Tampa, FL—March 31 , 2003—The Show Jumping Hall of Fame conducted its annual induction ceremonies during the intermission at the Budweiser American Invitational on March 29 at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, FL. Harry R. Gill, Clarence L. “Honey” Craven, Calypso, and Gem Twist were inducted into the Show Jumping Hall of Fame. These join 45 previous inductees whose contributions to the sport set them apart and earned them the honor of enshrinement in the Show Jumping Hall of Fame.
A lifelong horseman, Harry R. Gill has been a major force in the world of Grand Prix Show Jumping. A longtime supporter of some of show jumping’s leading riders, Gill has owned many of the country’s most famed horses. One of the sport’s foremost authorities on footing, Gill has served the industry by improving horse show venues and riding conditions, and as a member of several Boards of Directors and Organizing Committees.
Gill’s slew of champions is headed by the legendary Idle Dice, a charter inductee into the Show Jumping Hall of Fame. Ridden to greatness by Hall of Famer Rodney Jenkins, “Ike,” won honors as the AHSA Horse of the Year, rode for the USET in the 1974 World Championships and won the American Gold Cup three times. Gill also owned the PHA Horse of the Year, Gustavus; the AHSA Horse of the Year, Beanbag; and the AGA Horse of the Year, Viktor. Other horses ridden under Gill’s ownership included such superstars as Number One Spy, Sloopy, Brendan, Philco, French Rapture, Ping Pong, Robin Hood, Another March and Twist du Valon.
As owner of these horses, Gill created partnerships with some of the nation’s leading riders including Jenkins, McLain Ward, Michael Matz, Katie Monahan Prudent, Debbie Stephens and Beezie Madden. Quietly, Gill has been known to provide several riders who lacked a horse or the funds with the horse power needed to become champions.

Growing up on a family farm, Gill spent his childhood riding a pony or giant work horse instead of a bicycle. As a young man, he enjoyed fox hunting as well as showing. He ran a successful show stable in Pennsylvania with his wife Marjorie Gill as rider until his father’s death, when he assumed control of the family business, Gill Quarries. Unwilling to completely give up horses, he hired Rodney Jenkins to ride for him. The partnership proved to be a winning combination as the two men rewrote the record books of American show jumping with the famed Idle Dice and Number One Spy.
Gill has also contributed to the sport by serving on the Board of Directors for Stadium Jumping, Inc., the American Grandprix Association, and the Devon Horse Show. In 1981, Gill played an enormous role as a member of the Organizing Committee for the World Cup Final held in Baltimore, helping to bring the Final to the United States for the first time. He has also been a member of the Organizing Committee for the Baltimore Jumping Classic, Devon Horse Show and the American Gold Cup, which he helped out of its financial troubles years ago and then helped establish it as one of the sport’s premier events at its current home in Pennsylvania.
Clarence L. “Honey” Craven has been around horses all his life. His many decades with the National and Devon Horse Shows, two of the country’s oldest and most respected events, saw him provide outstanding service to the sport and to those in it.

When Craven was born in 1904, many years prior to the emergence of the automobile, his father was working as a coachman for Harris Upham’s big brokerage firm in Brookline, Massachusetts. By the age of 12, Craven was stopping at a local blacksmith’s shop everyday after school. He would help pick up horses from nearby estates and bring them to the shop, sometimes riding them bareback.

Craven left high school after his freshman year in order to work galloping horses at the Jamaica Raceway. From there, he went on to Woodbine Racetrack in Canada. He returned to the U.S. to work for Bill Naughton, who trained hunters and jumpers for Charles Van Brant Cushman near the Hartford Academy in Pomfret, Connecticut.

While attending a horse show in Rochester, NY, in 1926, Craven was approached by W. Reginald Reeves, a great amateur coach driver and secretary of the National Horse Show. Reeves asked him if he would consider becoming an assistant to the National’s ringmaster, Dutch White. Craven accepted and began working in 1927 for $10 a day.

The following year, Craven was promoted to ringmaster when White left the Show unexpectedly. He served in that position until 1958 when he began a distinguished 25-year tenure as manager of the National Horse Show.
As manager, Craven oversaw the National’s move in 1968 from the old Madison Square Garden at 49th Street and 8th Avenue to the present Garden above Penn Station. He has heavily impacted the way horse shows are managed and how the equestrian sport has evolved. Always, his primary concern was the welfare of the horse and rider. It was Craven who suggested holding classes on Sunday during the National. Previously, that day had been reserved for exhibitions – trick riding, demonstrations, and the like. So Craven added the Maclay and Good Hands saddle seat finals. Following the National’s 100th Anniversary in 1983, Craven became Manager Emeritus of the National, a position he continues to hold despite retiring from the Show in 1991.

Craven began working at the Devon Horse Show in 1936 at the invitation of Tom Clark, the show manager. Craven started by calling the classes. There was no public address system back then, so he rode Clark’s son’s polo pony over by the ring, found out how long it would be until the next class, and then galloped up to the barns. Craven then became ringmaster at Devon before taking over as manager and ultimately serving as manager emeritus.
Craven also served as ringmaster at many other shows including Piping Rock on Long Island, Pin Oak in Texas, Eastern States in Massachusetts and North Shore in New York.

A USA Equestrian Lifetime Achievement Awardee, Craven has a brilliant sense of humor and is the one to whom horse show committees, officials and exhibitors have long looked for guidance and support. He has never disappointed them. His passion for the sport and his sense of fairness have greatly affected all those who have a love for the horse.

An Olympic Gold-Medal winning horse, Calypso was ridden throughout his illustrious career by Melanie Smith Taylor. The 16 hands and ½ inch Dutch gelding won his first Grand Prix, the prestigious and challenging American Jumping Derby in Newport, RI, at the age of six. It was then that Calypso provided a preview of what was to come—being named to two United States Olympic teams, a win at the World Cup Final and many major Nations’ Cup and Grand prix wins.

In 1980 Calypso, or “Lyps” as he was called around the barn, carried Taylor to the Reserve Championship in the World Cup Final at Baltimore. Shortly thereafter, they were selected to compete on the U.S. Olympic Team scheduled to travel to Moscow. When the United States decided to boycott those Games, the United States Equestrian Team created a European tour instead. On this tour, Calypso earned top honors in the Grand Prix of Paris and at the Horse and Hound Cup at Wembley, as well as helping the U.S. team win the Nations’ Cup in Dublin. The tour concluded with the “Alternate” Olympics in Rotterdam where the young horse carried Taylor to the individual Bronze Medal.

In 1982 Calypso and Taylor emerged as World Cup Champions, winning the Final at Gothenburg, Sweden. Later that year, the pair helped the U.S. team to a fourth place finish at the World Championships in Dublin, Ireland. Calypso also carried Taylor to a tenth place finish individually, the top U.S. finish in the Championships. That same year, Calypso and Taylor won two legs of the Triple Crown of Show Jumping—the American Invitational and the American Gold Cup—which, along with their earlier Jumping Derby win, made them the only horse/rider combination ever to win all three Triple Crown events.

Calypso and Taylor turned in yet another great World Cup performance in 1983, this time finishing third. Facing an injury that year after helping the USET win the Nations’ Cup in Calgary, Canada, Calypso was rested for the remainder of the year. By 1984, he was fully recovered and went on to anchor the USET’s Gold-Medal winning team at the Los Angeles Olympic Games. In 1984 and 1985 he won the richest show jumping purses to date in the $150,000 and then $200,000 Grand Prix, in Culpeper, VA. In 1988 the Dutch horse with tremendous talent, a big heart, and a brilliant mind was retired to Taylor’s Tennessee farm where he lived in contentment until his death in December 2002.

Gem Twist, owned by Michael Golden, was bred and trained by Show Jumping Hall of Famer Frank Chapot and ridden by Greg Best, Leslie Howard and Laura Chapot.

Formally retired at the National Horse Show at Madison Square Garden on November 1, 1997, Gem has an incredible list of victories as long as that of any horse. He is the only horse to win three American Grandprix Association Horse of the Year titles. In addition to nine years’ worth of grand prix wins, Gem earned two Silver Medals at the Seoul Olympics in 1988 and was named “World’s Best Horse” at the World Equestrian Games at Stockholm, Sweden, in 1990. Twist also accumulated more than $800,000 in prize money and attracted purchase offers of $2.5 million.

Gem Twist won the American Grandprix Association’s championship with three different riders: Best in 1987, Howard in 1993, and Chapot in 1995.
One of the early milestones that showed Gem Twist’s unbelievable talent was his win in the 1985 USET Talent Derby in Hamilton, MA, at the age of six. This first prestigious victory, with Greg Best in the saddle, set the stage for future stardom. In 1987, Gem carried Best to wins in his first two Grand Prix events – the Grand Prix of Tampa and the Grand Prix of Florida. That year, Gem captured AGA Horse of the Year honors and Best won Rookie of the Year. That year also included a team Silver Medal at the Pan American Games.

The highpoint in the partnership between Best and Gem Twist came when the pair represented the United States at the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul, Korea, where they came away with team and individual Silver Medals.

Due to Best’s shoulder injury in 1992, Leslie Burr Howard became Gem’s rider. Howard continued as Gem’s rider for two more years winning many prestigious competitions including Gem’s second AGA Championship and third AGA Horse of the Year award.

Laura Chapot took over the reins in 1995. That year Laura and Gem won the World Cup class at the $100,000 Autumn Classic, helping to propel the young rider to Budweiser Rookie of the Year honors. Laura also rode Gem to his third win in the Budweiser American Grandprix Association Championships.

In the 1995-1996 season, Gem and Chapot won three World Cup qualifying classes and placed well at several other competitions. Their win in the final World Cup class at Tampa was over the largest starting field ever with 80 horses. This clinched Laura the World Cup USA East League Championship and was a fitting win at the close of Gem’s career at the site of his first Grand Prix win with Best nine years ealier.

The Show Jumping Hall of Fame and Museum at Busch Gardens in Tampa, FL, was established in 1987 and formally opened in 1989. It was organized to promote the sport of show jumping and to immortalize the legends of the men, women and horses who have made great contributions to the sport. The focus of this noble institution is to encourage broader interest and participation in show jumping, as well as to educate devoted equestrians and novice horse lovers alike, by sharing the sport’s legends, lore and landmark achievements.

Since 1987, the Show Jumping Hall of Fame has inducted William C. Steinkraus, Bertalan deNemethy and Idle Dice (1987); Patrick Butler and August A. Busch, Jr. (1988); David Kelly, Jimmy Williams, Ben O’Meara and Frances Rowe (1989); Arthur McCashin, Kathy Kusner, Brigadier General Harry D. Chamberlin and San Lucas (1990); Adolph Mogavero, Whitney Stone, Morton “Cappy” Smith and Pat Dixon (1991); Eleonora “Eleo” Sears, Mary Mairs Chapot, Barbara Worth Oakford and Snowman (1992); Dr. Robert C. Rost and Joe Green (1993); Frank Chapot and Gordon Wright (1994); Mickey Walsh and Trail Guide (1995); Pamela Carruthers, Jet Run, and the combination of Richard “Dick” Donnelly and Heatherbloom (1996); Edward “Ned” King, and the combination of Bobby Egan and Sun Beau (1997); Fred “Freddy” Wettach, Jr., Melanie Smith Taylor and Johnny Bell (1998); Rodney Jenkins, Sinjon, and the combination of Franklin F. “Fuddy” Wing, Jr. and Democrat (1999); George Morris, Carol Durand and Touch of Class (2000); Eugene R. “Gene” Mische, Lt. Colonel John W. Russell, Bobby Burke, and Untouchable (2001).
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Photos Available on Request