Beloved Illinois trainer Nancy Whitehead has died. She was found on a recliner in her condo yesterday. An autopsy is being conducted to determine the cause of death, according to her longtime friend, Nick Novak.
Nancy was the winner of the U.S. Hunter Jumper Association’s 2020 Jane Marshall Dillon award, which honors instructors who gave their students the right start.
Her most famous student in that regard was Kent Farrington, an Olympic medalist who has been a winner at the world’s biggest horse shows.
“Nancy was always very generous with her time and tried to give me as much riding opportunity as possible, riding everything from new horses that had come off the racetrack to riding horses for amateur clients she had at the time,” recalled Kent.
Nancy was a talent-spotter for both riders and horses.
She knew early on it was important to burnish Kent’s ability, telling his mother, Lynda, “You realize your son will probably go to the Olympics one day?” And so he did, having been to the Games in 2016 and 2021.
Nancy was more than a trainer and instructor; she was also a positive thinker, as well as a breeder, and someone who is empathetic and sympathetic to her students. She knew how to give horses an opportunity to do well..
“I will always remember a great lesson from Nancy, in that every horse deserves a chance to see what it could do,” Kent said.
“Even if the horse was very unconventional, too small or extremely difficult to ride, that didn’t mean that it couldn’t be a great horse in the competition arena. That sense of an open mind with horses and trying to make every horse be the best that it can be at whatever level that is, remains a way of thinking that I carry with me today.”