The following bio appeared with Susan Hutchison's nomination for the Show Jumping Hall of Fame (February 2009)


Susan Hutchison’s career in show jumping has been highlighted by more than three dozen Grand Prix wins. She has represented the United States at six World Cup Finals, the World Equestrian Games in Holland and at Spruce Meadows in Canada. She finished 4th in the 1993 World Cup Final in Gothenburg and topped the World Cup’s North American West Coast League standings three times.

Hutchison has earned victories at some of the nation’s most prestigious horse shows, winning such events as the Los Angeles National Grand Prix and the Grandprix of New York at the National Horse Show at Madison Square Garden.

In 1992, Hutchison was named American Grandprix Association (AGA) Rider of the Year. In 1989 she won the Mercedes Challenge Series. In1993, she was Leading Rider of the Desert Circuit Series in Indio, CA.

In 1994 she was selected to ride for the U.S. in the show jumping World Championships at the World Equestrian Games in The Hague. Riding her longtime partner Woodstock, on whom she had earned more than 20 top three Grand Prix placings, she helped the U.S. to a fifth place finish.

Hutchison began riding at the Flintridge Riding Club with Hall of Famer Jimmy Williams when she was five years old. As a junior, she competed heavily, winning every horseman finals offered on the west coast. At age 18 she became a professional, winning countless championships in both the jumper and hunter rings. She has had a hand in the training of many noteworthy young jumpers, including riders like Olympic medalist Anne Kursinski.

Hutchison has served on the U.S.’s Active Rider Committee and was selected to judge the USET Medal Finals in Gladstone, New Jersey.