Merry Christmas 2011
Greeting Friends & Family,
Two thousand and eleven has been a very interesting year to say the least! I started the year thinking about my show horses and gearing up for all the excitement of showing LaGrange; the six year old jumper that I had been so successful on, and Ganowe; the older Grand Prix horse, campaigning throughout the year. Little did I know at the start of the year that our direction would change and go to what I suspected to be ‘off course’, however, now I am entirely grateful for this summer’s experiences and the new friends I have met along the way.
All seemed to be going well after getting the acceptance letters to Devon, and after popping in a few horse shows. At Garden State (NJ) I thought we had LaGrange jumping really nice, feeling as if he would probably be right on his game for Devon in the 6 Year Old Young Jumper Division…. two weeks prior to Devon, LaGrange was in his paddock walking crooked and very sore. Swelling developed over his entire right side and it was evident that the goof ball had slipped and hurt himself in the field. Luckily, no major damage was done but it did sideline him from four horse shows and by that point was not fit to jump around the 1.25m courses. Out to Funnel Lake Farm he went to enjoy the summer off.
Three days after LaGrange had his spill in comes Ganowe with a huge cut on his pastern, just missing all the joints/tendons/blood vessels ect… an extreme, extreme close call. With the vet stitching him for all most two hours the hopes of showing him were now two months out in waiting for him to heal. Both horses were at their peak of fitness, and had been training like champs! So, as the horses were sidelined so was the rider… what was I going to do with no horses, no horse shows, no direction or plans for the rest of the summer? Certainly not sit at home!
I was able to continue out riding at the point to point racing meets through the spring with the River Hills Gang which always is a bit of fun, and I was also asked to ride for the Maryland Hunt Cup as an out rider. The Maryland Hunt Cup is probably the hardest US Timber Course, and although I’ve been out riding for many years, out riding for the Hunt Cup was a thrilling experience to watch and be apart of first hand. After the races I talked to some friends and pulled in a few off the track thoroughbreds that needed to careers and started to work on them. It was a good distraction but not nearly the adrenaline rush I was use to getting when I was showing.
In June I invited myself, through Penny Woolley, to start helping around her and her husband’s barn; Double Trouble Stable, at the Fair Hill Training Center in Fair Hill, Maryland. I thought that if I get all these horses of the track, why not learn more about that life and what the horses go through and do. So started a great learning experience and I am forever thankful to Penny and Tim for allowing me into the fold of there racing community. I remember realizing two things the very first day: 1. I’ve never worked for anyone in my whole life… yikes! And 2. I had no idea the amount of things I get away with when I take ex races horses home and ‘expect’ them to go do whatever it is I tell them.
Horses at the track are led around with a chain shank over the nose, whoa-back and coming-in end up a main part of your vocabulary as it does for the horses, horses are tied up to the wall to be groomed, they walk forever around the shed row (what I learned about walking around the shed row: 1. you learn to talk to yourself 2. don’t start humming a song unless you know another song or else you will have one song in your head all week 3. when you think your done walking you still have 15 more minutes left), my idea of a bath is not Tim’s idea of a bath, I’m not fast enough at tacking up, time is everything, 15 minutes can never be gained, backward and forward are very important. Needless to go on there were so many little things that create the big picture. I suppose if I had grown up with it like I did in the horse show world I would have been okay, but taking what I do naturally and letting that go to follow someone else’s rule was a bit of a challenge, however, I loved it!
My first day on the track was riding the ‘pony’… a 17 hand paint pony name Striker who was as wide as he was tall and could gallop along with any of the horses in training if needed. The familiarity on the pony was a nice way to get to know the track. I would have to admit, although I shouldn’t, that I am not 100% on all the different mile markers around the track. For everyone else out there it is second nature almost like reading a jumper course at the in-gate, for me it’s a different story, and on a few occasion I managed to not go far enough or hear, ‘Are we training that one for steeple chasing because you just went over a mile and half’ … oops!
I was lucky enough that Penny and Tim also allowed me into the barn to get the full know-how of everything that goes on. From stall mucking, grooming, tacking up, hot walking, turning out, scrubbing buckets, blanketing, grazing, you name it I did it, although I may not have done it in the approved manner the first time I did attempt to figure it out! Finally, I got the opportunity to riding a few horses that were having trouble in training and needed to fall back from there regular routines and just go out cross country, or ride around the paddocks or the shed row.
The first one I ever rode was a 2 year old filly who we called Domestic, her real name ended up being ‘Getmeoutofhere’. She was having trouble in training because she would get nervous and tie-up. So my job was to ride around, jog, canter, and keep things low key and happy for her and let her get more fit so that she could go back into full training. Domestic would also be the first horse to run off with me for a mile and half but I still think its okay because she did go on a win her first ever race, so, I was very proud!
By the end of summer I had ridden almost all the horses in the barn which I deemed the, Woolley Ponies. Some I got along with better than others, and others I was put on because no one else really wanted to ride them. The ones that I didn’t really want to ride taught me the most about racehorses, and even more importantly taught me a lot about myself. I think the biggest thing I learned while riding horses at the track was relaxing, and I learned this while jogging. Jogging horses on the main track I would have to say is the worst possible job. The first lap around the track is usually ‘okay’ but the second time you start to feel like the horse you are riding is a totally different creature and at any minute you are going to be unloaded. What I learned out of jogging is that you can get away with a lot if you just pretend everything will be okay despite the bucking, head tossing, and the feeling that the horse will spin out from under you.
It is in a horse’s instinct to go with other horses. Pretty simple natural behavior, but it is not in horse’s instinct, despite their breeding, to be race horses and win. It takes a special horse and training to actually teach a horse to be a winner and leave the pack. A lot of what I learned this year had to do with just that. Along that theory I was for a time, riding a Woolley Pony called Emmitt (Imatigresstoo), her claim to fame would eventually be going to the race track and then actually winning a race!
When I first started on her she had never raced, she barely stayed sound to jog on the Tepeta track, she could careless if a horse passed her, wouldn’t change her leads, on regular occasions would leap up into my unsuspecting face, she would bite, and try to kick you. Emmitt was just about the size of a horse, had flopped ears, her shoulders were non existent so your saddle had a tendency to move around, and if I jumped off of her at her full gallop I’d probably run faster! Despite all these things, Emmitt would go on to be one of my greatest teachers.
I wont say it to be fact but I’m pretty sure since I didn’t know much about training racehorses or riding around the track at the time, the fact that Tim sent me out on Emmitt every day meant that he had sort of given up or lost hope for her. All I was usually told to do was jog to the 5/8ths and gallop one turn and past the gap, and make it home alive. Since the instructions were fairly simple I started to do my own thing along the lines of trying to understand the horse. Was she sore or incorrigible, was she confused or did her elevator not reach the top floor, what was with Miss Emmitt? I also started to manipulate pieces of my world of training horses into her world and before too long we were getting more and more fit, she started to actually look like a racehorse and on occasion galloped with purpose.
Emmitt’s first race was a near disaster; she trailed so far behind the field that she looked like she was going to pull herself up, but then, out of no where, the little filly picked up her pace and didn’t finish dead last. The next few races she got better, and better. She started to carry herself on the track in training and acted as if she might really want to go be a racehorse. The thing about Emmitt was that you could never tell her anything. You really couldn’t ask her anything either, you had to think it, and pray she thought it too!
Eventually, Emmitt won a race, which evidently was the day after she managed to fling me off. It was right after we had galloped and were heading home. Three solid bucks out of no where and I was sent flying to the other side of the horse path, landed on my feet and watched Emmitt gallop back into the barn. I rode Emmitt two times after that and then she was sold and I never saw her again. I did keep tabs on her and found out she was beat a distance in her last race and is now happily retired to a nice farm with a little girl that loves her.
In my time at Woolley’s we had 57 starts, 10 winners, 5 seconds, and 10 thirds. Not that I know anything about all that, I just know it was really neat to watch horses that had never been to the training track, never been to the gate, and then go on to the races and perform. I learned that there is so much that goes into getting horses through training, trying to get them fit without getting sore or unhappy, that the reality is, it is amazing that horses even make it to the race track, never mind them winning.
In completing my summer I learned how to break a horse from the gate for the first time (as in both of us… for the first time. I was told, “It’s just like you jumping a big jump or a puissance wall, that’s what it will feel like.” For anyone else who has never broken from the gate… THAT’S NOT AT ALL WHAT IT FEELS LIKE… FYI!), take them to the track for the first time, and breeze for the first time. I got to opportunity to go to the races and go to be apart of getting horses ready and walk them in the paddock area, I was also able to break in a couple yearlings (more importantly watch the professionals do it), I met tons of new people that are exceptionally colorful, full of life, and ready to lend a hand. It’s very important to stay grounded, and always learning. That being said, I am particularly indebted to Woolley’s and all of the Fair Hill community for putting up with me.
Outside of the morning galloping I continued working and whipping-in for the River Hills Foxhounds. Earlier this spring we had a puppy that I helped to ‘create’ – haha, and we called him Lonesome… he ended up being the only puppy born this spring. I showed him at the Kimberton Hound Show in August and he was the Champion Puppy! Very proud of the little man. I manage to hunt each Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday, and still feel like I am able to learn something as I am out there. My horn blowing has got a bit better which I am happier about. Instead to sounding duck like, I was able to pick up 60 hounds at a joint meet and carry them to the line they hit a miss on. Pretty cool feeling is all I can say. I also started two new horses whipping-in this year.
After galloping, and River Hills I go home and ride horses, clean stalls, feed, etc… They say when your doing what you love it doesn’t feel like work. I will have to agree 100%. There is no way you can wake up at 5:00a.m. go to bed at 11:00p.m. without loving what you do and not feeling burnt out.
My mom, sisters, and grandparents came down from New Hampshire this June and stayed for two weeks. I really enjoyed my time with them and wished they could have stayed longer. I really appreciated there support and helping me around the farm in getting ready for the Clinic that we held here at the farm with Mommom and Jimmy. It was really neat watching Mommom and Jimmy in action. Both are such a wealth of knowledge. If only someday I can be like the two of them with horses. Again – back to realizing one must always keep motivated to learn.
One of my peak achievements this year was when we finally brought Ganowe back into action. I will have to put a ‘shout out’ to a young girl who helped me get him back into shape. Elena Olivieri came out rain or shine and help to get Ganowe fit by riding him 6 days a week and taking him for walks. By the time she was done we took him to the Brandywine Valley Horse Show in July at Devon and competed in a 1.40m Mini Prix. It was our first horse show back after riding in the Columbia Benefit Grand Prix in September 2010. I had only been riding young horses at home, and galloping race horses since the two horses had been laid up, so for me jumping back into the ring at a 1.40m course was thrilling. I ride each day at the track knowing where I want to be in the show ring. I live for jumping horses. This year because I was so hungry for it, was the first year I started to really pull together as a rider and with Ganowe and we started to come together as a real team.
Its not easy explaining it, but it took all of two years to get to the point where I can say I truly trust that horse, and I’m pretty sure he feels the same about me. We went on to place in several 1.40m Mini Prix’s, we were bumped out of first two times by fractions of a second, we did our very first Jumper Derby on an outside course with water, and banks of a big open field at Nona Garson’s Horse Show in New Jersey. We did two Grand Prix’s, one in the end of August and the end of September.
The first Grand Prix in NJ was the biggest I had ever done. Really difficult course and I am still thrilled that we made a good technical round. In August we won in a tied jump off in a puissance class at Berks Equine Council, and my little mare Judge Beautiful was second. We also went on to win the Mini Prix at that show for the second time in a row. Despite my feeling of a slow spring and no horse showing, we did make up for it and take the season out with a bang. Once all the big shows moved to qualifiers indoors and then on down south we decided to let Ganowe go out the fields and go be a horse again. Keeping him fresh and happy is key as he is one goofy character!
Needless to say I was and still am very busy with day to day activities involving horses. I helped more or less be a body in helping to get, The Mask Ball off the ground from a few ideas from a picture to fun evening with a lot of close friends, and raising money for the hunt. I also started on a racing board in helping to promote local racing and getting some new ideas into the community. Although I don’t know a thing about it, I am happy to once again sit back and learn about the steeplechase/point to point ‘world’.
I did take a small vacation this fall. I left on a Friday night around 9:00pm after hunting, and left for New Hampshire with a friend of mine, PJ, who I met at the Training Center. We drove through the night to my parents house, arriving at 5:00a.m. We stayed up the whole day and enjoyed all there was to see in the fall foliage and brilliance of New Hampshire in the fall and drove home to PA then next evening, proceeding back to our daily Monday routines! You only live once right?
So, that’s what I’ve been up to this year; living and loving life, working hard, enjoying the moment, and keeping my eye on the future. I really cherished everyone’s love and support which has carried me through the bumps that invariably come along the road of life.
Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and Keep the faith!
Cheers - Priscilla
