Obituaries

1. 104 The Chronicle of the Horse
Mindy Minetto
Judge, trainer and rider Mindy
Minetto of Wellington, Fla., died on
April 24 from a brain hemorrhage.
She was 64.
Ms. Minetto was born on March
15, 1952, to Joseph and Madeline
Minetto. She started riding at
her parents’ Holiday Farms
in River Vale, N.J. From
1967-1970, Ms. Minetto
trained with Victor Hugo-
Vidal at Cedar Lodge Farm
in Stamford, Conn., and
successfully contested the big eq.
“She was always fun to be with,
and she was always a nice person,”
recalled longtime friend Jimmy Toon,
who met Ms. Minetto at Cedar Lodge
Farm. “She would tell you how she
felt. She didn’t hold anything back.”
Ms. Minetto attended college
and received her nursing degree.
She returned to horses in 1979 and
began her own business, Stonehedge
Farm in Suffern, N.Y. She spent the
following 20 years developing and
training hunter ponies, horses and
riders for A-circuit competition.
According to her daughter,
Brett Beason of Charlotte, N.C.,
Ms. Minetto had a keen eye for
finding a diamond in the rough and
bringing out that horse or pony’s
natural ability. She was also fond of
Thoroughbreds, and good hunters
were her passion.
“She loved horses and the ponies,”
said Toon. “She was more of a horse-
woman than a lot of people realize. She
ran a good business, and she brought
along a lot of nice ponies and horses.”
In the 1980s and ’90s, Ms. Minetto
trained numerous juniors, amateurs
and professionals to win ribbons
and championships at competitions
including the Pennsylvania National
Horse Show, The National Horse
Show (N.Y.), Devon (Pa.) and AHSA
Pony Finals. Some of her top horses
and ponies were Buttons And Bows,
Spur Of The Moment, Kiss Me Not,
Millbrooks Moonglow, Splash and
Bonnie Parker.
After Ms. Minetto sold Stonehedge
Farm, she moved to Florida and
became a full-time hunter/jumper
judge. Brett remembered her mother
as a serious judge who prioritized
fairness.
“The thing about Mindy that I loved
is that you always knew where Mindy
stood,” said longtime friend and
USHJA Funds Development
Director Bill Rube. “She was
very honest and very funny.
She wasn’t one to pull
punches. I appreciated her
as a judge, and I thought
she did a great job. She didn’t
play any games.”
Ms. Minetto judged many
prestigious shows such as the
Winter Equestrian Festival (Fla.),
Pony Finals, the Capital Challenge
Horse Show (Md.) and the Sallie B.
Wheeler/USEF National Hunter
Breeding Championships. Ms.
Minetto particularly enjoyed judging
hunter derbies and pony conforma-
tion classes.
She also spent the last eight
years building an antique business,
Wellington and Company Antiques,
in Charlotte with Beason. She was an
avid antique lover and collector.
“Mindy always had a smile on
her face from ear to ear,” said Rube.
“Whenever I saw her, we would just
look at each other and start laughing
without saying anything because we
knew we were going to have a fun
conversation. I would walk up, and
she would see me and smile, and we
would both start laughing. She would
ask, ‘Who’s going to go first?’ Mindy
always put a smile on my face, and
she always had a warm smile—it was
her trademark.”
Ms. Minetto is survived by her
daughter, Brett Beason of Charlotte,
N.C.; her mother, Madeline Minetto;
and two brothers.
In lieu of flowers, memorial
donations may be sent to The
Equestrian Aid Foundation, 11924
W. Forest Hill Blvd., Ste. 10A-377,
Wellington, FL 33414 or online at
http://equestrianaidfoundation.org/
hope/, as well as the Hospice of Palm
Beach County Foundation at https://
hpbcf.org/donation#.V02W7ktR57M.
George A. “Frolic”
Weymouth
Conservationist, artist, polo player
and carriage driver George A.
“Frolic” Weymouth died at home in
Chadds Ford, Pa., on April 24 due
to complications of congestive heart
failure. He was 79.
Mr. Weymouth was born on June 2,
1936, in Wilmington, Del., to George
and Dulcinea Weymouth (née du Pont).
Due to his playful nature and sense of
humor, Mr. Weymouth acquired the
nickname “Frolic” after the family dog,
who died shortly after he was born.
While growing up in Greenville, Del.,
he took to his mother’s passions for art
and horses. He played polo and rode
race horses and hunters.
Mr. Weymouth graduated from Yale
University (Conn.) in 1958 with a degree
in American Studies. The previous year
he’d guided the Yale polo team to the
national championship.
When a back injury forced Mr.
Weymouth to give up riding, he became
a skilled four-in-hand driver. He
enjoyed long distance carriage expedi-
tions and drove thousands of miles in
the United States, England and France.
He was one of only two U.S. members
of the Coaching Club in England,
founded the Vicmead Coaching Club
(Del.), and retired a coaching trophy at
Devon (Pa.).
Mr. Weymouth hosted an annual
six-mile parade from his home, the
“Big Bend” in Chadds Ford, to the
Winterthur Museum (Del.) for the
annual point-to-point races held there
in May. In 2008, he led a record 40
carriages in the parade while driving
his two-horse coach that belonged
to president James Buchanan, and
was believed to have been used
for President Abraham Lincoln’s
inauguration.
“Frolic was a mainstay and the
core of this event,” said point-to-
point director Jill Abbott. “For 38
years, guests have looked forward
to seeing Frolic and his parade of
antique carriages. He will be missed
tremendously.”
Mr. Weymouth earned a long list
OBIT
UARIES
GONEAWAY

2. June 20 & 27, 2016 • chronofhorse.com 105
of awards and honors, including
being appointed by President Richard
Nixon to the Commission of Fine Arts
(D.C.) from 1972-1977. He received the
University of Delaware’s Merit Award
for Community Service in 1981.
He was a well-known painter with
a host of famous friends and acquain-
tances that included Andrew Wyeth,
Prince Philip and David Rockefeller.
In 1967, Mr. Weymouth, along with
Bill Pricket and Francis I. du Pont,
purchased 47 acres in Chadds Ford
that were threatened with industrial
development. They founded the orga-
nization that became the Brandywine
Conservancy & Museum of Art.
Mr. Weymouth also bought
Hofmann’s Mill, located on the banks
of the Brandywine River. Wyeth’s wife,
Betsy, encouraged him to turn the mill
into a museum, promising him art for
its walls. The mill was renovated and
opened in 1971 as the Brandywine River
Museum. It currently has a collection of
4,000 works of art.
“Frolic was a neighbor and family,”
said Andrew and Betsy’s son, Jamie
Wyeth, in a statement. “He and my
father were dear friends. He was an
immensely talented artist and achieved
so much with his work in Chadds Ford,
both with land conservation and with
the museum. He was truly a force of
nature that instilled his passion for
art and the environment into all of his
many friends, and they opened their
hearts and their wallets to his causes.
He was the best fundraiser I ever met.”
The Brandywine Conservancy is
now one of the leading land trusts
in country, with 62,000 acres of land
permanently protected in Pennsylvania
and Delaware.
In the early 1980s, Mr. Weymouth
worked with the conservancy and a
group of local investors to acquire most
of the former King Ranch in Chester
County, Pa. More than 5,000 acres of the
ranch were acquired as easements, with
about 800 acres, known as the Laurels,
going to the conservancy outright.
Mr. Weymouth is survived by his
companion, Carlton Cropper; his son,
McCoy “Mac” du Pont Weymouth and
his wife Toni Toomey-Weymouth; his
brother, Eugene E. Weymouth; his
sister, Patricia Weymouth Hobbs; and
two grandchildren.
In lieu of flowers, memorial contri-
butions may be made to the Frolic
Weymouth Endowment Fund of the
Brandywine Conservancy & Museum
of Art, https://335.blackbaudhosting.
com/335/George-A-Frolic-Weymouth-
Memorial-Fund.
Judith Beall Young
Horsewoman Judith Beall Young died
on April 28 at her home in Camden,
S.C. She was 78.
Mrs. Young was born in Pittsburgh
on May 14, 1937, to Dr. Chester F. Beall
and Marie Roeschenthaler Beall. She
began riding at age 4. She taught her
pony Boots to pull her sled and even
rode him to school.
In 1941, Dr. Beall purchased a
198-acre property in Pennsylvania and
named it Beallgrove Farms. There, Mrs.
Young worked with 3- and 5-gaited
saddle horses and fine harness horses.
At 12, Mrs. Young won the Good Hands
Championship for saddleseat equita-
tion at the Pennsylvania National Horse
Show aboard Tommy Tucker.
She graduated magna cum laude
from the Centenary Junior College for
Women (N.J.) in 1957. Following gradu-
ation, she worked at The Jockey Club in
New York City. She continued to show
saddleseat and wrote a horse show
column, “Joggin With Judy,” for Saddle
And Bridle magazine.
Mrs. Young transitioned to hunter/
jumpers after meeting her husband,
Roger Young Jr., whom she married
in 1960. Together they operated Roger
Young Stables for more than 40 years,
first in New York and then in Camden.
Mrs. Young enjoyed teaching and
developing young riders. She coached
her son, Gary Young, to win the 1979
ASPCA Maclay Finals at the National
Horse Show (N.Y.), and he later became
a member of the U.S. Equestrian Team.
“She would pack me up and take
me to the horse shows when my
father couldn’t because we had such
a big horse business,” recalled Gary.
“The week before the Maclay Finals
in 1979, George Morris was helping
me, and she told George that there
was no way I could win the Maclay
Finals because of my flatwork, and
George said, ‘Judy I guarantee he will
not lose on the flat.’ ”
Mrs. Young helped launch the
careers of numerous professionals and
horses. She achieved national Horse of
the Year titles and earned champion-
ships at Devon (Pa.), the National Horse
Show and the Pennsylvania National
Horse Show. Mrs. Young was also an
“R” judge until her retirement in 2005.
“I was truly overwhelmed by the
number of people who contacted us
after my aunt’s passing to let us know
how much she helped them,” said her
niece, Heidi Young Schmutz. “Obviously
I know how much she and Uncle Roger
did for me and taught me when I was
growing up. They ensured I was able
to continue riding and had wonderful
ponies, especially when things were
tight financially for my parents. But we
heard the same thing from many, many
people across the country, many of them
now highly successful professionals.”
During retirement, Mrs. Young
enjoyed traveling with her family and
friends, and spending time with her
granddaughter, Stella.
“She will be remembered not only
for the legacy she left the horse show
community, but also for her strong
work ethic, artistic ability, needlepoint,
incredible cooking, love of music and
Broadway shows, all manner of dogs,
and a weakness for chestnut horses
and the color pink,” said Schmutz.
“Strong-willed would be the best
way to describe my mother’s character,”
said Gary.
Mrs. Young is survived by her son,
Gary Young and his wife Michaela of
Camden, S.C.; her brother, David Beall
of Erie, Pa.; half-siblings Chester (Chip)
Beall Jr. of Fayetteville, Ga., and Dr.
Melissa (Missy) Beall of Cape Elizabeth,
Maine; and one granddaughter.
In lieu of flowers, Mrs. Young’s
family has established the Judy Young
Ride Forever Scholarship Fund to help
young riders in need. Donations may
be sent c/o SCHJA, 1357 Turnersburg
Highway, Statesville, NC 28625.