Hiram Tuttle (equestrian)

Olympic medal record
Men's Equestrian
	1932 Los Angeles	Individual dressage
	1932 Los Angeles	Team dressage

Hiram Edwin Tuttle (December 22, 1882 in Dexter, Maine – November 11, 1956 in Fort Riley, Kansas) was an American equestrian who competed in dressage at the 1932 Summer Olympics and in the 1936 Summer Olympics. He is the only American dressage rider to win an individual medal at an Olympic Games. Tuttle was a lawyer in Boston prior to being a US Army quartermaster officer from 1930 to 1944. He owned and trained his own horses, unusual in a time when the majority of Olympic competitors rode Army-owned horses, and is buried near three of them at the cemetery in Fort Riley.

Tuttle originally trained and practiced as a lawyer in Boston, but in 1917 joined the US Army as a commissioned officer. Between 1930 and his retirement as a Colonel in 1944, he held at post in Fort Riley, Kansas at the Cavalry School. Tuttle's equestrian skills were largely self-taught, and he became the top dressage rider in the US before the majority of the country even knew such a sport existed. Army historian Louis DiMarco says, "Tuttle did so much with so little and was so little appreciated. He was the only officer to focus strictly on dressage. Everybody else in the Army world...who did dressage learned what to do and how to do it from him."

Tuttle owned and trained his own horses, partially so that the horses could focus strictly on dressage and not be used for other sports or cavalry exercises; this was unusual for the times. He was set apart from many of the Olympic riders of the time by being older, not a West Point graduate, a quartermaster officer, and riding in dressage when few other officers appreciated the formality and discipline of the sport. He trained many of the military dressage riders who followed in his footsteps, including Major Robert Borg who competed in dressage at the 1948 and 1952 Summer Games. After his retirement, Tuttle continued to ride and train, and never sold his Olympic mounts. He is buried along with three of his horses (Vast, Si Murray and Olympic) at the Fort Riley cemetery.

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