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Walk, Trot, Canter HOW AN OVERACHIEVER GOT BACK ON THE HORSE By Trilogy® at The Polo Club Member Brook Dougherty with Lauren Del Sarto
In Charleston, South Carolina at the Middleton Place Equestrian Center, 10-year-old Lauren Del Sarto sat astride Mini Haha, the shaggy pony she planned to ride to victory in the walk, trot, canter class. Lauren was equally shaggy in a Winnie the Pooh turtleneck, rubber boots, a second-hand boy’s jacket, and wild bits of blonde hair poking out at all angles from under a third-hand velveteen helmet. It was what her family could afford. She didn’t notice the other girls with their perfect jodhpurs, leather boots, and expensive ponies with neatly braided manes. Lauren took her turn and was pleased with her performance. She wondered where she would hang her ribbon. She waited for the announcer to call out the winners. Fifth, fourth, third, second. Her name would be next. Except it wasn’t. Lauren couldn’t hold back the tears, but her trainer was having none of it. She pointed out the impeccable grooming of the other girls and the superior quality of their mounts. When she called Lauren “sloppy,” she stopped crying and in that moment, her love for Mini Haha was replaced with a desire for a fancy horse and a determination to win that was so fierce, it would inform the next five decades of her life. It took a few years before her family was able to afford Cracker Jack Surprise, the $700 steed that Lauren rode to win after win. Nothing got in her way. When she had to wear a back brace to combat scoliosis every single hour of the day except when she rode, she dealt with it. She sold Cracker Jack and moved up to a nicer horse continuing to improve and to win. At 16, Lauren represented the United States in an International Horse Show in Puerto Rico where she was named Best Visiting Junior Rider. She rode her first year in college, but put it aside for other dreams, graduating from James Madison University with a major in mass communications and a minor in journalism. New York City called and she landed a communications job at Morgan Stanley.
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