IN MEMORIAM
Wendy Costello 1946-2020
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ong-time AHS member Wendy Costello, age 74, passed away on December 3, 2020, following a courageous 18-month battle with cancer. Wendy grew up in Kansas City, MO, and attended George Washington University in Washington, DC. During that time, Wendy met Marty Costello, a midshipman at the US Naval Academy. She graduated from GWU in 1968 with a degree in Elementary Education and she and Marty were married a year later. They moved frequently with the Marines over the next eight years while raising her son Adam and daughter Jill. Her love of horses led to a change of career in 1995 when she purchased her first broodmare. She built a successful breeding operation as Riverland Farm in Wisconsin, adding several more broodmares to the herd,
and the Hanoverian stallion Donavan as her foundation stallion. She later added the Oldenberg stallion Rosall to her breeding program. Following Marty’s retirement and their relocation to the Maryland Eastern Shore in 2007, Wendy moved the breeding operation to her farm in Stevensville as Kent Island Sporthorses. She was a highly regarded producer of quality sporthorses for dressage and jumping throughout the United States. In addition to her passion for children and horses, Wendy was an enthusiastic supporter of the Naval Academy. She was an avid tailgater at Navy football games, and was a “Sponsor Mom” to numerous midshipmen. She is survived by her husband Marty, their son Adam and daughter Jill, along with grandsons Corlan and Quincy.
Ron Carlson 1931-2020
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onald Edmund Carlson, husband to AHS judge Vanessa Carlson, passed away peacefully at his Claremore farm surrounded by family on Sunday, May 3rd, 2020. Ron and Vanessa owned Woodridge Farm in Claremore, OK. Ron was born in the Swedish community of Titusville, Pennsylvania. The family of four boys and one daughter moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma when Ron’s father became Controller and Sr. Vice President of Kewanee Oil. Ron attended Oklahoma A&M in Stillwater, graduating with a degree in Industrial Engineering. After a brief stint in the Army, he resumed his education at the
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University of Oklahoma, earning a Master’s Degree in Business and Finance. Ron spent 10 years as an engineer for Shell Oil Company, specializing in equipment design and sales for structural resins and corrosion coatings in New Jersey, Atlanta, and Houston. In 1967, Ron founded Commercial Resins Company and returned to Tulsa, Oklahoma. The 70’s and 80’s saw his small company grow internationally to include engineering of pipe coating facilities in the U.S., Saudi Arabia, the U.K. with British Gas, South Africa, Columbia, Mexico and Australia In 1981, Ron met and married Vanessa Anne Hogarth, of Bedfordshire, England.
The pair travelled the world for business and pleasure, settling in Claremore, Oklahoma to build an internationally known breeding facility, Woodridge Farm, that specialized in breeding and training German warmblood horses for dressage. Ron developed his own interest in competitive carriage driving, was active in OHHA and helped build Oklahoma’s only permanent CDE course at the Payne County Fairgrounds in Stillwater. He participated in many Combined Driving Events and especially enjoyed participating in the National Drive in Kentucky. Ron is survived by his loving wife Vanessa, his five sons and many grandchildren.
