian team named her the Developmental Coach of the Year in 2007. Around the same time period, she also worked with the Hunter Jumper Association on their Emerging Athlete's Program.

Wildwood Farm Wildwood Farm is a 350 acre farm off of Germantown Rd. in Germantown, owned by Smith Taylor and her husband Lee Taylor. The farm has been on the National Register of Historic Places since 2017. It has large fields for the American Thoroughbred horses that are bred there, as well as a 18,000 square ft. stable block. Smith lived at Wildwood Farm following her marriage to Taylor. Lee Taylor bought Calypso for Smith in 1987 as a wedding present and he was brought home to live at Wildwood Farm with them in his retirement years. Calypso died when he was 29 after fourteen years of peaceful retirement on the farm. Smith and her husband lived at Wildwood Farm together since 1989, breeding horses and running clinics at the farm. In 2005, Lee died, but Smith continues to live on the farm, working with horses.

Competitive achievements