United States Eventing Association

In 2022, Mary Sawyer became the first eventer to ever receive the USEA Century Ride Award with her own Unique Conversion. Three years later, history has repeated itself as Sawyer has done it again with Eclipse—Unique Conversion’s daughter. Eclipse (by Escapade) and Sawyer completed their Century Ride on May 15 at the Spokane Sport Horse Spring Horse Trials in Spokane, Washington. Despite having the odds stacked against her, Sawyer prevailed to cross the finish line in 18th place in the Beginner Novice Amateur division.

“I kept one hand on the reins and put my other hand up in the air, and ‘Yay!’ ” Sawyer remembered.

The weekend began in a less-than-ideal way. A bold and forward horse, Eclipse bolted several times in the dressage warm-up and during her test. Not even the weather was cooperating.

“I just turned 80,” Sawyer said. “We went to Spokane, and I did the Century Ride, but it rained the whole weekend, off and on—not a lot, but pretty steady. It was wet, and it was cold.”

Showing some classic eventing grit, Sawyer didn’t let the weather or the fact her dressage test was a little too exciting deter her. However, her best laid plans for her show jumping warm-up went awry after a collision ended with Sawyer on the ground.

“As I was warming up for stadium, somebody wasn't paying attention. They ran straight into the side of my horse,” Sawyer said. “Eclipse did a 180, and I went forward and came off in the warm-up arena. So, I had to wait for medical staff to come and talk to me so that I could get back on because I was up next. It was just really freaky and, because of coming off, I was apprehensive.”

Once cleared by the medics, Sawyer was back on Eclipse and in the ring for show jumping, where she left all the poles in the cups and added just 4 time faults to her overall score. Sawyer forged onwards through a weekend of bad luck, but she did take some precautions heading into the final phase.

“When I went cross-country the next day, Sunday, I was apprehensive about her taking off, so I trotted the whole thing,” Sawyer said. “It was just a weird, weird weekend!”

Sawyer didn’t just accomplish her second Century Ride, she also displayed perseverance and determination in the face of some bad luck. As she crossed the finish line that marked her success, she was greeted by a few familiar faces.

“It was really, really neat to have those people, those old friends there,” Sawyer said. “These were long time friends who came to witness it, and that was so exciting to have that happen.”

However, she didn’t get to celebrate too much. Feeling worn out, Sawyer headed straight home. Later on, she discovered she had had an unwelcome partner with her as she competed that weekend—a serious illness that had been brewing for the past several months, unbeknownst to her. “I was tired; I wanted to go to bed. I was so sick and didn't know I was sick, right?” Sawyer said.

“On June 14, I went into the hospital,” she continued. “I had an illness that I was unaware of; no symptoms except my back pain. I was in the hospital for three days with this illness. So come to find out, I'd been carrying it around for a couple of months, getting it worse and worse and worse and worse.”

For her part, Eclipse must be built of similar stuff as her owner—at 20 years old, the Rhinelander/Paint cross shows no signs of slowing down. According to Sawyer, Eclipse is nothing like her mother, the easy going Unique.

“She’s just wild. She has just always been very, very forward,” she said. “I was 60 when she was born, and I didn't ride her until she was 4. I started her then but did not force her anywhere. And by the time she was 6 and 7, she was doing low level stuff.”

While she was quite excitable as a young horse, it’s clear that Sawyer, East Wenatchee, Washington, wouldn’t trade her spunky mare for the world.

“She's mine, nobody else's,” Sawyer said with a laugh. “I've done all the training on her. We can do gates, and we can do trails. In fact, my barn, Appleatchee, just bought the mountain across the road. So, we have over 700 acres, and we can ride up the mountain and look down at Appleatchee and see all of our barns and all of our arenas.”

From the moment Eclipse was born, Sawyer has been a constant presence in her life, just as Sawyer is for Unique, too. Having been the one to breed both horses, Sawyer hasn’t just trained the mares herself, she also personally oversees every aspect of their care at her self-care barn.

“I saw both of these mares born. I was there when they foaled,” she said. “It's just neat to be able to say, ‘I raised these two. I see them every day.’ It's cool. Just a neat thing.”

Despite having raised these two mares herself, Sawyer emphasizes that she didn’t do it on her own. She took lessons from many trainers along the way and particularly placed her trust in Patrick Wyse. When asked what advice she would give to someone looking to follow in her footsteps, she said simply, “Go to somebody you trust for help.”