A NEW OLD GRANDSTAND FOR UPPERVILLE Photos by Crowell Hadden
Photo by Howard Allen
This vintage photo tells what the horse show is all about--classes for young horses.
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By Tommy Lee Jones and Vicky Moon
hen legendary sportsman Harry Worcester Smith judged the Upperville horse show in 1905, it was hard to tell what pleased him most: the lunch break at Rozier Dulany’s Oakley or the best mint juleps in Virginia made by the butler. Or perhaps it was that the show committee had moved the grandstand to its current location, cutting down the dust from the Winchester Pike along what is now Route 50. Elegant female equestrians glide past the grandstand for the Ladies Side-Saddle class, adorable eager children await the results of the highly competitive lead line class and, in days gone by, a high jump competition was the featured Saturday Ty Payne and Maria Moore afternoon highlight. Richard Thomas remembers it all. His grandfather, Reed Thomas, had Box 9. Richard was five years old and presented the trophy to the winner one afternoon in the mid 1960s. He cherishes the memory. In the early 1980s, the grandstand was held together by cables spaced along the length of the building. A cable ran from the bottom of a post on the front edge through the floor to the back header just holding the rafters. A second cable went from the front header to the other cable about midway. Groundhogs undermined the support beams that sat on concrete filled casks. Charlie Risdon, who went to work for Theo Randolph straight out of high
History is all around.
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MIDDLEBURG SUSTAINABLE COMMITTEE| Holiday 2023
A view from inside the grandstand during renovations.
