Captain Seaweed, known throughout the horse4 show world, was a wonderful character.

He kew everyone and greeted everyone witthe same out-going smile.

He made the horse showworld a better place, and he will be missed.

Peter Doubleday wrote his eulogy.

 

ONE OF the horse show world’s most colorful and funloving personalities passed away on Wednesday, May 13, in a hospital near Ithaca, N.Y., from natural causes.

He was born on December 13, 1941.

His full name was Eugene Joseph Johnson and everyone, everywhere knew him as Captain Seaweed.

He grew up in the nation’s capitol and began working at Jack’s Boat House on the Potomac River early in his teens.

A stint tending to the mules that pull the small barges and boats on the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal in this National Historic Park along the Potomac brought him into the equestrian world.

 

SEAWEED travelled the horse show circuit all year, cooking in the food tent at shows, grooming horses for the show ring, and working at every single job available on a busy show grounds.

He travelled by bus, aka the “outbound dog”, by train, and was a frequent hitchhiker on the commercial vans crisscrossing the country.

He survived in most part by small financial donations, the constant generosity of friends and second hand clothing brought to the shows to keep him properly attired through all conditions.

He was always happy in his world and ours.

Everyone has a Seaweed story.

Everyone, famous or infamous, knew him, from Corporate executives, to Olympic riders, world renowned personalites, and most of all the gang on the “back side” of a horse show facility.

Seaweed enjoyed steady work with the American Saddlebred stable of Jan Lukens in Ravena, N.Y., and was looked after by one super friend, Randy Johnson from Maryland.

The Weed was 78 years old.

He made you smile and then shake your head- one of the best.

He will always be remembered in the horse show world.