The New York herald. [volume] (New York, N.Y.) 1920-1924, 1920-10-17
MOST VERSATILE
OF HORSEPOWER
Miss +. r. Sears Has Accom-
plished Many Notable Feats
in Amateur Sports.
BY GuRNEY c. CUE.

BY GURNEY c, CUE.
The approaching National Horse
Show and other horse shows will lose
ore OF their stellar attractions when
Miss Eleonora Randolph Sears of Boston
dfsperses her stable of hunters. saddle
horses hackney ponies and harness
hores in the Horse Show sale at Dur
lands to-moIS-o~ evening Apparently
for the purpose OF seeking new worlds
TO conquer In the universe of sport. Miss
Sears is going to retire from the show
ring. There have been many interesting
personages identified with horse shows
since the first one took place in Madison
Square Garden generation ago. but
the old guard can recall none whose
horsemanship. craftsmanship and per-
sonality made her retirement more
widely and genuinely regretted.
Miss Sears had accomplished so many
notable things in amateur sports before
she came into the tanbark arena at the
Garden three years ago that few were
aware she had found time to become the
finished equestrienne and whip she
quickly showed herself to be. Her riding
of Radiant on that occasion drew from
30 critical and competent an observer
as Frank Gray Griswold the remark that
she sat her horse and handled him in
more perfect form than any other wom-
an ne naQ seen IN the horse ouOW. ana
some OF the best women riders In the
world were there.
Before she bought the famous picture
horse that has since won so many blue
ribbons and championships she had dis
tinguished herself as probably the most
versatile sportswoman in the country On
the tennis coourt she had forged to the
front as winner of the national cham
pionship In womens doubles and mixed
l.. H. -t. .U1Ao
in two successive seasons. Then she had
practised swimming until mile out was
her daily amusement at Newport, and on
one occasion there she did four miles and
q half from point to point without call
Ing for assistance.
Always fond of walking, Miss Sears.
when wintering In California few
years ago. decided to find out whether
she could go distance on land as well
as in the water. After only ten days
of practice at eight miles a day she
started out one morning and walked all
day and all night and all the next day,
covering 10 miles in thirty-two consec-
utive hours. stopping only TO eat spar
tngly and never to rest. This Is a re-
minder of her first noteworthy feat as
a little girl. which was somewhat akin TO
the pedestrian endurance test. IT was in
the days of bicycles. without having
Detu Oh ucT WHEEL DtLOIt III SCNCiHi
months she made run of 100 miles over
country roads in a little less than nine
hours. This lack of preparation is char
acteristic, so her Boston friends say.
She has never gone seriously into train
ing for anything, but has just done
things when the spirit moved her.
At school she was one of the organ
Tiers Of the girls football team and also
played on the baseball nine. At this
en- ha NEod ClOGa IN the head OF
the class at hockey and squash and a
star performer on skates. as she Is to-
day at both of the last named sports.
Fencing was another of her accomplish
ments not provided for in the college
curriculum At little later period
shooting became q favorite pastime.
How well she handled her seven pound
Parker IS attested by some of the rec
ords she made at the traps. bringing
down within bounds. for example six
teen out OF twenty buerocks at eighteen
yards rise. AS early as 1910, and flying
was risky business in those pioneer
days, the Beacon street sportswoman
had been up in an aeroplane. which she
later learned to operate and In which
she has since done considerable flying.
1t was In playing polo and following
the hounds that Miss Sears learned to
favor the cross saddle for women. BY
her example she has probably done
little more than any other OF her sex
to make the once universal side saddle
almost a curiosity in the riding clubs
and schools. on the park bride paths
and IN the show ring and the hunting
field. In the matter of dress for the
saddle also she Is recognized as one
of the arbiters of fashion Her cross
saddle costumes, which startled Cali
rornia only few years ago. are to-
day considered models OF good taste and
good sense and are copied by the habit
makers of many cities where there are
horse shows
Contrary, perhaps, TO old fashioned
ideas about modern young women who
win their way to the top of, the ladder
In sports once monopolized by men,
Miss Sears Is thoroughly feminine and
modest in manner and appearance. her
voice is low and gentle and you look IN
vain for any trace OF the anectation
or the pose which mars the success OF
no many women nowadays In the new
fields In which they have won their
apurs during the wonderful period or
their .emancipation" in the last dec
ale or a little more. Her more than
modest estimate OF her own achieve
Ynents was illustrated at the New YORK
state Fair horse show In Syracuse
few weeks ago when some one asked ner
which of all sports she liked best
81 like them all and have done Ut
he at everything. although / am not
really much good at any OF them'
was the reply.
ponder this, said In all earnestness'
and you have the keynote OF her char-
acter as seen at the horse shows. Never
a horse from her stable wins oriliane
victory but she has some generous
word OF praise for the vanquished' II
NOT some criticism OF the performance
~ the winner. And her complaints
when she loses are as rare az those OF
the veteran reinsman Ed Geers on tne
trotting tracks: likewise as Wen
rounded. What wonder, then. that al
horse show folk admire her. regret 70
lose her and wish her wen IN Mha.-
ever field OF sport may be the next ioi
her 20 master.