…Howard County’s Gretchen Mobberley, who died February 21 from complications related to cancer. She was 84. A lifelong horsewoman, Gretchen and her husband Jack founded Summer Hill Farm in 1963, eventually developing more than 20 stakes winners before Jack passed away in 1995. Gretchen continued the operation with her daughter, Thoroughbred trainer Bird Mobberley.

Gretchen was a unique force within the equestrian community in Howard County, as a founding member of the Howard County Horse Show Association, and an active hunting member of first the Howard County Hunt Club (now the Howard County – Iron Bridge Hounds)

A service will be held on March 7 at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Glenwood, MD at 12pm, with a reception to follow.

Wonderful article by Tim Keefe in This is Horse Racing.

…Baltimore County’s Andre Walker Brewster, who died of complications related to cancer on February 20. He was 90.

In the horse world, Brewster, a member of the Green Spring Valley Hunt Club, was known has the owner (through Arcadia Stable) of the good horse Buck Jakes, two-time winner of the Maryland Hunt Cup.

He was a notable attorney, first at Venable Baetjer & Howard and later as a partner at Piper-Marbury, and served on numerous boards, including Johns Hopkins Hospital, Alex. Brown & Sons, Equitable Trust Co., Fidelity & Deposit Co. of Maryland, First National Bank, Monumental Corp., Savings Bank of Baltimore, the Rouse Co., Ryland Group, Sun Life Insurance Co. and Union Trust Co., and – of course – the National Steeplechase Association.

Brewster has left an indelible mark on the Maryland equestrian community. Because of his work on the Valleys Planning Council and his vision as a founder of the Land Preservation Trust and Shawan Downs, providing horsemen and women with rare, contiguous and remarkable swaths of land in Baltimore County, preserved into perpetuity.

Read more in The Baltimore Sun and on the National Steeplechase Association‘s site.

… co-owner of Glade Valley Farm and veterinarian, Dr. Robert A. Leonard, who died of pneumonia on February 10 at his home in Chester. He was 92.

After military service in World War II, Leonard earned a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree at Ohio State. He and his wife, the former Nancy Moore, settled in Maryland in the early 19050s. In addition to working in private practice, Dr. Leonard also served as a vet for the Maryland Racing Commission.

In 1959, Dr. Leonard, Col. Harry B. Marcus and Jack I. Bender partnered to acquire and continue the operation of a well-established Thoroughbred breeding farm, Glade Valley Farm in Frederick County, which stood one of the leading stallions in Maryland, Rollicking. Dr. Leonard was the farm’s managing partner and veterinarian until he retired in 1994.

Dr. Leonard served two terms as president of the Maryland Horse Breeders Association, bred field trail and show dogs, sailed and maintained a presence in his home state of Ohio as a member of the Rocky Fork Headley Hunt.

To learn more about Dr. Leonard, read more in The Baltimore Sun and The Mid-Atlantic Thoroughbred.