104 The Chronicle of the Horse

Mindy MinettoJudge, trainer and rider Mindy Minetto of Wellington, Fla., died on April 24 from a brain hemorrhage. She was 64.

Ms. Minetto was born on March 15, 1952, to Joseph and Madeline Minetto. She started riding at her parents’ Holiday Farms in River Vale, N.J. From 1967-1970, Ms. Minetto trained with Victor Hugo-Vidal at Cedar Lodge Farm in Stamford, Conn., and successfully contested the big eq.

“She was always fun to be with, and she was always a nice person,” recalled longtime friend Jimmy Toon, who met Ms. Minetto at Cedar Lodge Farm. “She would tell you how she felt. She didn’t hold anything back.”

Ms. Minetto attended college and received her nursing degree. She returned to horses in 1979 and began her own business, Stonehedge Farm in Suffern, N.Y. She spent the following 20 years developing and training hunter ponies, horses and riders for A-circuit competition.

According to her daughter, Brett Beason of Charlotte, N.C., Ms. Minetto had a keen eye for finding a diamond in the rough and bringing out that horse or pony’s natural ability. She was also fond of Thoroughbreds, and good hunters were her passion.

“She loved horses and the ponies,” said Toon. “She was more of a horse-woman than a lot of people realize. She ran a good business, and she brought along a lot of nice ponies and horses.”

In the 1980s and ’90s, Ms. Minetto trained numerous juniors, amateurs and professionals to win ribbons and championships at competitions including the Pennsylvania National Horse Show, The National Horse Show (N.Y.), Devon (Pa.) and AHSA Pony Finals. Some of her top horses and ponies were Buttons And Bows, Spur Of The Moment, Kiss Me Not, Millbrooks Moonglow, Splash and Bonnie Parker.

After Ms. Minetto sold Stonehedge Farm, she moved to Florida and

became a full-time hunter/jumper judge. Brett remembered her mother as a serious judge who prioritized fairness.

“The thing about Mindy that I loved is that you always knew where Mindy

stood,” said longtime friend and USHJA Funds Development

Director Bill Rube. “She was very honest and very funny. She wasn’t one to pull punches. I appreciated her as a judge, and I thought

she did a great job. She didn’t play any games.”

Ms. Minetto judged many prestigious shows such as the Winter Equestrian Festival (Fla.), Pony Finals, the Capital Challenge Horse Show (Md.) and the Sallie B. Wheeler/USEF National Hunter Breeding Championships. Ms. Minetto particularly enjoyed judging hunter derbies and pony conforma-tion classes.

She also spent the last eight years building an antique business, Wellington and Company Antiques, in Charlotte with Beason. She was an avid antique lover and collector.

“Mindy always had a smile on her face from ear to ear,” said Rube. “Whenever I saw her, we would just look at each other and start laughing without saying anything because we knew we were going to have a fun conversation. I would walk up, and she would see me and smile, and we would both start laughing. She would ask, ‘Who’s going to go first?’ Mindy always put a smile on my face, and she always had a warm smile—it was her trademark.”

Ms. Minetto is survived by her daughter, Brett Beason of Charlotte, N.C.; her mother, Madeline Minetto; and two brothers.

In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be sent to The Equestrian Aid Foundation, 11924 W. Forest Hill Blvd., Ste. 10A-377, Wellington, FL 33414 or online at http://equestrianaidfoundation.org/hope/, as well as the Hospice of Palm Beach County Foundation at https://hpbcf.org/donation#.V02W7ktR57M.

George A. “Frolic” WeymouthConservationist, artist, polo player and carriage driver George A. “Frolic” Weymouth died at home in Chadds Ford, Pa., on April 24 due to complications of congestive heart failure. He was 79.

Mr. Weymouth was born on June 2, 1936, in Wilmington, Del., to George and Dulcinea Weymouth (née du Pont). Due to his playful nature and sense of humor, Mr. Weymouth acquired the nickname “Frolic” after the family dog, who died shortly after he was born. While growing up in Greenville, Del., he took to his mother’s passions for art and horses. He played polo and rode race horses and hunters.

Mr. Weymouth graduated from Yale University (Conn.) in 1958 with a degree in American Studies. The previous year he’d guided the Yale polo team to the national championship.

When a back injury forced Mr. Weymouth to give up riding, he became a skilled four-in-hand driver. He enjoyed long distance carriage expedi-tions and drove thousands of miles in the United States, England and France. He was one of only two U.S. members of the Coaching Club in England, founded the Vicmead Coaching Club (Del.), and retired a coaching trophy at Devon (Pa.).

Mr. Weymouth hosted an annual six-mile parade from his home, the “Big Bend” in Chadds Ford, to the Winterthur Museum (Del.) for the annual point-to-point races held there in May. In 2008, he led a record 40 carriages in the parade while driving his two-horse coach that belonged to president James Buchanan, and was believed to have been used for President Abraham Lincoln’s inauguration.

“Frolic was a mainstay and the core of this event,” said point-to-point director Jill Abbott. “For 38 years, guests have looked forward to seeing Frolic and his parade of antique carriages. He will be missed tremendously.”

Mr. Weymouth earned a long list

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of awards and honors, including being appointed by President Richard Nixon to the Commission of Fine Arts (D.C.) from 1972-1977. He received the University of Delaware’s Merit Award for Community Service in 1981.

He was a well-known painter with a host of famous friends and acquain-tances that included Andrew Wyeth, Prince Philip and David Rockefeller.

In 1967, Mr. Weymouth, along with Bill Pricket and Francis I. du Pont, purchased 47 acres in Chadds Ford that were threatened with industrial development. They founded the orga-nization that became the Brandywine Conservancy & Museum of Art.

Mr. Weymouth also bought Hofmann’s Mill, located on the banks of the Brandywine River. Wyeth’s wife, Betsy, encouraged him to turn the mill into a museum, promising him art for its walls. The mill was renovated and opened in 1971 as the Brandywine River Museum. It currently has a collection of 4,000 works of art.

“Frolic was a neighbor and family,” said Andrew and Betsy’s son, Jamie Wyeth, in a statement. “He and my father were dear friends. He was an immensely talented artist and achieved so much with his work in Chadds Ford, both with land conservation and with the museum. He was truly a force of nature that instilled his passion for art and the environment into all of his many friends, and they opened their hearts and their wallets to his causes. He was the best fundraiser I ever met.”

The Brandywine Conservancy is now one of the leading land trusts in country, with 62,000 acres of land permanently protected in Pennsylvania and Delaware.

In the early 1980s, Mr. Weymouth worked with the conservancy and a group of local investors to acquire most of the former King Ranch in Chester County, Pa. More than 5,000 acres of the ranch were acquired as easements, with about 800 acres, known as the Laurels, going to the conservancy outright.

Mr. Weymouth is survived by his companion, Carlton Cropper; his son, McCoy “Mac” du Pont Weymouth and his wife Toni Toomey-Weymouth; his

brother, Eugene E. Weymouth; his sister, Patricia Weymouth Hobbs; and two grandchildren.

In lieu of flowers, memorial contri-butions may be made to the Frolic Weymouth Endowment Fund of the Brandywine Conservancy & Museum of Art, https://335.blackbaudhosting.com/335/George-A-Frolic-Weymouth-Memorial-Fund.

Judith Beall YoungHorsewoman Judith Beall Young died on April 28 at her home in Camden, S.C. She was 78.

Mrs. Young was born in Pittsburgh on May 14, 1937, to Dr. Chester F. Beall and Marie Roeschenthaler Beall. She began riding at age 4. She taught her pony Boots to pull her sled and even rode him to school.

In 1941, Dr. Beall purchased a 198-acre property in Pennsylvania and named it Beallgrove Farms. There, Mrs. Young worked with 3- and 5-gaited saddle horses and fine harness horses. At 12, Mrs. Young won the Good Hands Championship for saddleseat equita-tion at the Pennsylvania National Horse Show aboard Tommy Tucker.

She graduated magna cum laude from the Centenary Junior College for Women (N.J.) in 1957. Following gradu-ation, she worked at The Jockey Club in New York City. She continued to show saddleseat and wrote a horse show column, “Joggin With Judy,” for Saddle And Bridle magazine.

Mrs. Young transitioned to hunter/jumpers after meeting her husband, Roger Young Jr., whom she married in 1960. Together they operated Roger Young Stables for more than 40 years, first in New York and then in Camden. Mrs. Young enjoyed teaching and developing young riders. She coached her son, Gary Young, to win the 1979 ASPCA Maclay Finals at the National Horse Show (N.Y.), and he later became a member of the U.S. Equestrian Team.

“She would pack me up and take me to the horse shows when my father couldn’t because we had such a big horse business,” recalled Gary. “The week before the Maclay Finals in 1979, George Morris was helping

me, and she told George that there was no way I could win the Maclay Finals because of my flatwork, and George said, ‘Judy I guarantee he will not lose on the flat.’ ”

Mrs. Young helped launch the careers of numerous professionals and horses. She achieved national Horse of the Year titles and earned champion-ships at Devon (Pa.), the National Horse Show and the Pennsylvania National Horse Show. Mrs. Young was also an “R” judge until her retirement in 2005.

“I was truly overwhelmed by the number of people who contacted us after my aunt’s passing to let us know how much she helped them,” said her niece, Heidi Young Schmutz. “Obviously I know how much she and Uncle Roger did for me and taught me when I was growing up. They ensured I was able to continue riding and had wonderful ponies, especially when things were tight financially for my parents. But we heard the same thing from many, many people across the country, many of them now highly successful professionals.”

During retirement, Mrs. Young enjoyed traveling with her family and friends, and spending time with her granddaughter, Stella.

“She will be remembered not only for the legacy she left the horse show community, but also for her strong work ethic, artistic ability, needlepoint, incredible cooking, love of music and Broadway shows, all manner of dogs, and a weakness for chestnut horses and the color pink,” said Schmutz.

“Strong-willed would be the best way to describe my mother’s character,” said Gary.

Mrs. Young is survived by her son, Gary Young and his wife Michaela of Camden, S.C.; her brother, David Beall of Erie, Pa.; half-siblings Chester (Chip) Beall Jr. of Fayetteville, Ga., and Dr. Melissa (Missy) Beall of Cape Elizabeth, Maine; and one granddaughter.

In lieu of flowers, Mrs. Young’s family has established the Judy Young Ride Forever Scholarship Fund to help young riders in need. Donations may be sent c/o SCHJA, 1357 Turnersburg Highway, Statesville, NC 28625.