Tim Grubb

A product of the Pony Club system in England, Tim Grubb originally intended a career in horse racing until a spate of injuries moved him towards show jumping instead. He had early success in England but in 1978, after marrying American rider Michele McEvoy, relocated to the USA where he was to live for the rest of his life.

Having established himself as one of Britain’s leading amateur riders he was chosen for the 1980 Olympic team but the British Equestrian Federation chose not to send a team to Moscow and Grubb had to be content with a team silver from the Rotterdam event that served as an alternative for boycotting nations. Four years later in Los Angeles he picked up genuine Olympic silver as a brilliant clear round in the first round of the team event helped the British to the second spot on the podium. Despite continued success on the East coast of America he was overlooked for the Seoul Olympics but was recalled for Barcelona albeit with little success. The early nineties were his most successful period and he formed a partnership with Denizen that won the American Grand Prix Association Championship and the AGA Horse of the Year honours in 1993 as well as some of America’s richest prizes.

After sixteen years domicile in the United States he took out American citizenship in 1994 and was rewarded with a place on the US team that placed 4th in the World Equestrian Games in the Netherlands. He missed a place on the 1996 Olympic team and gradually switched his attention to his business interests which including training and selling horses. Grubb suffered ill health in his later years and died of heart failure in May 2010. His daughter Dottie is one of the leading collegiate riders in America