Spoogie Woogie’s part begins in 1938, when she was a young foal bought at Pony Penning. Like many foals at the time, she was brought back home in the backseat of a car!
Spoogie Woogie was special, and she was a small thing: she was about 12hh when her horse show career began, and grew to be somewhere under 13hh. One writer later described her as having “tremendous jumping ability and even more personal charm.”
She was broke to ride by Calvert and rider Hamilton Jackson as a two year old, and a mere three months later, she was competing in shows over fences, earning ribbons and beating out seasoned show horses with a child rider on her back.
That child was a young Eva Fout, known in those days as Eva Prime. She rode Spoogie Woogie in her first show, winning a third in the Pony Open Jumper Stake at the Leny Manor Pony Show.
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| Fout and Spoogie Woogie at Spoogie Woogie's first show, 1940. |
Spoogie Woogie and Fout became notorious in the local showing community. They seemed to pick up ribbons wherever they went, competing in hunter and jumper classes. It was even speculated in The Chronicle that she may take the pony to the National Horse Show in Madison Square Garden.
In 1946, Spoogie Woogie had a half Welsh filly named Popsicle. In Popsicle’s sale ad, they don’t bother naming the sire, but they make sure to emphasize that she was out of “Spoogie Woogie, well known hunting and show pony.”
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| Fout and Spoogie Woogie in 1945. |
In 1947, Fout was still piloting Spoogie Woogie in shows like the Culpeper Horse Show, but after that, the record goes dark.
The last article I could find that mentioned Spoogie Woogie fast forwards us to 1961–Spoogie Woogie was an older mare in her twenties and had “taught numerous youngsters to ride.” According to the article, Spoogie Woogie had just had another filly, this one by a Connemara stallion named Peanuts. This filly would be part of the Middleburg-Orange County Pony Club, an organization started by Fout.
An excellent horsewoman, Fout was passionate about giving the next generation of riders quality instruction and a passion for foxhunting. In addition to starting the Middleburg-Orange County Pony Club in 1959, she was a cofounder of the MOC Beagles in 1961. In later years, she worked with the Piedmont Environmental Council to further their land preservation goals.
Explaining her interest in land preservation, Fout was quoted in The Chronicle of the Horse in 2005: “I was 10 when we first lived here, and I could ride my pony everywhere, even to spend the night at a friend’s, which is now cut off where the highway went through.”
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| Fout and Spoogie Woogie are the second from the right in this 1940 photo. Fout had just turned eleven, and Spoogie Woogie was two. |
She was a professional artist who painted oils and, later in life, she began casting bronze. An exhibit of her work was shown at the National Sporting Library and Museum from 2021-2022.
She met her husband, Paul Fout, at the Warrenton Horse Show, the same venue where she won ribbons on Spoogie Woogie and many other mounts. The Fouts trained steeplechasers, and in 1964, her gelding Moon Rock won the Virginia Gold Cup, making her the first female trainer to win the accomplishment.
All three of her children ride: Paul is a champion steeplechaser, Virginia a hunter/jumper, and her daughter Nina helped earn the team bronze at the 2000 Olympics.
Fout was a true lifelong horsewoman, riding until days before her death. In fact, the month before she died, she won the Theodora A. Randolph North American Field Hunter Championship.
Considering Eve Prime Fout’s achievements, it’s pretty darn cool that a little pony named Spoogie Woogie was present for her early, formative years.
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My brief summary doesn't do Eve Fout's life justice! If you're interested in learning more, I suggest reading this 2005 profile piece and her obituary as well as taking a look at her art.
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