Tryon Riding and Hunt Club will be the topic of discussion at the next ‘Tales of Tryon’ presentation. (Image courtesy of Tryon History Museum)

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Tryon Riding & Hunt Club marks 100 years

 

TRYON—The Tryon History Museum, in partnership with the Polk County Community Foundation, will continue its Tales of Tryon season with a presentation on the 100-year history of the Tryon Riding and Hunt Club. The program will be held on Thursday, June 26, at Holy Cross Parish Hall, and TR&HC President Joanne Gibbs will be the featured speaker.

Tryon and Polk County were blessed by nature—not only with a marvelously temperate climate but with some of the world’s best hunting country and uncounted acres of forest and meadow land, perfect for riding trails. Residents have made good use of these endowments; today, Polk County boasts the largest per capita equine population of any of our state’s 100 counties. 

Wise development of natural assets, however, requires skilled and focused human leadership. Many have responded to this challenge over the years, but the first among equals was Michigan hotelier and horseman Carter Brown, who came to Tryon in 1917 and purchased a former tuberculosis sanatorium that he transformed into the Pine Crest Inn. 

Recognizing Tryon’s unlimited possibilities as an equestrian center, Brown founded the Tryon Riding and Hunt Club in 1925 to support horse-related activities in Polk County and Western North Carolina. Over the next half-century, Brown and the club worked with landowners to develop and maintain hundreds of miles of trails and organized equestrian activities that ranged from Olympic-grade competitions to riding to the hounds.

The Tryon Charity Horse Show, first held in 1926, and the Block House Steeplechase, inaugurated in 1947, were examples of Brown’s ingenuity, coupled with the dedication and hard work of the Riding and Hunt Club. The club took over the Horse Show’s official sponsorship in 1929 and is presently staging its 97th annual renewal under the TR&HC banner.

The Charity II Horse Show joined the original show, now referred to as the Charity Horse Show I, some 75 years later.  The original show is now one of the oldest continually held shows in the county and one of only 33 shows nationally (out of over 2,000 sanctioned by the U.S. Equestrian Federation) to be designated a Heritage Competition—one that over a long period of time has made a substantial contribution to the development and promotion of equestrian sports. Harmon Field, also dating to the 1920s and currently undergoing a revitalization in the wake of Hurricane Helene, shares a closely intertwined history of almost a century with the Tryon Riding and Hunt Club. In addition, the Tryon International Equestrian Center has, during the last decade, provided many new partnership opportunities for the club.

All the while, the ever-popular Any and All Dog Show continues, along with a recent year’s renewal of the Horse and Hound Show, first staged in the 1920s, and a return of the historic Carter Brown Bar-B-Que at Harmon Field.

All of this and much more will be covered in the June 26 presentation. Doors open at Holy Cross at 4 p.m., and the talk begins at 5.  Admission is free, and all are invited to join in celebrating one of Tryon’s most enduring institutions.

 

Submitted by Dick Callaway