Athleticism

Equestrian prowess and warfare offered young George Washington his clearest path to fame. His long rides as a surveyor, through the forest on foxhunts, and his bayonet drills in the heat of the summer sun prepared him well for his eventual martial feats on horseback.

According to Thomas Jefferson, Washington was “the best horseman of the age” and others remarked that he “rode, as he did everything else, with ease, elegance, and with power.”

With more nights under the stars than any of our Founding Fathers, George Washington hunted with several kinds of guns and he also fished with his own line and tackle in streams and rivers from Virginia to Pennsylvania.

At the age of 21, Major Washington traversed the rugged and unexplored wilderness of the Virginia frontier. He hiked for days through snowy woods, fell off a raft into the ice-choked Allegheny River, and was forced to spend a freezing night on an island without shelter. 

Like everything, George Washington took his performance on the dance floor deadly serious, once referring warmly to dance as "the gentler conflict."