Edith Master

Edith Louise Master (August 25, 1932 – August 18, 2013) was a Jewish-American equestrian.

Early life

She was born in New York, New York on August 25, 1932, daughter of Dr. Arthur M. Master and Hilda Altschul Master. She studied at Cornell and New York University.

Career

Edith competed for the United States in both individual and team dressage, finishing 23rd in 1968 in Mexico City and 19th in the 1972 Munich Olympics, which placed her well out of medal contention. At the 1976 Olympics, her third, she won a bronze medal in team dressage, aboard her horse Dahlwitz. With her win at the age of 43, she became the second-oldest US female to win an Olympic medal in any sport. The favorites for the team dressage competition in Montreal in 1976 were Germany, Switzerland, and the Soviet Union to medal, but the US managed to clinch the bronze ahead of the USSR for their first dressage medal since the 1948 Games.

Dressage

The fundamental purpose of dressage is to develop, through standardized progressive training methods, a horse's natural athletic ability and willingness to perform, thereby maximizing its potential as a riding horse.
The United States had very little history of Olympic equestrian medals prior to 1976. Dressage, which can be performed in the Olympics as an individual event or as part of a team, is used to teach horses to be athletes. They learn to carry the weight of the riders, and to carry themselves as well in a more graceful, and balanced manner. Dressage means "training", and it teaches a horse to be safer to ride, more responsive to the rider, and more obedient.

Dressage exercises

Dressage consists of a series of 39 exercises demonstrating how well the rider communicates with the horse. Included exercises are the walk, trot, and canter. as well as having the horse walk backwards, and weave through a pre-determined serpentine course. Four judges score the maneuvers on a ten-point scale. Edith and her two teamates at Montreal, Hilda Gurney and Dorothy Morkis received a combined score of 4,647 points.

Training

While living in Germany for a number of years, she studied dressage under Heinz Lammers. Lammers taught in the riding schools in Saerbeck and Greven, Germany, before going independent in 1967. He had a training stable in Olfen and was a heavily sought after coach. In addition to Edith Master, his students included Olympians Eva Maria Pracht, and Pia Laus. Lammers was considered one of the defining personalities in Westphalian (Westphalia region, Germany) equestrian sport, which he helped shape and supervise as state trainer for dressage for almost a quarter of a century. Receiving around 100 medals as a competitor, the Equestrian Association of Westphalia honored the Lammers' work with the Golden Plaque of Merit in 2002. He died on February 8th, 1922.

Successful Dressage riders must master the art of getting their horse to move at a relaxed pace, at an even rhythm, on the right track, and yet remain alert with a vertical profile to the ground and a properly bent head. Edith collected exotic birds, raised German shepherds, and grew orchids as hobbies.

Edith died on August 18, 2013 at the age of 80.

See also

* List of select Jewish equestrians

References

External links

Edith Master's profile at Sports Reference.comEdith Master's obituary

{{DEFAULTSORT:Master, Edith
1932 births
2013 deaths
Equestrians at the 1968 Summer Olympics
Equestrians at the 1972 Summer Olympics
Equestrians at the 1976 Summer Olympics
American female equestrians
American dressage riders
Olympic bronze medalists for the United States in equestrian
Jewish American sportspeople
Cornell University alumni
New York University alumni
Medalists at the 1976 Summer Olympics
21st-century American Jews
21st-century American women