Dawn Wofford

Biographical information

RolesCompeted in Olympic Games
SexFemale
Full nameDawn•Wofford (Palethorpe-)
Used nameDawn•Wofford
Born23 May 1936 in Kidderminster, England (GBR)
Died12 July 2015 in Studley, England (GBR)
Measurements165 cm / 50 kg
NOC Great Britain

Biography

Show jumping was a high profile sport in Great Britain in the 1950s and 60s because of the wide coverage on BBC television, and the sport produced many great stars. Harry Llewellyn, Ted Edgar, David Broome and Alan Oliver became family names, but it was the rivalry between the girls Pat Smythe and Dawn Palethorpe that gripped the public’s imagination.

The daughter of Jack Palethorpe, a member of the famous Palethorpe pie and sausage empire, Dawn learned to ride a pony before she could walk. She was also a fine swimmer and tennis player, thanks largely to the spacious family home having a tennis court and indoor swimming pool. Her father was a keen all-round sportsman who enjoyed the winter sports of ice hockey and skiing, and was also a keen yachtsman, polo player and hunter. Dawn joined the Pony Club when she was two and at 15 was runner-up at the Leading Junior Show Jumper of the Year event in 1951. She switched from ponies to horses in 1953 and the following year was the Ladies National champion and was also the leading Showjumper of the Year on Holywell Surprise. Her next horse was to be Earlsrath Rambler and so was born one of the great partnerships of British show jumping. The pair won the Queen Elizabeth II Cup at the Royal International Horse Show in both 1955 and 1956. They also won the puissance at Aachen in 1955 and the following year were reserves for the British team at the Stockholm Olympics which is where she met her future husband Warren Wofford, the son of Colonel John Wofford, the first president of the US equestrian team. Warren and Dawn married the following year. After Earlsrath Rambler retired her next horse was her husband’s former horse Hollandia and they represented Britain at the Rome Olympics and won a silver medal at the European Women’s Championships at Copenhagen a few months before the Games.

Shortly afterward the Olympics she retired from competitive jumping to raise her family. She remained involved with the Pony Club and was in 1991 appointed its first female chairman. In 1992 she re-wrote the Pony Club’s “Bible” - Manual of Horsemanship, which was quite an achievement for somebody who struggled to read and write at school because of dyslexia. She trained as a music teacher and had a love of music and opera. She was also a clever bridge player and expert shot, and after Warren’s death in 1997 she took up hunting again in her sixties. Dawn’s sister Jill was also a show jumper and like Dawn, won the Queen Elizabeth II Cup (then the Princess Elizabeth Cup) as a 17-year-old in 1950.

Results

Games Discipline (Sport) / Event NOC / Team Pos Medal As
1960 Summer Olympics Equestrian Jumping (Equestrian) GBR Dawn Wofford
Individual, Open (Olympic) Hollandia =20

Olympic family relations