Eve Mainwaring, an integral fixture in the Canadian equestrian sport and breeding industry, has passed away at the age of 98 on June 8th. She leaves a legacy following an impactful lifetime contributing as a breeder, coach, owner, trainer, and mentor.
Born in Estonia in 1925, Eve’s family were Baltic Germans who had to flee Estonia in 1945 when the Russians invaded. In an interview with the Brockville Recorder & Times on the occasion of her 95th birthday, Eve commented, “I grew up in a time when there were no cars, no tractors, no trucks. People rode horses to get from one place to another. Everything was horse-drawn.” The family actually escaped the country with a horse-drawn wagon and horses hitched to pull their car, as they had no gas.
Eve eventually emigrated to Canada, working in Prescott, ON and later settling in Brockville where she met and married Robert (Bertie) Mainwaring, The pair established St. Alban’s stable, where Eve bred and trained horses and ran horses shows. Robert passed away at the age of 88 in 2005.