A rider who was equally at home on jumpers and hunters, Patty Stovel can best be described simply as an incredibly hard worker who was a great horsewoman and teacher. She passed away Sunday at 67 after a long illness.
Trainer Otis Brown, a long-time associate of Patty’s, posted on social media: “So hard to say goodbye. I will forever cherish our 40 years as friends and business partners. From World Equestrian Games to six times champion of the International Hunter Futurity, numerous national champions and Grand Prix wins, I am forever grateful. Thanks for the memories, Patty.”
Patty grew up in Connecticut at her family’s Merrie-Land Stables, learning to ride under the guidance of her mother, Barbara Johnson, who instilled a love of horses in all her children when she built her business starting in the early 1960s. By the time Patty was 16, she was running her own little barn down the road. A working student for George Morris as a teenager, she finished second in the AHSA Medal Finals on her home-trained Brownstone.
Patty went on to work for Otis Brown in Tennessee. Among the top hunters she rode was Nashville Gent, who became the AHSA’s 1986 Regular Working Hunter horse of the year. Her most memorable jumpers included Volan and Frisco Kid. But it was Mont Cenis, the brilliant athlete she started riding when she went out on her own in 1990, who was her horse of a lifetime.
Patty rode him through the trials for the 1994 World Equestrian Games in the Hague, courageously meeting the challenge despite a broken wrist and collarbone to make the team. Patty finished as the best of the U.S. squad, in thirteenth place.
Among her many other accomplishments, she rode Frascati to the American Horse Shows Association Working Hunter Horse of the Year title in 1999 and 2000. She also guided Chippen in Style to the 2009 American Quarter Horse Association World Championship in Progressive Working Hunter.
Patty Stovel
Her daughter, U.S. Equestrian Federation National Breeds and Disciplines Breed and Program Manager Lexie Cerys Stovel, said on Facebook, “She lived and loved the horses for her whole life. She accomplished so much, from being the highest placed U.S. rider at the (1994) World Equestrian Games, to winning the American Gold Cup, to winning Regular Working Hunter Horse of the Year two years in a row.