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It Never Gets Old For A World Class Rider
It Never Gets Old For A World Class Rider
By Vicky Moon
Richard “Dick” Noyes Viets reminiscences about the first time he got on a pony. “I was not more than seven or eight years old,” he said, “when my father bought two unbroken Welsh ponies for my older brother and me.”
He grew up on a farm near Stowe, Vermont. “I inherited my horse loving genes from my mother. There wasn’t an animal alive that we didn’t learn about.” The boys rode their ponies everywhere, including to the local railroad station to wave goodbye to young soldiers boarding the train to go off to World War II.
Now, at 92, married twice and a widower, he has three grown daughters. He maintains a vigorous social life, with black tie or sporting attire at the ready. He fondly recalls a lifetime career in the foreign service and his equestrian journey around the world, speaking of the horses he owned and rode along the way.
While in India, he galloped and played polo. In Romania, he rode a horse that was 18 hands. While in Tel Aviv, Israel he bought an Arabian horse and lived on a kibbutz. In Jordan, he was on an Arabian on loan from a friend and remembered a day riding in the desert when they encountered a massive swarm of wasps in a black cloud.
“The horse stood his ground as hundreds of thousands of wasps approached. He stood stock still.” One might say in true diplomatic form, “crisis averted.”
In Middleburg, he lived at Aspen Hill with his first wife, Marina Woroniecka Viets (who died in 1989). There was a small stable. Vincent Melzac, noted art connoisseur and head of the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, was a friend. He invited Viets to his sprawling Locust Hills Farm in Romney, West Virginia, to pick out a new horse. Out of 300 half wild Arabian horses, an unbroken five-year-old came up and put his head on Viets’ shoulder. Dancer lived to age 27.
On a very recent excursion to Bitterroot Ranch in Dubois, Wyoming, Viets met up with Dana Priest, a Washington Post journalist and fellow equestrian who lives part time in this horse happy area.
“Riding with Dick is like watching a bird fly or fish swim,” she said. “He’s simply in his natural element.”
“There are three relationships in life,” Viets said. “First, the supreme. Second, another human, hopefully your wife, and three, the one with your horse or dog. I’ve learned so much with horses, I could write a book. Dogs are clever and can manipulate. Horses are smarter than the human on their back.”
Now, Viets can often be spotted motoring through the village, top down on his sporting car on his way to ride his horse at Mo Baptist’s stable. He spends time with Trotski, a charming brown gelding.
His riding chum, Dana Priest, said it best. “He’s ridden just about everywhere and can recall each adventure with great passion and detail.”
Richard Noyes Viets
Born 1930 and raised in Vermont
Military service: U.S. Army 1950-52
University of Vermont 1955
Harvard University
Georgetown University
Entered Foreign Service 1955
U.S. Ambassador to Jordan (1981-84)
U.S. Ambassador to Tanzania (1979-81)
U.S. State Department Deputy Chief of Mission, Tel Aviv (1977-79)
U.S. State Department Deputy Chief of Mission, Bucharest (1974-77)
U.S. State Department Director, Executive Secretariat (1973-74)
U.S. State Department International Relations Officer (1972-73)
U.S. State Department Special Assistant to the Ambassador, New Delhi (1962-72)
U.S. State Department Political and Economic Officer, New Delhi (1967-69)
U.S. State Department Commercial Officer, Madras (1965-67)
U.S. State Department Commercial Officer, Tokyo (1962-65)
Mobil (1960-62)
U.S. Commerce Department Assistant Exhibit Manager (1957-60)
U.S. Official International Communication Agency:(1955-57)
Bank of America Los Angeles (1955)
American Academy of Diplomacy
Council on Foreign Relations
