Michael Plumb was just 20 when he made his first of what would become a string of seven Olympic appearances. Nearly 50 years later, Plumb, who has walked in more opening ceremonies, a total of eight, than any other Olympian, has been honored with inclusion in the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame.
It’s about time, say many in the equestrian world. “He should have been a shoo-in many years ago,” wrote one fan, Kris Knuff, in support of Plumb’s Hall of Fame induction. “He has given his all to the sport – not just in winning medals at the Olympics, but in training and bringing along many top riders and horses over the years… This is long overdue.”
As a teenager, Plumb rode horses mostly in the summers; during the school year he focused on playing baseball, basketball and football, where he was the team quarterback. But riding is in his blood. “It just happened; horses were everywhere,” he says. His grandfather rode horses, as did his father, Charles Plumb, a widely known horseman who once, while competing in the Maryland Hunt Cup, fell off of his horse, remounted and came back to win the prestigious race. “He gave me every chance to succeed,” says Plumb, whose own son, Charlie, is also a rider.
In 1957 Plumb competed in his first three-day event, which comprises several types of riding: dressage, cross-country and show-jumping. Two years later he began his international career, competing in the Pan American Games. In those days, “it was a team sport,” he says. “They gave individual medals, but if you had to decide between going for yourself or for the team, there’s no doubt you’d go for the team.”
Plumb “was the rider you wanted to go into the trenches with. You knew he was going to finish, and that he was going to finish with a good score,” says Jim Wofford, who rode with Plumb on the 1968 and 1972 Olympic teams and who, like Plumb, is a member of the United States Eventing Association Hall of Fame.
Denny Emerson, who rode with Plumb on the 1974 World Championship team, concurs. “Mike was very cool under pressure. He was the one you wanted to go in the ring to get the job done for the team,” he says. Plumb was the captain of that team, which brought home a gold medal.
Whereas U.S. Olympians used to compete on horses that had been donated to the country, “now everyone owns their own horse and has their own trainer,” Plumb says. “Once they get to Beijing [for the 2008 Olympics], they’ll have a team coordinator, but people mostly train at home.” The former practice of intensive training as a group contributed strongly to the team-first philosophy, he says.
Equine Journal has described Plumb as “incredibly reliable and experienced in a team situation. He always seemed to know exactly what was needed to secure medals, making him the ultimate team player.”
No doubt, Plumb excelled at earning medals. Between 1964 and 1984 he earned three silver and two team gold Olympic medals as well as an individual silver medal in the three-day event.
One of those medals he won on a horse he had never ridden in competition – an unprecedented feat and a good story. Plumb had ridden a family horse, Markham, at the 1960 Olympics, in Rome, but during the next few years Markham began to lose his composure. While on an airplane bound for Tokyo and the 1964 Olympics, Markham grew claustrophobic and threw a fit. When his behavior began to affect the other horses, there was no choice but to euthanize him, leaving Plumb with no horse to ride and few options for finding a replacement.
In the end, a friend of Plumb’s who had not qualified for that year’s Olympic team flew his horse to Plumb in Tokyo. On a horse that he’d never ridden in competition and that wasn’t even his own, Plumb medaled, making history. “Horses make the rider,” he says, “and this was a super horse.”
In addition to his Olympic appearances, Plumb was a member of several Pan American Games teams, winning two team gold medals and, in 1967, an individual gold. He won team and individual silver medals at the 1974 World Championships, and team bronze medals at that event in 1978 and 1982.
He was inducted into the USEA Hall of Fame in 2003. He has been named USEA Leading Rider of the Year 10 times, and he’s trained students who have earned this award as well. His long record of passing on his knowledge to younger riders is another reason he’s revered within the equestrian community.
His “giving back” was referenced again and again when the public voted for their choice of Olympic Hall of Fame inductees. Plumb “was incredibly generous to our daughter when competing in the North American Young Rider Championships,” wrote Bonnie Caie. “Without expectation of financial reimbursement, Mike walked courses and shared his wealth of knowledge with Jessie to help keep her and her horse safe while competing. We are grateful for his equestrian skill and knowledge freely shared to foster the enjoyment and safety of the sport of three-day eventing.”
Another supporter, identified only as Lynda, wrote that “besides being an amazing athlete, [Plumb] has gone out of his way to give back to the sport. He teaches, does clinics and lectures. He helps all levels and everyone who rides with him knows he is a fantastic horseman and a genuinely nice man.”
These days, Plumb continues to ride, teach and train at his farm in Southern Pines, N.C., where he wages a quiet campaign for increased safety in the sport. Riding horses poses some inherent dangers (his own father was paralyzed from the chest down after falling off of a horse that slipped on “ice plants” during a race).
But he’s bothered by the number of horses and riders who die in crashes, and his belief that many such accidents are avoidable is a key component of his teaching. “People don’t respect the horses enough. ... Getting hurt can happen anytime,” he says. “With a little more age I’ve become more mellow and better with horses. I understand the animal more now. I believe our sport can be made to be safe if we can be taught to ride correctly.”
As a self-described hermit, he prefers to avoid the spotlight, but his successful career and the accompanying prominence can make that difficult. He acknowledges being “not as excited as some people are” over the Hall of Fame nomination, which brought with it even more recognition.
It seems clear that much of Plumb’s reluctance to bask in the accolades stems from simple modesty. “I consider a lot of the [other riders] who are dead and alive much further along as far as expertise and experience than me,” he says. “I have so many idols, so many heroes to choose from. Without them I wouldn’t be where I am.”
Plumb, one of nine individuals inducted into the Hall of Fame on June 19 in Chicago, is the only equestrian to have received this honor.
