Charles “Champ” Hough was only 18 when he made history in Helsinki with the 1952 U.S. Olympic squad, earning a team bronze medal in eventing as the youngest equestrian competitor at those Games.
That was the USA’s first civilian equestrian team at the Olympics, after the cavalry was phased out and the Army no longer was involved with horse sport. But it was just the beginning for someone who would go on to make his mark in multiple segments of the horse industry.
Champ Hough on the great hunter, Sutton Place, in 1968. (Photo by Fallaw)
Champ died peacefully at age 88 on Monday, after a week in hospice. He suffered a stroke in 2001, and it had been “a bumpy road” since then, but true to his can-do attitude, “he lived his best life in the nursing home,” said his daughter, Lauren Hough, a show jumping Olympian herself.
She noted Champ was in the Hall of Fame at the Palm Beach Nursing Home in Lake Worth, Fla., where he enjoyed wearing his cowboy hat and cowboy boots as he visited everyone in his wheelchair “and flirted with all the nurses.”
During his long career, “He did every aspect of equestrian life,” said Lauren, who mentioned he was involved with saddlebreds at one time, then went on to run the famous Sutton Place hunter/jumper stable in California with her mother, Linda Hough.
After the couple separated, Lauren would go to the East Coast for the summers to spend time with Champ.
“He would hook up a two-horse trailer behind the motor home. I had a small pony and a junior jumper and we’d travel all over the east coast together. He groomed for me and polished my boots; we just had a great time.”
Champ went on to racehorses, training them and preparing them for sale when he worked for Fasig-Tipton. He also was on the ground floor of the Saudi Equestrian Federation as it got started, helping build their stables.
“He was a really keen horseman,” Lauren observed.
“He’s going to leave a hole, for sure. You think you’re prepared, but it’s something I haven’t really navigated yet.”
Although he and Linda were divorced, she was his caretaker for the last 20 years.
Linda, Champ and Lauren Hough. (Photo courtesy Lauren Hough)
Champ was inducted into the National Show Hunter Hall of Fame. Jimmy Lee, the president of that organization, recalled him as “a great horseman. He had a vast knowledge of all aspects of the horse. He could condition and present a horse, as well as anyone I’ve ever known.”
Jimmy called Champ, “an amazing showman who set the standard for doing it the right way and a credit to our sport. He was a master at presentation, whether in the show ring or at the sales. He was kind enough to share his knowledge about the horse and about showing with me. Needless, to say I always took his advice.”
Sharon Stewart-Wells met Champ when she was about 13 and he and her father were at the Camp Pendleton Marine Base.
“Every year, there was a big rodeo at Camp Pendleton and Champ put on an exhibition of jumping a horse around a course that he had set up. I told my mother that I wanted to do that. She took me to the base stables and Champ taught me to jump by jumping the picnic tables at the rodeo grounds,” she remembered.
In addition to Linda and Lauren, Champ is survived by another daughter, Cindy Brooks.
A celebration of Champ’s life will be held on Monday, April 3 from 4-6 p.m. at the Wanderers Club in Wellington, Fla.
Everyone is welcome. Those wishing to make a contribution in memory of Champ may donate to the U.S. Equestrian Team Foundation.