Virginian Gary Baker and Kentuckians Jean McLean Davis and Donna Moore to be Honored

(Lexington, KY) – The United States Equestrian Federation® will award the 2006 Pegasus Medals of Honor during the Pegasus Awards Gala at its Annual Meeting, Friday, January 12, at the Seelbach Hotel in downtown Louisville, Kentucky. The award recognizes individuals who have exhibited outstanding service to horses and sport, and who, through their dedication, have attracted people to the sport and contributed it by advancing its popularity. The 2006 recipients are as follows:

W. Gary Baker – Middleburg, Virginia
Well-known as a consummate horseman with interests in a variety of disciplines, Baker owns, breeds, trains, shows and sells Welsh and crossbred ponies and Thoroughbreds. His ponies have won multiple times on the line at the Devon and Upperville horse shows, and his horses have won eight USEF National Horse of the Year awards. He also serves as the manager of multiple hunter/jumper competitions, including two of the countries oldest (Boumi Temple Mounted Patrol and Loudoun Benefit). He learned from some of the greatest in his industry, including the legendary Sallie J. Sexton for whom he showed horses and ran a barn. For many years, Baker has shown his commitment to the betterment of the sport through his time devoted to major equestrian organizations such as the United States Equestrian Federation (USEF), United States Hunter Jumper Association (USHJA), Virginia Horse Show Association (VHSA) and Maryland Horse Show Association (MHSA), in addition to earning several judging licenses from the Federation, where he also holds several hunter committee seats. His passion for fox hunting, steeplechasing and flat racing only add to his already storied and successful career as one of the hunter world’s busiest figures. Somehow, he still finds time to selects bulls and run the cattle operation at Sunnybank Farm, and he also breeds and shows Norwich Terriers.

Jean McLean Davis – Harrodsburg, Kentucky
From early beginnings – and early winnings – Davis learned to be associated with the word “champion,” and spent her life devoted to becoming one of the all-time great exhibitors, owners and breeders of the American Saddlebred. She was 12 years old when she won her first major championship at Madison Square Garden. By the age of 14, she had won her first World Grand Championship, a feat she repeated at ages 16 and 17. Among her Five-Gaited World Grand Champions were Oak Hill Chief in 1943 and 1945 and CH Yorktown from 1970 to 1972. Then, in the Three-Gaited division, she won it all with Edith Fable in 1945 and 1946. Three decades later, in the 1970s, she repeated winning with Dear One in 1973 and 1974. Yet another decade later, in 1981 and 1982, it was CH Hometown Hero that would be her championship horse. In all, as owner of her amazing Oak Hill Farm, Davis has won some 65 World Grand Championships. She won the Three-Gaited World’s Grand Championship in 1989 aboard Gimcrack, and that same year her stallion, CH Man On The Town, won the first of two Five-Gaited World’s Grand Championships. She is a member of the Kentucky State Fair Horse Show Hall of Fame, the American Saddlebred Association of Virginia Hall of Farm, and was the first woman in the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame. She was honored by the American Saddlebred Horse Association with the Breeders Award in 1986 and is the recipient of the Kentucky State Fair Audrey Gutridge Award presented to a woman who loves the sport of showing horses while helping others enjoy it.

Donna Moore – Versailles, Kentucky

Donna Moore is a highly honored member of the Saddlebred community, having won the Kentucky State Fair’s Audrey Gutridge Award and the United Professional Horsemen’s Association (UPHA) Professional Horseman of the Year Award. A founding member of the UPHA, she is also an inductee into the Kentucky State Fair Hall of Fame and the UPHA Hall of Fame. With her husband Tom, she won 36 championships in one year at the Kentucky State Fair World Championship Horse Show. She has not only succeeded for herself, but she has shared her immense talents with others, having put together successful breeding operations including Knolland Farm for Ed Jenner and Belle Reve Farm for William Shatner. Her far-reaching talents know few bounds. In 1983, her Shannon Run sale set a new world record for a Saddlebred when Preferred Property sold for $1,200,000. Holding several licenses, Moore has judged many major USEF shows including the National Horse Show at Madison Square Garden and the Saddlebred Triple Crown which consists of the Kentucky State Fair, Lexington Junior League and the American Royal horse shows.

For more information about the Annual Meeting visit the USEF website at www.usef.org or contact Ilse Dehner, Manager, Travel and Events at (859) 225-6961 or via e-mail at [email protected].