Lu Thomas has left us: Update with insight from her husband

Lu Thomas, a pillar of horse sport in Northern California, has passed away after years spent battling cancer. She was 79.

Equally successful in the jumpers and the hunters, she and her husband, Graeme (Butch) Thomas, were a formidable training combination. Their best-known students included Gail Greenough, world show jumping champion in 1986, top trainer Carleton Brooks and Karl Cook, now a pillar of the U.S. team.

Butch and Lu Thomas

The couple’s son, Guy, rode in the FEI World Cup finals, as they both did, and also competed on the New Zealand Olympic team (Butch is a native of New Zealand.) In September, Guy won the Morningstar Sport Horses Grand Prix in Sacramento, with both his parents present.

In 2018, Lu and Butch, received the Sacramento International Horse Show Lifetime Achievement Award; three years before that, they earned the USHJA’s Lifeetime Achievement Award. They always worked as a team..

Lu and Butch Thomas receiving their Lifetime Achievement Award. (McCool Photo)

Jimmy Lee, president of the National Show Hunter Hall of Fame, called Lu “an extremely talented rider.

“She showed many top horses at the highest level of competition. Lu was not only a brilliant hunter rider, but she did it with style and class. She was a very special person in and outside of the ring who set a great example of how it should be done, particularly for the youth in our sport to emulate.”

This week, Lu’s husband, offered a tribute to her:

“After four days of Lu’s passing, I’m finally game enough to give my insight on our lives together. She was the kindest, easiest woman a guy could live with- we’ve been married 54 years and 10 months, and I don’t remember ever having an argument. We must’ve had, but they were too small to remember.
“Not only a fantastic wife and my best friend, but a brilliant rider. She made every horse better. She could ride a hunter better than anyone in the country, but so humble she never thought she was any good. When I quit riding the jumpers, she said, “Can I try them?” She then became Rookie of the Year at age 59. She won many Grand Prixs and went to Geneva World Cup Finals.
“Lu spent her life worrying about others. She looked after her son, Guy, incredibly. And she always said to me – “I have three sons: Ilan Ferder, Mark Laskin and Guy. I have two daughters: Callie Layland and Natalie Dean.” She never stopped looking after them. She never made an enemy, she gave everyone the benefit of the doubt. If someone said something rude about her, she’d say, “They didn’t mean it.”
Lu loved animals- she’d be out in the stall bandaging Cody at 9pm because she wanted to be sure it was done properly. She’d say “They’re good to me, I’ve got to be good to them.”
From dogs, to horses, to humans- she enriched the lives of everyone she knew. From the bottom of her heart, Lu cared.”