Imagine a time when there were no computers or internet. When most of the Bay Area was made up of agriculture, with wide open spaces, and backyard stables filled with horses, even in Atherton and Palo Alto. Woodside and Portola Valley were practically the wild west, with one story ranch houses and small stables dotting the landscape. Into this rural setting, picture a small group of people intent on fostering the art and sport of dressage, something as foreign at that time as carrying a phone in your back pocket.
Luckily for California, one of these dedicated pioneers was Russian born Kyra Downton. In the 1950s Kyra competed in eventing, but switched to dressage after becoming friends with Elizabeth Searle, another instrumental figure in California dressage who later received the USDF Lifetime Achievement Award.
Kyra became interested in having clinics at her lovely Atherton estate that became known as “Atherton Dressage”, setting the stage for what was to become CDS and influencing the development of USDF. Downton’s clinicians included such well-known European names as Lt. Col. Hans Moeller and Col. Alois Podhajsky of the Spanish Riding School, who would coach Kyra leading up to the 1968 Olympics. Like minded riders would get together to ride and train at Downton’s estate, with the occasional show taking place.
The first Grand Prix rider in the state, Kyra went on to compete in the 1967 Pan American Games in Winnipeg, Canada, with her German born Holsteiner Kadett, where she won the individual gold medal and team silver. The pair also competed at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics, where they were the high scoring rider for the US. Inducted into the Roemer Foundation/USDF Hall of Fame in 2002, Downton was a true dressage trailblazer, taking California and the US to a level of excellence and involvement it had never before experienced.
With Kyra’s help, the sport began to take hold in California and the need for a statewide organization began to be recognized. In 1967 with only 18 members, CDS was born. SFP’s status as the first chapter illustrates the intense interest in dressage that existed in this area, along with a legacy of learning that still permeates the SFP chapter. Today, with over 3,000 individual members and 30 Chapters, CDS is the largest dressage organization in the nation.
Photos: Gaby Bradbury
