Located 46 miles east of Washington, D.C., in the heart of Virginia’s hunt country, the National Sporting Library and Museum is a world-class research library and fine art museum, with impressive collections highlighting such country pursuits as the equestrian sports of polo, foxhunting, steeplechasing, and Thoroughbred racing. It was my pleasure to meet with their curators and librarians to introduce the California Thoroughbred Foundation and the Carleton F. Burke Memorial Library.
Claudia P. Pfeifer, the George L. Ohrstrom Jr. head curator, went step-by-step through “Leading the Field,” stunning oil portraits of famous masters of foxhounds up and down the East Coast. The backstories between the artist, Ellen Emmet Rand, and her subjects in the 1930s was riveting. Michelle Guzman, the George L. Ohrstrom Jr. head librarian, opened up the environmentally controlled stacks for us to see books of equestrian knowledge dating back to 1523. The 400-year-old images of teeth, hooves, musculature, and lungs reveal the forward-thinking scientific research of the horse centuries before modern imaging.
I instantly recognized a rare book that CTF also owns: Methode et Invention Nouvelle de Dresser les Chevaux, by the Duke of Newcastle, William Cavendish. It was published in 1658 in Antwerp, where the Duke went into self-exile during the English Civil War.
Tad Coffinn, a two-time Olympic gold medalist in 1976, joined us and recounted his first-hand knowledge and experience behind the personal diaries and essays of the famous riding coach Vladimir Littauer. It was an honor to be on the sacred ground of such a library and museum. I shared with them the volumes, trophies, and history of our Carleton F. Burke Library. We share a mission dedicated to preserving, promoting, and sharing the literature, art, and culture of equestrian sports.
Ada Gates Patton
President
California Thoroughbred Foundation