Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, June 20, 1995 TAG: 9506210056
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RAY COX STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Nancy Peterson is one of those people who could summon a sunny disposition in a rain forest.
Now that it's the week of the Roanoke Valley Horse Show, her countenance threatens to go supernova on us.
``I've never seen her in a bad mood,'' horse show manager Bill Munford said. ``Now she will say, `This needs to be different,' or, `This needs to be cleaned up.' But she's always calm and nice.''
Peterson is the coordinator of the hunter classes at the show that's running through Sunday at Salem Civic Center. She's been at it in her latest official capacity at this show for four years now. She once administrated competition for both the hunters and the jumpers in Salem, but since has relinquished the latter.
``See the gray hair?'' she said, pointing to her own silver drifts. ``The older you get, the harder it is to change. You have to stay current or this business leaves you behind.''
Peterson hasn't been left anywhere, as is readily apparent with a quick glance at her professional biography, helpfully provided by her employer, Hollins College.
As the director of the proper women's college's riding program the past 22 years, Peterson has a resume that reads in part: six straight Old Dominion Athletic Conference team championships, the 1993 Intercollegiate Horse Show Association national team championship, three IHSA High Point individual national champions, the 1995 Virginia Horse Council horsewoman of the year award, Southwest Virginia Hunter/Jumper Hall of Fame and Virginia Horse Shows Association board of directors.
And so forth.
Miss Nancy Peterson - Roanoke native, daughter of Dr. Charles and Mrs. Cornelia Peterson, Jefferson High Class of 1957, Roanoke College '62, current president of the Roanoke Valley Horsemen's Association, sustainer in the Junior League of Roanoke Valley - walks tall in the horse business and in the hierarchy of this show.
``Oh, really, about all I do is trouble-shoot,'' she said. ``Among the exhibitors, the horsemen's association and the league, there are occasionally communication problems. But since I am or have been part of all of those groups, I think I can help. If I can't solve their problems, then I know who to go to.''
A complex task made simple with her skillful hand, but there is more to it than just that, Munford said.
``I've seen her out on the tractor, putting brush around the jumps ...''
And so forth.
Actually, this wasn't exactly what Dr. and Mrs. Peterson had in mind when young Nancy graduated from Roanoke College and matriculated to the Hollins College horse barns, which she had visited for years because of their proximity to the family home.
``My parents were always supportive of everything I did,'' she said. ``But being in the horse business then wasn't, I have to say this carefully, the most respected profession for a lady.''
The status of women in the horse crowd has improved as did her parents' opinions of the industry. The doctor died a while back; Mrs. Peterson and Nancy still live together in the old home place.
``I'm her best friend and she's mine,'' Nancy Peterson said.
Still, there were certain difficulties with aspects of her career choice.
``I didn't start out behind a desk,'' she said.
In the equestrian industry, one usually gets one's start in a stall just recently vacated by a horse.
We may assume that Peterson handled all with aplomb.
After all, that's what she does everywhere she works, from the grounds of the Salem Civic Center, to the Kirby Riding Ring at Hollins, to Camp Hollymont outside Asheville, N.C., where she counsels young ladies in hunter equitation and other disciplines during her summers.
Her instruction goes beyond the mere management of expensive horseflesh.
``I always say, `Show me the student and I'll tell you who the coach is,''' she said. ``If you see a young person complaining to the judges, that sort of thing, you can bet the coach had something to do with it.
``You must set a good example. You don't want to be a Pollyanna - there are bad things in life - but if you have problems, you shouldn't share them with everybody. That's no way to get ahead.''
Those views reflect her family's influence, Peterson said. The family obviously had less impact on her interest in the ponies.
``I'm almost unique in that regard in my family,'' she said. ``The only relative I had who rode is my Uncle Link Brooking of Orange, who is 90 years old and can tell you fox hunting stories you wouldn't believe.''
She started riding at age 6, at Hollins, with trainer Hubert Wright, grew up on horseback on George Moore's spread in Roanoke County, stayed with it when the horse business called her to live in Charlottesville and then back to Hollins where she apprenticed under former Hollins riding director Guy ``Red'' Burkholder.
``Riding must have been in a gene somewhere,'' she said.
by CNB