Remembering James C. Wofford (USA), 1944 – 2023

James Cunningham – Jim – Wofford, who passed away on 2 February at the age of 78, represented the United States in Eventing at two Olympic Games and won individual bronze at the FEI Eventing World Championships 1970 in Punchestown (IRL). He enjoyed a long and distinguished career as an athlete, coach, and author. He served as president of the American Horse Shows Association (now USEF) and was member of the FEI Eventing Committee for two terms, including two years as vice-chair.

In memory of Jim Wofford and everything he stood for, we are reposting this interview conducted in June 2020.

Be not afraid
By Louise Parkes

An interview with James Cunningham Wofford is not something to be taken lightly. Any attempt at leading the conversation fails miserably, because you are talking with a man with the most exceptional communications skills and extraordinary stories to tell. There’s a sense of riding the tide of equestrian history as the double-Olympian and world-famous American coach recalls sporting highlights, great horses and magical moments from his stellar career.

But it’s a bit like sitting on a runaway train, and even when you get to the end it feels like you’ve only half-halted. Because you just know that there are many more tales to be told and lots more wisdom to be shared by this raconteur par excellence.

I begin by asking him if he always had Olympic ambitions, and he admits it was “in my cross-hairs from a very early age”. Not surprising really considering his father, Col John W. Wofford who later became first President of the United States Equestrian Team (USET), competed in Jumping at the 1932 Olympic Games in Los Angeles (USA) and his older brother, Jeb, helped claim bronze for Team USA in Eventing at the Helsinki (FIN) Games in 1952. Another brother, Warren, went to the top of the sport in both Jumping and Eventing and was reserve for the US Eventing team at the Olympic Games in Stockholm (SWE) in 1956. That’s quite some pedigree just there.

When Jim was growing up, Jeb and his Helsinki team-mates Champ Hough - father of American Jumping star Lauren Hough - and Wally Staley were his childhood heroes. “Then along came Mike Plumb and Michael Page - I looked up to them for years so when I joined them on the US team that was a real thrill!”, Jim says.

Did he ever have any doubts about his ability to make it to the top in sport? “I had terrific doubts, and at first I didn’t have a suitable horse, I was riding around on a 15.3hh roan Appaloosa. However Warren lived in England, and in spring 1967 he went to Ireland looking for horses and saw Kilkenny who was for sale because he’d been to the Olympics, the World Championships and Badminton and they reckoned he was pretty much done.

Please click here to read the rest of the article as it appears on the FEI website.