Richard Collins

Richard "Dick" Collins attended a military school in Southern California that had a strong riding program and troop of horses. He became enamored of the sport of eventing first as a spectator at the 1932 Olympic Games. He returned to his home in Pebble Beach, California enthused with visions of launching his own three-day event, which he did with great success at the Pebble Beach Equestrian Center, which he also managed for many years.

Eventing in California in the 1930s had a distinctly romantic quality due largely to the influences of Richard Collins. Decked out in tweed jacket and cap, he created a decidedly colorful and lasting influence over a group of youngsters who grew to be the young lions of eventing for the West Coast and the country at large. He formed the first Pony Club on the west coast, developed a summer day camp, and each month held a horse trials which were wildly popular with the local youth.

"Children were his real life. All young people were," explained his wife Sheila. "And if you look at those young people, many stayed with horses." The summer camps and horse trials became the seeding ground for many future talents. Several of the working students that passed through Pebble Beach eventually went on to become key competitors, trainers, course designers, and organizers in the western states and beyond, among them FEI course designers Pete Costello and Derek di Grazia, and Olympians Kevin Freeman, Eric Horgan, and Michael Page.

And while Dick never rode on an international team, he served as manager of the USET's three-day team at the 1955 Pan American Games in Chicago, and traveled with the Team's horses to the 1960 Rome Olympics.

Dick retired as manager of the Pebble Beach Equestrian Center in 1979, and passed away five years later. The sport of eventing, on both coasts, owes a debt of gratitude to this true eventing patriot.

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