Legendary Horseman Paul Cronin to be Inducted Into the IHSA Hall of Fame

Paul Cronin. Photo courtesy of Douglass Lees

Cronin founded the Sweet Briar College IHSA team in 1975.

Gladys, Va.– April 25, 2026 – Paul Cronin, the renowned horseman and founder of the Sweet Briar College Equestrian Team who spent decades shaping riders and professionals, will be posthumously inducted into the Intercollegiate Horse Shows Association (IHSA) Hall of Fame Class of 2026 at the organization's National Championship, taking place May 1–3 at Tryon International in Mill Spring, North Carolina.

Throughout his lifetime, Paul Cronin earned a reputation as not just a capable trainer of horses and riders, but as a teacher of teachers. Cronin coached at Sweet Briar College in Sweet Briar, Virginia, from 1967 until 2001, then served as Director of Riding Emeritus from 2001 until his death in 2024, imparting his memorable wisdom onto a generation of students, many of whom became equestrian professionals.

After earning his bachelor’s degree in history from Stone Hill College in Massachusetts, and a master’s in social work in community planning from the University of Pittsburgh, Cronin served in the Navy as a lieutenant from 1960 to 1964, deploying to Cuba and Africa and remaining a reservist for many years after. 

Cronin’s riding career started as a young person in Boston, where he competed on the hunter and jumper circuit, and as an amateur, he trained and competed young horses in the Virginia area. A lifelong student of riding master Vladimir Littauer, Cronin taught his mentor’s forward riding system to his many students who competed at local, recognized and Intercollegiate Horse Shows Association competitions. Cronin was also instrumental in the expansion of the IHSA. In 1975 Cronin founded the IHSA team at Sweet Briar College, the first college in the state to join the association.

“I think every college that has a riding team in Virginia is a member of the IHSA because of Paul,” said IHSA founder Bob Cacchione. “He was the mover and shaker in Virginia.”

Peggy McElveen started as a student at Sweet Briar in 1967 during Cronin’s first year as an instructor, the same year that future Olympian Lendon Gray enrolled. Long after she graduated, McElveen continued to take students from her base in South Carolina up to Sweet Briar to learn from Cronin.

“He was wonderful,” said McElveen of Cronin. “He worked so hard, and he brought in so many wonderful people in the horse industry to do clinics with us, which just helped us tremendously in our riding. And he was tough. You did it his way, but his way was very successful.”

Throughout his career, Cronin gave back to the sport in myriad ways, serving on U.S. Hunter Jumper Association and U.S. Equestrian Federation committees, helping get the Affiliated National Riding Commission off the ground, officiating over horse shows as an “R” hunter and equitation judge and teaching clinics in the U.S. and abroad. A lifetime student, he took a sabbatical from Sweet Briar to study at the French riding school at Saumur one semester, and he did graduate work in sports psychology and motor learning at the University of Virginia. The Virginia Horse Council selected him as the educator of the year in 1997; the USHJA honored him with their Professional Service Award in 2007; the USEF gave him the Pegasus Award in 2009. That same year, Sweet Briar College inducted him into their Hall of Fame and the Virginia Horse Show Association inducted him into their Hall of Fame in 2010.

After he retired from teaching full-time at Sweet Briar, he continued to work with horses, publishing “Schooling and Riding the Sport Horse: A Modern American Hunter Jumper System” in 2004 and riding first field with the Orange County Hounds for many years.

“He was very insightful,” said Merrilee “Mimi” Wroton, who rode under Cronin as a student, worked under him for several years at Sweet Briar and now runs the college’s riding department. “He was always trying to help the horses have the best experience. That meant being proactive in his training of the horses and thoughtful about using their herd mentality as well as their comfort and experience to help horses and riders be successful.”

Paul Cronin. Courtesy of Sweet Briar College