Cha rac ter St udy By Jenna Biter

The Voice of America’s Horse Shows

How Pet er Doubl ed ay t ook th e mic

By Jen n a Bit er An inviting red leather armchair in the librar y of Little Squire Farm seems to say: sit, read. The 8-foot-tall bookshelves are neatly crowded, as buttoned down as the man himself. There are vinyl albums and CDs, books about foxhunting, and shelves and shelves of others covering all the trappings and intricacies of the equestrian world. Photos of personal import from a career — an almost accidental career — that has lasted nearly half a centur y occupy nooks and crannies and the rare empty space on a wall. Among it all is a treasured copy of The Horseman’s Encyclopedia that had once belonged to Peter Doubleday’s father, Robert, the man whose riding path he followed.

Peter Doubleday was bor n and raised in Sy racuse, New York, about an hour south of L ake Ontar io and a 90 -minute dr ive f rom Cooperstow n, home to the Nationa l Baseba ll Ha ll of Fame. It was his g reat uncle Abner (to some unk now n deg ree of g reats) who a llegedly invented A mer ica’s game in Elihu Phinney’s cow past ure in 1839, later lay ing out a diamond when he was a cadet at West Point. Abner Doubleday went on to become a decorated Union soldier, r ising to the rank of genera l, and was the of ficer who ordered the Nor th ’s first shots of the Civ il War in defense of For t Sumter.

Peter squabbles with the imag inar y nonbelievers: “People say, ‘Well, he didn’t invent baseball,’ and I say, ‘Well, yes he did.’” He laughs and settles onto a chaise long ue with his Jack Russell ter r ier, Sophie, who follows him as if there was an imag inar y lifeline per manently link ing the pair. “T he best dog on Ear th,” Doubleday says.

Peter’s dad, Rober t “Deacon” Doubleday, was a radio show and telev ision persona lit y w ith NBC ’s Sy racuse af filiate WSY R . He hosted Wired Woodshed, a popular ag r icult ura l prog ram that got r ura l far mers through their early mor ning chores. Because Deacon used his voice to make his liv ing, he was asked to announce some horse shows, first on vacations and holidays, but event ua lly becoming the voice of some of A mer ica’s biggest shows.

“So, they would drag me around as a k id to these horse shows a ll

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A f ter high school, Doubleday traded the chill of upstate New York for the sunshine of South F lor ida, at tending the Universit y of Miami to pursue an education deg ree. “I k ind of wanted to be a teacher,” he says.

A f ter his junior year, his dad fell ill and couldn’t f ulfill his commitment to announce the horse show at the 1971 New York State Fair. Deacon told the staf f, “W hy don’t you tr y my son?”

T he fair was a huge spectator event, but the son ner vously rose to the occasion. T hough he ret ur ned to Miami, Peter pitched relief in a few other shows before his father passed away in Januar y of ’72.

“I wanted to work w ith horse shows now that I had got ten the bug,” he says. L ong time f r iends Hanna h and Joel Pot ter ow ned Rock y Fork Headley Hunt, a fox hunting club and 30 -horse stable not unlike the Moore Count y Hounds, located in suburban Columbus, Ohio. Doubleday moved there to work at the stables muck ing sta lls, g rooming horses, r iding and teaching lessons.

“You know how ever ybody talks about a break? A big break?” Doubleday asks. T hat’s where he got his. Two of the horses he cared for belonged to Br uce Sundlin. T hough the name didn’t mean much to him at the time, Sundlin (who would ser ve as governor of R hode Island in the ’90s) was the president of the Washington International Horse Show, a world-renowned, week-long competition in D.C. that draws thousands of spectators each October. Sundlin learned Doubleday had announcing experience and asked him to voice the show. Reluctant at first, it turned out the bug was bigger than the balk. He did it, and he’s had a microphone in his hands ever since.

Doubleday began traveling for shows, ret ur ning to Columbus less and less f requently. By 1975, at the age of 25, his announcing career had become f ull time. He began producing the shows, leading the f ront end, announcing results, enter taining fans, educating the audience about breeds and classes, and selecting and play ing music, including anthems when competitions were inter nationa l. He a lso led the back end, communicating w ith the stables to ensure horses and r iders were ready for their events.

“Dr iv ing classes, like the Budweiser hitch, it takes a long time for them to get organized,” Doubleday says.

Not long af ter, he relocated his home base to Souther n Pines, though he spent more time in hotel rooms than in any house. “I got involved w ith the r ight people, the r ight horse shows, and boom, I was on the road 40 week s of the year,” he says, “Sometimes more.”

Suc c ess a nd longev it y, however, aren’t mat ters of get t ing a bre a k here or t here. Double day’s adolesc enc e sp ent at horse shows had f am i l iar i ze d h im w it h quar ter horses, A r abia ns, Morga ns a nd more, a l low ing h im to voic e a l l t y p es of bre e d shows. T houg h hunters a nd jump ers are h is sp e c ia lt y, he’s f a m i l iar w it h t he ga mut of d iscipl ines f rom dr iv ing to dressage, a nd c a n a nnounc e t hose, to o. “If

you re a l ly wa nt to do a go o d job, t here’s a lot of work involve d,” he says, no dd ing toward t he l ibr ar y.

An ef fective announcer does more than regurgitate horsey jargon in a caramelized tone. He repackages complex information into digestible morsels, so that even a relatively uninformed audience can enjoy the show. “I drink tea in the morning, and there used to be a little phrase on the back of the tag on Salada bags,” Doubleday says. “One said, ‘Nothing is obvious to the uninformed.’ I always carried that thought.”

Doubleday has announced the major Nor th A mer ican horse shows, including the Hampton Classic in New York, the Winter E questr ian Festiva l in F lor ida, and the Roya l Horse Show in Toronto. He was the voice of t wo Pan A mer ican Games and the 1996 Atlanta Oly mpic Games. “I’ll never forget my first mor ning of jump ing,” Doubleday says, think ing of Atlanta and the 33,0 0 0 spectators in the stands. A f ter deliver ing a few housekeeping announcements, the arena quieted and the Oly mpic theme music filled the air. “I said, ‘Welcome to the 26th Oly mpiad in Atlanta . . . and the place just went craaazy,” he reca lls. “I’ll never forget that.”

Doubleday has had success manag ing shows, too. “T he manager is the secretar y for the horse show,” he says. “You do the computer work for a ll the entr ies; hire a jump crew to put up the jumps; hire people to take care of the footing and the water, make sure the stabling is up — the whole nine yards.”

Once the show star ts, he’s hands on. “I’m a worker bee. I can’t sit still.” In an idle moment you’ll find him muck ing sta lls and pick ing up trash. “It’s like a hotel, you k now, w ith the horses in and out. I’ll just pitch r ight in. ‘L et’s get it done.’”

At the height of his manag ing career, Doubleday oversaw eight or nine horse shows per year. He still manages three major shows: the Roya l Horse Show, the Devon Horse Show and Countr y Fair, and the Devon Fa ll Classic in Pennsylvania, where he got his manag ing star t in 1987.

COV ID, of c ourse, ha s impac te d t he work load. At one p oint , b e c ause he c a n’t sit st i l l, he worke d par t t ime at L owe’s Home Improvement.

Little Squire Farm, where he and his wife, Chrissie — a prize-winning equestrian herself — live, sits on a verdant tract of 10 acres. T he cast and crew consist of the couple’s t wo barn cats; t wo horses, Woody and Walk My Drive, a retired racehorse who answers to Guac; a donkey named Burrito; and, of course, “the best dog on Ear th.”

A f ter nearly five decades behind the mic, Peter Doubleday isn’t quite ready to go silent. T he work load in 2021 was nearly back to nor ma l. “A f ter get ting in another nice year-and-a-ha lf or so,” he says, glancing around the proper t y, “then I could see myself r iding of f into the sunset.” PS

Jenn a Bit er is a fa shion d e sig n er, entrepren eur an d milit ar y w ife in th e San dhills. Sh e c an be re a ch e d at jenn abit er @prot onm ail.com.

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