Becky Grand Hart

In July of 2022, she was diagnosed with corticobasal degeneration (CBD), a very rare neurodegenerative syndrome that afflicts only 5,000 people in the U.S. at any one time. She endured its debilitating effects with dignity, even during her final days of being relegated to a wheelchair or recliner and barely being able to stand. We were very lucky that she maintained her cognition and courage until her last breath.

Used to a physically active and challenging life, the pain and immobility that Becky was experiencing and the prognosis of further debilitation, encouraged Becky to exercise her right to use Medical Aid in Dying. She approached this choice to exit on her own terms with fierce determination – the same determination that helped her achieve so many glorious triumphs on horseback.

From her early youth, Becky’s irrepressible love for horses guided her life. Her mother recently told me that, when Becky was five years old, the family would go to a restaurant located next to a horse pasture. Becky would steal sugar cubes off the table at the end of the meal so she could feed them to the horse. If her parents chose to go to a different restaurant, Becky would argue with them until they relented and went to the “horse restaurant.” Though her parents worked for the local school district and were not wealthy, they indulged Becky’s passion and bought her a horse. As a young woman she excelled in the show ring after years of lessons, joining Pony Club, and attending the Potomac Horse Center in Maryland. Then her farrier introduced her to the sport of endurance, and she never looked back. Endurance riding (overseen by the American Endurance Ride Conference or AERC) requires the horse and rider to complete a fifty-to-one-hundred-mile ride over varying terrain in one day. There are veterinary checks along the way where horses are confirmed fit to continue and both horse and rider can rest and eat for a given time. The vets examine various parameters of the horses’ health, such as pulse, hydration, and soundness. If they pass the exam, they are allowed to continue the ride. Becky started with fifty-milers. Then her friend Julie Suhr, asked her if she could borrow Becky’s horse Boo for the famous Western States one-hundred-mile ride over the Sierra, also known as the Tevis. In Julie’s own words:

There are few things sadder than a Tevis Cup addict seeing the ride date approaching and they do not have a horse ready for it. One year I was one of those people and a neighbor said I could take her horse. I remonstrated that if her horse could do Tevis why was she not riding it rather than offering it to me. Her reply was, “Oh, I could never do that.” She agreed she would crew for me because I did not know her horse very well and she would be at vet checks to assess him. I had him for about three weeks pre-Tevis to get acquainted.

So, with a horse named Boo I ventured out on my Tevis Cup fix knowing his owner would be watching closely. Boo found the hundred miles fairly easy going and we finished nicely. His owner was at the finish and said “Oh, I think maybe I could do that.”

She rode that hundred miler on four occasions, in 1976, 1984, 1986 and 1988. She managed to win the Tevis Cup Ride on two of those years. Her name? Becky Hart.

Becky went on to complete over 21,000 miles of endurance races. Among those were gold medal wins with her great horse R.O. Grand Sultan (Rio) at three Endurance World Championships: first in Virginia in 1988, then in Sweden in 1990, and in Spain in 1992. She won the AERC National Championships twice, the North American Championships twice and the Race of Champions twice. Both the Chronicle of the Horse and the United States Equestrian Team named her Equestrian of the Year in 1990. In 1992, the AERC inducted her into the Hall of Fame. Two of her horses, Khazen +/ and Rio +//, joined her there. The International Arabian Horse Registry acknowledged her with a Special Achievement Award.

Becky served on the United States Equestrian Federation Board of Trustees, the AERC Board of Directors, worked as an FEI (International Equestrian Federation) three-star judge, a team selector for FEI competitions, and organized and managed over 75 endurance rides, including FEI two-star rides.

In 2007 Becky was appointed Chef d’Equipe for the U.S. Endurance Team. She coached and trained the U.S. Team through two World Championships in 2008 and 2010. In 2012 Becky was selected to be on the 2012 USEF World Championship Team with her horse, No Repeat (Pete). The pair held the 3rd fastest U.S. time for 100 miles: a blazing seven hours and 22 minutes. They flew to England for the competition, but Pete had a muscle cramp and did not start. He was purchased by the UAE and Becky was subsequently invited to go there to ride him in the President’s Cup race in 2013. Riding in the UAE is very different from riding in the U.S. Here, we ride in varied and challenging terrain which determines the horse’s speed. Technical areas give the horses a break from speed and challenge them mentally. In the UAE, the terrain is flat and the races fast. The horses must be trained differently. Five months of desert training was not quite enough for Pete. He and Becky started the race but at 75 miles, Becky felt that he had had enough of galloping through the desert, and she and his trainer agreed to “rider option” him out of the race. Becky always chose the welfare of the horse over her own pride. Reuniting with Pete was enough of a reward for her.

This litany of accomplishments is impressive, but not really what I want to say about Becky. I want to reveal the deeper part of her personality that led to those successes and allowed her receive accolades without letting them go to her head. These aspects of her are elusive and every time I try to put them into words, they seem to fly out of my reach, maybe because she was very private and noble. Her wisdom came through her silences rather than through bravado. Here is a bit of history that exemplifies her determination.

In 1988 Becky finished the season with unrelenting back pain. She was diagnosed with a

degenerating disc. Her doctor insisted that she stop riding. Not an option! Determined to continue her beloved sport of endurance, she attended a clinic with renowned equestrian, Linda Tellington-Jones, who developed both the restorative TTouch technique and gentle methods of horse training. Linda observed Becky’s forward seat position and suggested that she try Centered Riding®. Becky followed that advice, began Centered Riding® lessons and was pleased that the changes she made in her own body freed up Rio’s way of going. She became a level three Centered Riding® instructor and went on to teach all levels of riders, from children to adults, beginners to world class competitors. I believe that sharing her passion for horses and riding gave her even more satisfaction than gold medals. She gave generously of herself, sharing both her winning strategies in endurance and Centered Riding® techniques.

Since her death I have received so many condolences from former students who commend her generosity and say they still hear her guiding voice when they ride, helping them breathe, center and grow and most of all, stay focused. This is what one of her students wrote to her: “My beautiful friend Becky, I will miss you and never forget you. I hope you are exploring a new world with Rio and all the good dogs and horses and souls you already knew. I hope there are high peaks and technical trails and wide-open high desert spaces for long gallops. And I just want to say thank you, Becky, for sharing so much knowledge with my daughter and me and, for the life lessons in clarity, balance, resilience, and fierce dignity. Thank you for being coherent, authentic, self-aware, unwavering you.”

Becky’s generosity also extended to sharing her world championship horse with other riders, including myself. Even when crewing for Rio, her determination led the way. I rode Rio at the 1993 North American Championship in Alberta, Canada. He had tied up three weeks before the ride. When we showed him at the pre-ride veterinary check, the vets thought he did not look quite like himself and refused to put him on the U.S. Team. He and I had to compete as individuals. Becky was fuming after she heard this decision. She turned to me and erupted with, “We’re gonna win this fu*king thing!” And we did, even though Becky forgot to bring grain pans and we had to feed Rio from a spaghetti pot (she was a much better competitor than crew).

After Becky was diagnosed with CBD, she acquired one last horse, Mighty Mouse, a small grey Arabian gelding who loved the trail. Our friend Genelle Cate trained him to stand still for Becky to mount and he seemed to understand right away that Becky needed special care. Her extraordinary feel for horses allowed the two of them to develop a special bond in a very short time. She had no use of her right hand, so she rode him only with her left. One of my best memories is of watching Mouse and Becky disappear uphill on Thanksgiving, 2023, knowing that she was once again enjoying the freedom of being in the wilderness astride a forward-going horse.

During the last week of her life, I asked Becky what her favorite endurance memory was, and ever humble, she did not reply with some madcap race to a gold medal win, but instead replied, “The Castle Rock Ride, when I got to the top of the hill and all the baby bull frogs jumped into the pond.”

I hope that she will be remembered not only for her natural talent and stellar endurance career, but also for so generously sharing her knowledge with equestrians all over the world. I am blessed to have shared 36 years of my life with her. Becky, I am with you, galloping up Mt. Umnhm on single track switchbacks, shrubs smacking us in the face as we whizz from shadow to light, giddy with the ecstasy rendered only by a wild ride.

If you would like to make a donation in Becky’s honor, please send it either to CUREPSP, an organization that supports people suffering from CBD, PSP, FTD, or MSA – all rare brain disorders, or the Brain Support Network, by clicking on the links under Donations below. Becky donated her own brain and spinal cord to an on-going memory and aging study at UCSF that is also researching her disease.

We will announce a celebration of life for Becky on Facebook. Go to Becky Hart’s page or to my own, Judith Ogus.