Mary Anne McPhail (2025)

In addition to being a USEF ‘S’ Dressage Judge, a USDF Bronze, Silver, and Gold Medalist, and a 2018 USDF Member of Distinction, Mary Anne McPhail is known for her lifelong dedication to and support of dressage and judge training. This is evidenced by her establishment of The Dressage Foundation’s Mary Anne and Walter McPhail Judges Education Fund – the first of its kind, developed with the specific purpose of supporting USDF’s judge education initiatives and creating more awareness from the judges perspective among the dressage community. For many years, she has also generously allowed her High Meadow Farm to play host to the annual Adequan®/USDF FEI Level Trainers Conferences, one of USDF’s marquee educational events.

Induction Speech

Mary Anne McPhail’s initiative and philanthropy have literally transformed the way we train, show, judge, and care for our dressage horses. Although she focused her efforts on dressage in the US, the effects of those efforts have rippled across the sport worldwide, ultimately changing all of our horses’ lives and welfare for the better.

It’s hard to overstate the impact that the Mary Anne McPhail Dressage Chair in Equine Sports Medicine has had on our sport. Before 1997, when Mary Anne and her husband, Walter, endowed the chair at Michigan State University, Mary Anne’s alma mater, , there had never been anything like it — a dressage-focused research position that would allow the chairholder to study literally anything pertaining to the sport.

The inaugural McPhail Chairholder, renowned equine-biomechanics expert Dr. Hilary Clayton, called the position “the opportunity of a lifetime.” Over her 17 years at MSU, Dr. Clayton produced groundbreaking finding after groundbreaking finding, and her research has helped shape everything from how the dressage rule books define the gaits and movements, to how we manage our equine athletes and select their tack and equipment. The McPhail Chair is still going strong, and the current Chairholder, Dr. Jane Manfredi, is busy conducting research that will further improve our horses’ health and well-being. All of this research takes place at the Mary Anne McPhail Equine Performance Center at MSU’s School of Veterinary Medicine, which Mary Anne and Walter funded.

If you’ve enjoyed the Florida winter dressage scene, then you’ve benefited from another aspect of Mary Anne’s vision. Wellington and the Adequan Global Dressage Festival are arguably the epicenter of dressage in the US — so prestigious that they attract competitors from around the country, and even around the world.

It wasn’t always that way; in 1988, when the McPhails purchased a farm west of Wellington, there was a modest dressage show at the nearby White Fences showgrounds called the Palm Beach Dressage Derby. By the late 90s, the Derby “was floundering and on the verge of disappearing,” according to Evelyn O’Sullivan, the show’s former manager and a longtime friend of Mary Anne’s. Evelyn continued, saying that, in 1998, “Mary Anne quietly purchased the license and corporation, and Walter built the showgrounds at White Fences Equestrian Estates to showcase the Derby and to allow it to grow. None of this was easy, but they quietly persevered. And the rest is history.”

History, indeed: The Derby became one of the country’s most prestigious dressage shows, and its popularity helped to boost Florida’s profile as a Mecca for not only hunter/jumper shows, but also for dressage. Meanwhile, for years, hundreds of USDF members have made an annual pilgrimage to the McPhails’ High Meadow Farm in Loxahatchee, which Mary Anne graciously offered as the venue for the USDF FEI-Level Trainers Conference. It will surely be a bittersweet experience when we gather at High Meadow next month for the 2026 Trainers Conference, as sadly, we lost our beloved Mary Anne on July 29 of this year, at the age of 92.

Mary Anne never lost her zest for horses and riding, and she was much more than a hands-off benefactor. She rode as a child and, like many horse-crazy girls, put her equestrian dreams on the back burner while she attended college, married, and started a family. But when she and Walter were able to purchase their first farm in Orchard Lake, Michigan, Mary Anne made up for lost time. She purchased horses and took up foxhunting, earning her colors from the Metamora Hunt. Eventually, she discovered dressage and fell in love with the sport. She served on the board of the Midwest Dressage Association; earned her USDF bronze, silver, and gold medals; and became a dressage judge, working her way up to USEF ‘S’ level. She rode nearly all the rest of her days, and along the way, she quietly supported some other riders in the pursuit of their dressage dreams. Aboard her stallion, Lectron, Robert Dover won a team bronze at the 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games, and she began to sponsor current high-performance rider Olivia LaGoy-Weltz prior to the 2021 Tokyo Olympics.

As recently as 2024, Mary Anne was still finding novel ways to improve US dressage. Her final major initiative — which her daughter, Melinda McPhail, called “truly the cause most near and dear to her heart” — was the creation ofthe Mary Anne and Walter McPhail Judge Education Fund at The Dressage Foundation. Her wish forthe Judge Education Fund is to provide support for enhanced education opportunities for judges throughthe USDF Judges Education Initiative, and to educatethe dressage community aboutthe judging process throughthe use of virtual and interactive technology.

In 2018,the USDF honored Mary Anne as a Member of Distinction. In truth, that title fails to capturethe scope and magnitude ofher contributions to our sportand our horses. The USDF is proud to induct Mary Anne McPhail intothe Roemer Foundation/USDF Hall of Fame.

Joining us tonight are Mark Jr. & Melinda Hartman, Mary Anne’s grandchildren, to celebrate her honorand many invaluable contributions to dressage.

- Kevin Reinig, USDF President