New York Horse: Ride Outside 2019

NEW YORK HORSE STORIES. ADVICE. HORSEPLAY.

PAINT BY NUMBERS

The Travers, speed trap of champions, turns 150 The Artful Horse visits New York’s 360-year-old cattle ranch One rider takes on the Mongol Derby, 1,000 kilometers across the steppe

Spotted: Railbirds, Brooklyn horses & riding aside

RIDE OUTSIDE 2019

WHERE YOUR JOURNEY IS OUR DESTINATION …

Canterbury Stables C A Z E N O V I A

HUNTER/JUMPER & DRESSAGE BUILDING BETTER RIDERS SINCE 2002 … HORSE & RIDER WORKING IN HARMONY & BALANCE

A warm & welcoming professional staff & outstanding lesson horses allow students of all ages & levels to discover the joy of riding. Ready to compete? Let our instructors polish your skills & help your equestrian dreams come true.

CALL FOR A TOUR: 315-440-2244

ONLINE AT WWW.CANTERBURYSTABLES.COM

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Features

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Home on the (Unexpected) Range

The Artful Horse travels to Montauk, Long Island, the not-thefirst-place-that-comes-to-mind home of America’s oldest working cattle ranch

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Off the Beaten Path

Come along as New York Horse hoofs it to destinations both near and far

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Make Tracks

In the colonial heart of Goshen lies the aptly named Historic Track, the oldest harness racing course in the world

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Go Prospecting

In Prospect Park, Brooklyn’s treasured greenspace, look for one of NYC’s last stables and the revival of the urban horse

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Saddle bags packed, a young rider prepares for one of the world’s toughest endurance races, the grueling Mongol Derby

For as long as horses have run counter-clockwise, the fans who cheer them on have been a unique breed. Photographer Michael Davis caught the flock in full plumage

Into the Great Wide Open

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Railbirds

Horse thieves, counterfeiters and barn burners

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Happy 150th to the Travers, the midsummer classic where Triple Crown winners American Pharoah and Gallant Fox went down to defeat

Sidesaddle is attracting a new generation of female riders who embrace the discipline’s challenge and tradition

The Loomis Gang was America’s first family of crime when New York was still the western frontier

Speed Racer

God and Thoroughbreds

For more than three decades, Herb Wagner has been the chaplain of the backstretch at Finger Lakes racetrack

Aside, not astride

Where a white horse is not just white, a black horse is not just black, and a beautiful horse is not just pretty

Contemporary Equine Art for the Discerning Collector

EQUIS ART GALLERY THE ARTFUL HEART OF THE HUDSON VALLEY

15 WEST MARKET STREET RED HOOK, NEW YORK 845-758-9432 EQUISART.COM

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Departments

68 8 10 11 12

EQ Style

Fashion has gone to the dogs

Jump Start

Words of rodeo wisdom from a legendary shortstop Collected Thoughts

The League of Old Riding Broads recruits another member Thanks To Our Underwriters

14 16 18

Calendar

Pony camp? It’s not just for kids anymore.

From dressage – Western and driven – to mounted orienteering, there’s a day away for everyone.

Roadtrip, meanwhile, says tallyho and heads west.

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Leg Up

News, Notes and Conversation Starters EQ Business

Five strategies for charging what your services are worth

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Armchair Equestrian

Try a new approach with Compassionate Training for Today’s Sport Horse. We have a fistful of tips and a copy to give away.

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First Person: Breaking Barriers

Horses helped one teen find her voice and her passion

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Commentary

Ensuring the integrity and survival of horseracing EQ Medicine

When a mare went blind overnight, Cornell’s equine surgeons were tested by a tumor deep in her skull Master Class

“When you don’t know what to do, do something with conviction.”

Words to ride by from Lee Tubman Parting Shot

Love Thy Neighhh-bor

On the Cover

Photographer Kelsey Keathly has an eye for elegance. Her cover image of Robin, owned

by Joanne Siciliano-Jones of Lone Birch Stables, sets the paint against a black ground to showcase his stunning markings. Kelsey is an equine business management graduate of Cazenovia College and a much-missed former intern at NY Horse. She started Norfleet Marketing & Photography to combine three passions: “horses, art and entrepreneurship.” Find more at norfleetmarketing.com.

Central New York Dressage & Combined Training Association 2019 Competition & Schooling Events

Join the Fun! Improve & Test Your Skills

May 12: Informal Dressage Show @ Tanglewood Farm, Jamesville May 19: Horse Trials Hosted by Carriage House Arena, Trumansburg* June 2: Spring Dressage Show @ Tanglewood Farm, Jamesville June 23: Anne Eilinger Eventing Clinic @ Abbey Meadows, Syracuse July 7: Dressage & Combined Test Show Hosted by Gilbertsville Horse Shows* July 28: Barb Lindberg Hunter Derby Clinic @ Abbey Meadows, Syracuse July 28: Horse Trials Hosted by Carriage House Arena, Trumansburg* August 4: Tanglewood Dressage Show @ Tanglewood Farm, Jamesville* August 11: Dressage & Combined Test Show Hosted by Gilbertsville Horse Shows* August 18: NYS Fair Dressage Show at the Coliseum, Syracuse* September 8: Fall Dressage Show @ Tanglewood Farm, Jamesville September 29: Dressage & Combined Test Show @ Gilbertsville Horse Shows* October 13: Horse Trials Hosted by Carriage House Arena, Trumansburg* November 16: Year-end Awards Luncheon For additional information or to find clinic registration or show entry forms, go to cnydcta.org.

All competitions listed are eligible for CNYDCTA year-end awards. * Indicates CNYDCTA Supported or Sponsored Event

JUMP START

PHOTO OF TWO COWBOYS AT THE ATTICA RODEO BY MICHAEL DAVIS

“There may be people that have more talent than you, but there’s no excuse for anyone to work harder than you do.”

Derek Jeter, Yankees legend

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NEW YORK HORSE®

COLLECTED THOUGHTS

The Sisterhood of the Traveling Riding Pants, chapter 52

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nce a horse-crazy kid, always a horse-crazy kid.

The Official Husband of New York Horse learned this last year when, sight unseen and based only on a video and the word of a trusted trainer, this old-enough-to-know-better cowgirl bought a horse. Because of Finn – who the OH notes is the fella in the family who receives the most treats – my new goal in life is to become the world’s oldest barn rat. (For the record: Well on the way.)

And that is where this story really begins, at dinner on vacation, escaping for a few days of weather that does not require shoveling. Reading a menu and talking across the table, a woman one seat over winces at the mention of snow.

We are both, we discover, from upstate.

The real upstate. The one where a halffoot of snow means schools are on a two-hour delay, not closed until further notice.

Small world credentials established, the conversation moves on to polar vortexes and Syracuse University basketball and cabin fever and finally to this: What do you do?

“Publish a horse magazine.”

Pause.

“I used to ride,” says my new companion and indeed she did, including competing on her college equestrian team, until being an adult intervened.

We talked about those long-ago girls, the long-ago horses we used to ride, the days when we were given the toughest beast in the barn because we were

fearless and good and we could.

There’s a stable just down the road from me, she adds with a sigh. I could walk there. Another pause. “Do you have a horse?”

“Yes.” “If I had a horse, I could keep him there and visit him every day,” she says, and the long-ago girl dusts off her paddock boots and mutters under her breath that it’s about frickin’ time.

“Ahem, dear –” Her Official Husband looks up.

“I’m cancelling my gym membership.

I’m going to start riding again.”

OK. “And I’m going to buy a horse.”

“OH,” says her Official Husband.

(Public Service Announcement to non-horsey significant others: I am a very bad influence.)

But what of it? What is the magic of horses that can erase years – decades – between rides? Poets and philosophers have all taken a turn: “In riding a horse, we borrow freedom.” “A canter is the cure for every evil.” “Horses and life, it’s all the same to me.”

Perhaps, though, it is simply this: Horses never diminish an extended hand as too old, too broken, too many years away. Pick up the reins, the best of them say. Give us respect and kindness and a steady supply of treats – I’m looking at you, Finn – and we will carry you.

Horses, it is written, lend us the wings we lack.

Get out there and fly.

Janis

NEW YORKM AHORSE GAZINE Honored as one of the nation’s top magazines 2018 Web: NYHorseMag.com

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Owners Janis Barth Peter Barth Editor Janis Barth jbarth@nyhorsemag.com

UNDERWRITING SUPPORT New York Horse is published in part with underwriting support from: Canterbury Stables; Cazenovia College and the New York State Center for Equine Business Development; Blue Ocean Strategic Capital, LLC; Cornell University Hospital for Animals; New York State Fair; Morrisville State College; Sundman Stables; New York Farm Bureau; Central New York Dressage and Combined Training Association; Central New York Reining Horse Association and New York State Horse Council.

PRESENTATION Art Director Darren Sanefski dasanefs@go.olemiss.edu

EDITORIAL Contributing Editors Barbara Lindberg Renee Gadoua Contributing Writers Cynthia L. McVey Sophie Baghdassarian Katie Navarra Brien Bouyea LA Sokolowski Doug Emerson Contributing Photographers Michael Davis Kelsey Keathly Carissa Pelleteri Kendra Potasiewicz Scott Thomas

ADVERTISING To inquire about advertising Email: advertising@nyhorsemag.com Phone: 315-378-2800

New York Horse magazine is published by: Tremont8 Media, LLC Cazenovia, NY 13035 All rights reserved. ISSN 2375-8058. No part of this magazine may be reproduced without the express consent of the publisher. All material submitted to the magazine becomes the property of Tremont8 Media.

Submitted material may be excerpted or edited for length and content and may be published or used in any format or medium, including online or in other print publications.

To subscribe: Write to New York Horse, P.O. Box 556, Cazenovia, NY 13035. Subscriptions are $10/year.

Please include your name and address and a check or money order for the full amount. For gift subscriptions, include the name and address of each recipient and we will send a card in your name.

Email: nyhorsemag@gmail.com

New York Horse is a proud member of Farm Bureau and New York State Horse Council

A SPECIAL THANKS TO OUR NEW YORK HORSE UNDERWRITERS

Canterbury Stables W O R L D

NEW YORK STATE CENTER FOR EQUINE BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT

C L A S S ,

M I N U T E S

A W A Y

Address: 4786 Roberts Road, Cazenovia Phone: 315-440-2244 • Email: info@canterburystablesny.com

One Strong Voice for the Future of Horses Join today at: www. nyshc.org

Promoting the sport of Reining through shows, clinics and educational seminars

New York Horse is proud to be a media partner with HITS Look for us at HITS’ premier hunter/jumper venue in Saugerties, home to the $1 Million Grand Prix FEI CSI-5*, and the new Indoor Championship at the Exposition Center in Syracuse.

LEG UP: CALENDAR RIDING CAMP FOR GROWNUPS EDITION

JUNE 23

Eventing Clinic with competitive rider Anne Eilinger at Abbey Meadow Farm, Syracuse.

Sponsored by Central New York Dressage & Combined Training Association. More information at cnydcta.org

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Mountain Trail seminar by three-time national champion Mark Bolender at Salmon River Horse Park, Altmar. Navigate trail obstacles and learn what the judges are looking for including dress code, tack and attire. Contact Barbara Bouck at (315) 767-5459

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Driven Dressage clinic sponsored by Genesee Valley Riding and Driving Club at Hideaway Farm, Geneseo. More information at gvrdc.org Jeff Wilson Western Dressage Clinic at The Meadows, East Aurora. Hosted by the Western Chapter New York State Horse Council. More information at wcnyshc.org Central New York Reining Horse Association Ranch Riding Clinic and Summer Slide at SUNY Morrisville. More information at cnyrha.net

Adult Rider Camp at Exmoor Eventing, Nunda. Guest clinician Cat Hill, international groom in the sport horse industry. There will be also be an opportunity to ride into Letchworth State Park.

More information at exmooreventing.com

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Hunter Derby Clinic with Barb Lindberg, Joint Master of Foxhounds with Limestone Creek Hunt, at Abbey Meadow Farm, Syracuse. Sponsored by CNY Dressage & Combined Training Association. More information at cnydcta.org

AUGUST 3-4 10

Centered Riding Clinic at Big House Stables, Geneseo. Exercises and instruction to improve rider awareness, balance and harmony. More information at bighousestables.com

Stress Free Obstacles clinic with Jack and Emma Minteer, nationally known Extreme Mustang Makeover trainers, at Better Be Barefoot stable, Lockport. Contact Barb Cunningham at barbcunningham11@gmail.com

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National Association of Competitive Mounted Orienteering Northeast Region fun ride and clinic at Pure Country Campground, New Berlin. CMO tests horsemanship, map reading and compass skills, riding a timed course to find hidden stations More information at purecountrycampground.com

To submit events for the New York Horse Calendar, in print and online, send an email to: nyhorsemag@gmail.com.

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LEG UP: ROAD TRIP Horses, Hounds & Hoopla: Head West for the Hunt Races

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ne of the last hurrahs of the season is also one of the most storied: the Genesee Valley Hunt Races.

For more than 120 years, the hunt races have been held in a beautiful outdoor setting – a rolling field converted into a grass race course – on Nations Road, north of Geneseo. This year

the races are Oct. 12 and promise, as they have for a century-plus, a day that can be summed up in three words: Horses, Hounds & Hoopla.

Start with the horses. Some of the finest steeplechase trainers on the eastern seaboard bring their horses here to compete for more than $30,000 in prize money. In the feature races, Thoroughbreds race three miles, jumping 18 timber fences, all within view of the spectators. The day begins with a small pony race and before it’s done, polo ponies, stock horses and drafts will all

take a turn.

Need a little puppy love? There are terrier and wiener dog races, agility courses and the Parade of the Genesee Valley Hunt foxhounds. BYOB (Bring Your Own Barker): Dogs are welcome as long as they are on a leash.

As for the hoopla, need we say more than there’s a duck-herding demo? OK, there are also stick horse races and pony rides for the kids; plus, shopping and wine and craft beer tasting for the adults.

Check out more details at gvhraces.com.

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Leg Up

News, Notes and Conversation Starters New York’s winning ways at IEA and IHSA …

RGB Equestrian of Skaneateles won the Middle School Team Championship at the Interscholastic Equestrian Association Dressage Finale. The RGB team also took Reserve Champion in the Upper School Team division.

Nearly 150 young riders from across the nation participated. Dressage, which had been a pilot program, will have full IEA status beginning with the 2019-2020 season.

Claudia Freeman, a student at Rochester Institute of Technology, was the USEF/ Cacchione Cup reserve champion at the Intercollegiate Horse Shows Association national finals in Syracuse. The Cup is given to the national hunt seat high point rider.

Also at IHSA, Caitlin Doocy won the Intermediate Over Fences class for her team, St. Lawrence University; Mara Chemerinsky won Open Equitation over Fences for Skidmore College; and Molly Krause of Skidmore was the Individual Novice on the Flat champ.

Skidmore was the champion hunter seat team for IHSA Zone 2; St. Lawrence was the reserve champion. SUNY Morrisville was the Zone 2 Western team champion.

Meanwhile, Thea Chaffee, a junior at Colgate University, took the third-place spot on the podium at the inaugural IHSA Metropolitan Equitation Invitational.

The competition, held as part of the Longines Masters New York, featured a collegiate catch-ride format typically not seen at such top-level shows. The riders drew to compete aboard horses, sight-unseen, in a first round over fences. The top 12 riders returned to the arena on another drawn horse for a flat phase.

NY veteran and Homestead Stables featured in Lifetime show Cody Willett of Ashville, a computer specialist with the Chautauqua County Sheriff’s Department, will be featured along with the work of Homestead Stables in an edition of the Lifetime TV series Military Makeover with Montel.

Willett was four months into his second deployment as an Air Force weapons supply technician when his spine was fractured in a rocket propelled grenade attack. Although it’s primarily a home makeover show, this episode will also focus on equine-assisted therapy and the work Homestead performs with veterans and the N.E.I.G.H. (National Educational Institute of Growth through Horses) program.

Filming took place in May. No air date has been set.

Rescue Horse division added to Brookfield shows The Brookfield Riding and Driving Association will have a Rescue Horse Division at all their Open English/Western shows this year.

Shows are held at the Madison County Fairgrounds in Brookfield. Show dates are June 1, July 14 (Madison County Fair Open Horseshow) and Oct. 5. Look for more information at brda.us.

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Rescued mare becomes memoir’s voice A retired SUNY Potsdam professor has written a book about the aged mare she rescued and rehabilitated. The title, Kiss, Sable! The Story of a Rescued Horse, refers to the simple trick – taught to Sable by the girl who first loved her – that becomes a common thread among those destined to share and save the horse’s life.

Janis Londraville brings Kiss, Sable! to life from the perspective and voice of Docs Sable Whiskey, a registered Quarter Horse who falls on difficult times, suffering illness and starvation.

When Whippoorwill Horse Rescue of Tennessee begs Londraville to take the frail, aged mare home, she says yes. Working with Sable at her farm in North Carolina is rewarding, Londraville finds, in ways she “never fathomed.”

Kiss, Sable!, the book she wrote about the experience, has been independently published by Londraville, and is available on Amazon.com. All royalties go to Sable’s care.

Renovations underway at HITS Saugerties Competitors and visitors to the HITS showgrounds in Saugerties will find renovations and improvements to the venue this season.

The work includes new cedar fencing, new drainage in the Grand Prix schooling ring, improved cellular connection and WiFi, and new stone paving to even out the terrain on the golf cart paths.

John Fazio, director of marketing, said their crews have also finished cleaning and leveling all permanent stalls and the aisles have been evened out. On the amenities side, Fazio said, “our restaurant has been remodeled, adding new outdoor seating areas, more dining choices, a beautiful outdoor bar and table service in select areas.”

As far as competition, the Saugerties Spring Series, May 22June 9, will now feature three consecutive weeks of CSI FEI2* competition, giving Grand Prix riders a unique opportunity to earn World Ranking points.

REINING AMERICA’S HORSE SPORT Spins, Slides & Show Stoppers Come Catch the Action!

JUNE 7-9 CNY Reining Horse Association Ride & Slide NYS Fairgrounds Expo Center, Syracuse

Morrisville celebrates 50 years of equine programs SUNY Morrisville is marking the 50th anniversary of its equine programs with events including a reunion June 4-7 on campus.

The reunion will spotlight the college’s facilities and current areas of study, including Standardbred racing, hunt seat and Western riding, and demonstration of some of the equine rehabilitation equipment including a treadmill and salt water spa.

For more information go to Morrisville.edu.

Win this: Crochet your own horse Make your own barnful of horses with Crochet Horses & Ponies. An instruction book contains photos and directions for 10 projects and all the materials needed to create a unicorn and a mini.

The kit ($16.99, Thunder Bay Press) is available at Amazon, but we have one to give away. To enter, send an email to nyhorsemag@gmail.com with Crochet in the subject line. We’ll pick a winner at random from the entries we receive.

JULY 20-21 CNYRHA Summer Slide & Ranch Riding Clinic Morrisville College, Morrisville

AUGUST 10-11 Summer Slidin’ By Morrisville College, Morrisville

OCTOBER 17-20 CNYRHA Fall Classic CNYRHA & Northeast Breeders Trust Futurity NYS Fairgrounds Expo Center, Syracuse

Central New York Reining Horse Association Promoting the sport of Reining in the Northeast

Online at www.cnyrha.net

Follow us on Facebook

NYHorseMag.com NEW YORK HORSE 15

PROFITABLE HORSEMAN

Charge what you’re worth without feeling guilty Five tips for getting through the ‘money talk’

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By Doug Emerson

f setting fees for your horse business is a struggle, you’re not alone. You don’t want to charge too much and risk losing a sale and you don’t want to set prices too low and cheat yourself out of income.

Where is the balance point between a fair fee and customer price resistance and why isn’t there an industry guide – like there is for used cars – to help answer this question?

To start with, demonstrating value in the horse industry is far more difficult than beginning with a Blue Book guide to current car values. Often, you’re selling to customers not fully educated on value differences for the services offered.

Successful professionals should know the top things they are really good at and memorize them to effortlessly convey the value they offer without having to think about it first. Confidence sells.

A riding instructor might say something like this: “Seven years of professional experience as a certified riding instructor helps my students learn quickly and safely. I specialize in youth instruction and know when to push students and when to help them relax if fear arises. You will quickly recognize my commitment to students to have fun learning how to ride and spending time with horses.”

Don’t feel like you are the only person troubled with naming your price. Everyone has tripped over setting a price at one time or another. Here are five tips for getting through the money talk with your prospects and customers: 1. Have a pricing strategy. Know what

the competition offers and their prices.

Evaluate what you 16 NEW YORK HORSE NYHorseMag.com

offer in comparison and raise your fee if you have more to offer.

2. Make a “Standard Fees and Prices Sheet.” Start with a single sheet of paper. At the top, print your business name and then list all of the services and products you offer and the fee you ought to charge.

Congratulations. You now can say, “My standard fee for a private one-hour lesson is ____” and so on, for all of the services you offer from boarding to trucking to schooling at shows.

Once there are standard fees on a price sheet, the conversation can be much more professional than saying, “How does one hundred bucks sound? Is that fair?”

3. Talk with your customer or prospect about their expectations before quoting your fee. Suggest to the

customer that before you talk about money, the two of you should see if you can deliver what they need. This allows you to better understand what the customer is looking for and then charge appropriately.

4. Be confident. Deliver the price, and then stop talking. That means don’t talk even if there is a long uncomfortable period of ‘dead air.’ As the seasoned salesperson knows, he who speaks first, loses.

5. Avoid discounts, they just lead to more negotiation.

Instead, offer different levels of service at different prices.

If your standard fees scare off some prospects, don’t be discouraged. Be thankful that they were quickly eliminated, allowing you to concentrate on the clients who will enjoy working with you and pay you what you’re worth.

Doug Emerson, the Profitable Horseman, lives in Western New York, where he consults, writes and speaks about the business half of the horse business. Look for him online at www.

ProfitableHorseman.com.

THE ARMCHAIR EQUESTRIAN

A new approach to training the modern equine athlete

By LA Sokolowski

F

or nearly two decades Dr. Karen Leibbrandt has watched horses suffer incapacitating lameness, neck, back and pelvis complaints without relief through existing avenues of therapeutic treatment.

A licensed veterinary surgeon in The Netherlands, and lead trainer for Equitopia Learning Centers in Holland and California, she has concluded that, “The conformation of modern sport horses differs from those bred 50 years ago: modern horses are tall, long-limbed and have more inbred suppleness. This requires special attention during training because they are more prone to injury.”

Despite appearing big and strong, Dr. Leibbrandt says in her new book, Compassionate Training for Today’s Sport Horse: Biomechanics in Four Dimensions, The Key to Improving Posture, Balance and Strength ($47 hardcover, available online at equitopia.com), “horses have relatively low levels of physical resilience and take longer to recover from training than human athletes.”

She endured those heartbreaking problems with her own horse, Bojangles.

Now, years later, she says, “I know his problems were rooted in the wrong type of training. This caused damage to his body and he had been compensating for his physical problems for a long time, but in the end it was too much for him.

The worst part is that I would have been able to help him if only I had known then what I know now. My ignorance cost me a lot, but the good news is that I can now help 70-80% of horses overcome their problems.”

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60-SECOND CLINIC Four ideas to add to your toolbox from Compassionate Training: • “You cannot teach a horse anything if they are afraid of trying for fear of punishment. Trust and consistency are the cornerstones of the learning process.”

• “By nature, horses want to conserve energy; it’s in their DNA. Training and learning are not generally compatible with energy conservation. Which is why a horse needs to know what’s in it for them, in order to be receptive to learning.”

• “A horse’s crookedness is stored in his DNA. It is anchored in every cell of his body as it has safeguarded his survival. Understanding and patience are crucially important when retraining horses to achieve balanced movement.”

• “When a horse moves in complete balance with good core stability, he is both mentally and physically relaxed. The rider’s body connects with the horse’s, and the horse responds to the lightest aids from the rider. The rider’s intentions are translated into slight changes to the horse’s body; he picks up even the slightest of the rider’s intentions and follows. Horse and rider become one. This is in fact the fifth dimension: Harmony.”

In 237 pages, she introduces a fourdimensional training approach that addresses Crooked Horse Syndrome, diagnoses balance issues through LCR (Line, Contact, Rhythm), and devotes a complete chapter to how horses learn.

The book’s forward, by EFA/FEI Level 3 Coach and international horseman Manolo Mendez says it all: “It is my hope that this book will be translated into every language and find its way into the hands of trainers and riders around the globe, so the valuable information it contains will help them achieve their goals while keeping horses sound and happy. A ‘must read.’”

WIN THIS We have a copy of Compassionate Training for Today’s Sport Horse to give away as a special gift to one of our readers.

To enter, send an email with your name and address to nyhorsemag@gmail.com. Put “Training” in the subject line. We’ll pick a winner at random from the emails we receive.

Good luck!

*

The Show Trunk II

Equestrian style for your ride. Fashion for your life!

The perfect fit for the competitive edge This show season, stay cool and collected with our winning combination of classic style, comfort, and functional design

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Shop our NEW on-line store with FREE shipping on all items!

10% off for IEA & IHSA members and Professionals* Stacy Lowe-Jonas, Hugh Jonas 2335 Dryden Road (Route 13) Dryden, NY 13053 607-227-2538

Showroom Open: Monday, Thursday & Friday 11 am — 6 pm Saturday & Sunday 10 am — 5pm www.TheShowTrunk2.com * Where permitted Follow us on Facebook

FIRST PERSON

Horses broke down the walls that held her back (Editor’s note: Sophie Baghdassarian met EQUUS Foundation President Lynn Coakley, at the Hampton Classic’s 2018 Adoption Day. Sophie, who was competing in the championships of the Long Island Horse Show Series for Riders with Disabilities, told Coakley her dream was to “adopt a horse in need of a loving home,” and then shared the rest of her story.)

F

By Sophie Baghdassarian

or most of my early childhood, I followed in my sister’s footsteps. When my sister joined Little League softball, I joined. When my sister quit Police Athletic League soccer, I quit. When my sister started theater, I started theater.

I wanted to fit in and have friends, and following my sister was what I thought was the way to do that. I also tried gymnastics, ice skating and ballet.

Over time, I realized these activities were not for me. When I began horseback riding, I knew it was time to hang up the uniforms alongside the ballet flats.

With horseback riding, I found my voice and my passion.

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GOOD TO KNOW Learn more about the EQUUS Foundation and the work it does to support equine charities and safeguard the welfare of America’s horses at equusfoundation.org

I knew from the second I got in the saddle, slid my feet in the stirrups and picked up the reins, I would be able to break down the walls that were holding me back.

This was really important to me because some of those walls were very tall. At an early age, I was diagnosed with Pervasive Developmental Disorder and ADHD. Socializing for me was a daily battle. a constant struggle to pick up others’ social cues – to fit in.

Despite the fact that my parents and siblings were very supportive, I felt left out, ignored, and knew I was different and hated it. It was as if I was in a different world.

With every sport I tried, I was happy when the day was over. But with horseback riding, I count the moments until I can ride – and sleep in my breeches and polo the night before every lesson and show.

Whether I was grooming, tacking up, grazing, feeding, riding or just sitting by the stalls rambling on about nonsense, these magical creatures became my greatest friends and best listeners.

The barn is the second home for many, but for me, the barn became the place where I learned to pick up social cues, the cues of the horses I cared for: when they needed to be worked, fed, groomed, or let out to the paddock. And now I’m better at sensing cues in people.

The horses love me for me. They never judge me. Instead they let me sit on their backs and help me feel connected to an animal that has a mind of its own. Horses are one of the greatest creatures to exist on this planet due to their healing power and tolerance.

It’s easy to love them back!

It was horses who taught me to trust myself and my decision-making.

Horses taught me to be brave and gave me the strength to keep my head up and see the good in everyone. I’ve grown more empathetic and caring, and I feel my heart getting bigger, stronger and fonder every day.

COMMENTARY

Strengthening the integrity of horseracing The sport is ‘at its best when we prize the welfare of our horses’

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By Rep. Paul Tonko

orseracing has a storied history in the state of New York. For more than a century, millions of fans have gathered at Belmont Park, Saratoga and other legendary racetracks to enjoy this noble sport of kings and celebrate its majestic equine athletes.

Horseracing is also a major economic engine for the state, generating more than $3 billion for New York’s economy on an annual basis and. according to the American Horse Council, the sport supports more than 241,000 jobs throughout the United States.

Sadly, the sport today faces an uncertain future.

In the face of a heartbreaking rise in horse deaths at the Santa Anita track in California, the lack of uniformity and outdated medication policies in the industry have left it exposed to withering criticisms that threaten the credibility and future of the sport. As the congressman for New York’s 20th District, home to Saratoga Race Course, I know that horseracing is at its best when we prize the welfare of our horses and ensure safe and fair competition. The Horseracing Integrity Act, which I recently re-introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives with Kentucky Congressman Andy Barr, will restore confidence in this beloved sport by creating a uniform national medication program and banning race day medication.

Medication usage in horseracing is currently governed by a patchwork of rules and procedures across 38 different state racing commissions. These disparities can undermine the effectiveness of medication testing and enforcement standards, as well as the perception of fair competition. With roughly half of all Thoroughbred starts in the United States coming from horses that compete in more than one state, a nationwide medication policy is overdue and essential to ensuring the long-term survival of the sport.

The Horseracing Integrity Act will bring needed consistency to this system by establishing an independent authority responsible for creating and enforcing a national anti-doping program across the U.S. horseracing industry. This authority will be overseen by both U.S. Anti-Doping Agency appointees and horseracing industry representatives and will develop a standard list of permitted and prohibited substances, treatments and methods for races.

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To bring U.S. horseracing up to modern standards in the sport, this legislation will also ban the use of all medications within 24 hours of a race. Nearly every country in the world outside of the United States adheres to this standard. In addition to elevating the importance of the health and safety of our equine athletes, this measure will also help restore the reputation of U.S. horseracing and expand the ability of American breeders, trainers and horses to compete abroad.

The recent deaths of some two dozen racehorses at Santa Anita underscore the urgency of advancing a set of nationwide standards that protect our equine athletes. The public is calling for change in the horseracing industry, and our bill has attracted a broad coalition of support, including animal welfare groups, racing associations, breeders, owners, jockeys, bettors and tracks, and countless others. More than 70 members of Congress have signed on since the Horseracing Integrity Act was introduced.

The integrity of the noble sport of horseracing is on the line, as is its long-term survival. We need to ensure that we have fair and safe competition, not only in New York but at every racetrack in this country. Congress has an opportunity to help bring America’s sport of kings into the 21st century, rewarding hard work and fair play while respecting the health and nobility of the equine athlete. The time for us to act is now.

Rep. Paul Tonko represents New York’s 20th District – the state’s Capital Region – and serves as co-chair of the Congressional Horse Caucus

LORENZO STATE HISTORIC SITE, CAZENOVIA

July 31 Cayuga Dressage and Combined Training Club Upcoming Shows

June 8-9: Dressage in Wine Country I and II Chemung County Fairgrounds, Horseheads 2019 Qualifier for GAIG/USDF/Regional Championships/USDF Dressage Seat Medal and USDF Regional Adult Amateur Equitation Program. Offering Freestyle, Para and pony classes.

Judges: Lisa El-Ramey, (FL) USDF “S” and Sue Buchanan, (MA) USDF “S” August 11: Keepin’ It Casual show at Fortress Farm, Castle Creek, NY Judge: Lisa El-Ramey Entry forms, prize lists and updates at cayugadressage.org

Join us 6-9 p.m. for a night of food, drink & entertainment on the mansion’s lawn to support programs, events & preservation of Lorenzo Information and tickets: friendsoflorenzo.org

Sundman Stables

EVENTING, DRESSAGE AND HUNT SEAT TRAINING

FACILITY INCLUDES • 80 by 160 indoor arena with Tru-stride dust free footing • 120 by 220 outdoor arena with Tru-stride dust free footing • Five acre well maintained jump field with water and bank complexes • 30 acres of lush pasture with wood fencing • Just 15 minutes from Syracuse What folks are saying about Melanie – “Melanie increased my dressage score 10 points in 3 months!” “Melanie put fun back into dressage!”

Melanie will be training at Sundman’s winter base in Aiken, SC January through March

SUNDMAN STABLES Catering to the discriminating rider and owner.

1695 Stump Rd, Marcellus, NY sundmanstables.com Chacea Sundman, owner/manager

315-382-2790 Melanie Mullens, trainer

484-753-5075

EQ MEDICINE

Preserving performance Cornell equine hospital follows difficult path to save mare’s sight

By Cynthia L. McVey Blue, an 8-year old Hanoverian mare, suddenly went blind one night.

“In the morning, she was found just staring straight ahead and not moving in the middle of the paddock,” her owner, Kelly Ross, recalled. “It was hard to get her to walk inside because she was timid and kept bumping into things. Once we got her safely in the barn, we called the veterinarian who examined her and confirmed she was blind in both eyes.”

Blue was treated with steroids and the vision was restored, but she lost sight again in her left eye when she was weaned off medication.

After a two week stay at an emergency facility, Blue was brought to Cornell University’s Equine Hospital where, said Dr. Elaine Flory Claffey, “we suspected a compressive mass, but needed imaging to confirm, as well as to help us plan a surgical approach.”

On a computed tomography (CT)

Blue is back at work after Cornell surgeons removed a mass from a sinus under the brain cavity

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scan of Blue’s skull, a mass was seen in the sphenopalatine sinus – a tiny sinus located under the brain cavity – that appeared to be compressing the optic nerve. Surgery and removal of the mass were decided on as the best measure to save the sight in Blue’s right eye, but the location of the mass posed challenges.

“This particular sinus is so far back in the skull it is very difficult to access surgically,” said Claffey, a clinical instructor at Cornell’s College of Veterinary Medicine. “It is relatively new for us to access the sphenopalatine sinus in this way.”

Ross, Blue’s owner, said her biggest concern was not to put the mare through too much. “There were times when I was about ready to give up, but the veterinarians at Cornell were so confident and positive about the approach that I felt comfortable moving forward,” she said. “They were great about explaining everything and keeping us as completely up-to-date as possible so we could make the best decisions for Blue.”

With Dr. Norm Ducharme as the lead surgeon, a unique standing surgical procedure was performed during which a sinus flap was opened, and

an endoscope was passed through the nostrils into the sinuses.

A variety of long instruments and a flexible camera were used.

“We needed the imaging team and their knowledge of anatomy to assist with this complicated procedure. It was quite a long pathway to travel through before we got to the actual sinus,” Dr. Claffey said. “Since instruments are visible on X-ray, this form of imaging was used to make sure they were placed where they should be and that we were moving in the right direction.”

It took a few hours to gain surgical access to the sinus, but the mass, suspected to be a cyst, was removed.

It’s not likely that Blue’s vision will return in the left eye, but it is hoped the removal will decrease the risk of progression of symptoms.

“There have been a few other horses that have had masses removed from this area,” Dr. Claffey said. “But this was the first time the mass was creating compression (of part of the brain cavity) and had an expansive, destructive quality.”

Ross said Blue has since returned to her usual self and has even jumped again for the first time since the first vision loss.

“It was very gratifying,” said Dr. Claffey. “We were fortunate to have wonderful referring veterinarians as well as our imaging, internal medicine, anesthesia and surgery departments all collaborating to help create a good outcome for a special horse and owner.”

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Road trips...

From our home base — Cazenovia 13035 — journey to unexpected places around New York and the adventure of a lifetime

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Montauk, at home on America’s oldest range

eep Hollow Ranch is tucked into the curve of the hills along Long Island’s easternmost point.

Here, among the dunes and salt-air forest, America’s oldest working cattle ranch began some 360 years ago. And here, local history teaches – not Texas or the wild frontier of TV Westerns – is the birthplace of the American cowboy.

Montauk.

From New York City, drive 121 miles east by northeast on the Long Island Expressway, turn left at the Suffolk County Park and go back in time to 1658.

East Hampton’s colonists sent their livestock to graze on these lands. The ranch was here when Nieuw Amsterdam became New York. It was 130 years old by the time George Washington was inaugurated back down the road in lower Manhattan.

Today it is a place to ride a horse along sandy trails to the shore of Block Island Sound. Climb through the hollows and pasture to where the Atlantic swells at land’s end.

Savor the narrative. It is etched, this history of Deep Hollow Ranch, into the soul of Car Pelleteri’s photographs. In these images from her new book Montauk 11954 (Schiffer Publishing, hardcover

$29.99), a speckled Appaloosa reflects the grit of earth and water, a weathered barn melts into a lowered sky and two horses are captured in a moment of horseplay.

“Photography is my passion and true love,” says Pelleteri, who also takes commissions and creates custom prints of her work. “Even with breaks and thinking about doing something else, I always came back to making photographs, professionally for 20 years.”

New York Horse spoke with her about her new book and how photography influences her life: How did you choose the images you did? What do you want them to evoke in people … nostalgia for a vanishing way of life, or something else?

When editing, I’m looking for a particular feeling and look. An image has to speak to you, jump out – those are the easiest. Details are important ... I’m hoping that the viewers of Montauk 11954 see and feel nostalgia of course, happiness, town pride and something unique.

Does photography influence the way you look at the world?

Glad you asked this! Always! Everywhere I go, even in my daily life, I’m looking for anything I consider photogenic. These things aren’t always cookie cutter ‘pretty.’ Since I was a young lady, I just loved looking at pictures, especially magazines and any printed material that came in the mail. TV and film was another thing. Creating images that can have a film, still-life aesthetic, are appealing.

How do you know when an image is good?

Having been shooting casually since I was about 10 years old, later being an analog color printer for 13 years while also shooting various commercial assignments, I’ve seen a lot. I think I always had a natural knack for good compositions.

When photographing people, I like to bring out whatever it is I feel is right for the project. The portraits of people have to be real and honest. But this is subjective. Between my personality and what they bring to a session, sometimes it’s a lot. Other times not as much, but that’s OK too.

WIN THIS We have a copy of Montauk 11954 to give away. To enter, send an email with your name and address to nyhorsemag@gmail.com. Put “Montauk” in the subject line. We’ll pick a winner at random from the emails we receive.

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“My first visit to Montauk was in the summer of 2000. I was a photographer’s assistant, and it was many tides ago, yet I remember the trip like it was yesterday ... I could see, hear and smell the ocean just feet away, and I was hooked.”

— Car Pelleteri

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Goshen, where the oldest harness track in the world has kept pace for 181 years

here have, no doubt, been trotting horse races ever since the first farmer said to his neighbor: My nag is faster than yours.

But the sport that became harness racing began in New York 181 years ago, and its historic heart still lies in the center of the tiny community of Goshen.

Villagers raced their horses along what is now downtown’s Main Street as early as the 1750s.

Fast forward 80-odd years to 1838. Samuel Morse demonstrated his telegraph for the first time.

The Iowa territory was created. And in Goshen, informal street races were replaced with a prophetic innovation: a circular track.

It has been in operation ever since, the oldest continuously operated horse racing track in North America and the oldest harness track in the world.

The Historic Track, as it came to be known, was built around what was once circus grounds. In its first incarnation, it was a one-third mile circular track. The idea of an oval came later – there was even a long square track before the race course as it exists today was built in 1873.

A regular racing season ended in the late 1970s, when the pari-mutuel machines were removed.

But the vintage grandstand at Historic Track still echoes to the cheers of race fans for a few days each summer. This year, there will be a matinee card on June 16 and 23, with the Grand Circuit returning to Goshen July 4-7.

The track, which is a National Historic Landmark, is open year-round for self-guided tours.

Still used as a training facility, Standardbreds are generally out on the track every day working in a setting that is a furlong away from its 200th birthday.

Next door is the Harness Racing Museum and Hall of Fame. Explore a little farther for the ghost of glories past: the remains of Good Time Park, where the first Hambletonian was held in 1930. Although it has gone back to woods and fields, Good Time Park’s unusual triangular shape is still visible from the air, a slash of State Route 17 cutting through what was once the track’s southern edge.

This mural of the Historic Track is on the wall of the Goshen post office

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Brooklyn: A ‘revival of the urban horse in Prospect Park’

ere are some words you probably never expected to see strung together in one sentence: Go trail riding in Brooklyn.

Sure, there are plenty of other reasons to visit. Big sharks at the Aquarium. Big beards on the hipster side of town. The world’s best highway sign …

“Leaving Brooklyn: Fuhgeddaboudit.”

But if your bucket list includes impressing other riders with the exotic places you’ve set foot in stirrup – and let’s be honest, isn’t that on every equestrian’s bucket list? – then consider this: Prospect Park.

Designed by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux – the architects of Manhattan’s Central Park – Prospect Park is the city’s lesser-known but no-lessbeautiful oasis. From the sprawling, grassy vistas of Long Meadow to the Ravine, one of the city’s few remaining indigenous forests, the park’s green heart is open to equestrians.

“I want to see the revival of the urban horse in Prospect Park,” says John Quadrozzi Jr., who purchased Kensington Stables – one of the last in the city and the only one serving Prospect Park – after it went bankrupt in 2018. Quadrozzi used to take his two children riding there when they were young, and he imagines a time when horses will again be a central part of park life.

Reaching back into a century-old equestrian past, he will rename the facility Prospect Park Stable, as the original riding academy was called when it opened in 1917. That barn is now a warehouse, part of a different urban landscape. The current stable, which is getting a facelift starting with fencing and footing, lies just outside the park across from the Parade Grounds.

New page, new chapter, same thread of history.

Horses have always been part of the park’s narrative. When it opened in 1867, local livestock could be found roaming the 585 acres of public land,

even though they were supposed to be kept at home.

In 1872 alone, according to Time Out New York, 44 pigs, 35 goats, 18 cows and 23 horses were caught wandering about.

And who could blame them? Prospect Park was designed to be explored on foot or horseback, with rolling green meadows, bridle paths and meandering carriage drives with scenic lookouts.

Many of the entrances glorify horses, with grand equine statues.

Quadrozzi’s favorite places along the 3.5-mile bridle path are off the beaten path, the “untouched areas that the public doesn’t get to see unless they are on horseback.” He is working with the Prospect Park Alliance to reclaim portions of the park’s trails that are overgrown and unusable.

But his vision goes well beyond. Quadrozzi, an industrialist and president of GBX–Gowanus Bay Terminal, will operate Prospect Park Stable under the umbrella of Brooklyn Equine. His plans include revitalizing and expanding the stable with stateof-the-art equipment and setting up a composting facility at GBX to turn manure – that most plentiful of equine byproducts – into fertilizer for local farms and gardeners.

So stop by. Rent a horse. Take a guided ride.

Explore history. The trail begins at the Park Circle entrance at Prospect’s southern edge and continues along the central lake, past the boathouse – built in 1905 and one of the first buildings in New York City to be declared an historic landmark – to the Nethermead Arches and the Midwood.

You’re looking at Brooklyn’s last remaining native woodlands and its only freshwater lake.

Ignore the 2.6 million people and countless sources of urban congestion outside. Inside the park, around 200 species of birds visit seasonally and assorted critters, from chipmunks to bats, call this green space home.

Leave Brooklyn without riding? Fuhgeddaboudit.

GOOD TO KNOW To contact Brooklyn Equine about trail rides at Prospect Park Stable, other events and general information, email: Be@quadrozzi.com.

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BRIGHT PROSPECTS Trade in the urban jungle for a trail ride through an urban oasis, clockwise from top: 1. The bridle path curves along Prospect Park Lake, dotted with several small islands. 2. Nethermead Arch takes its name from the Old English words, nether, below, and mead, meadow.

3. A stereograph of a horsedrawn sleigh goes back to the park’s early days. 4. The 1905 Boathouse is on the register of historic places.

5. A statue of Ulysses S. Grant on horseback graces the park’s Grand Army Plaza.

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Mongolia: Where one young rider takes on the longest and toughest horse race on earth

BY JANIS BARTH

I

n August, while the rest of New York is snug in their beds, Kelsey Eliot will rub the sleep from her eyes and prepare to ride a semi-feral horse through high valleys, river crossings, shifting desert and the flat unforested grassland of the Mongolian steppe.

Across 620 miles, on the back of sturdy, fearless horses virtually unchanged from the 13th century, she will follow in the hoof prints of the ancient warriors who conquered half the world.

This is the trackless challenge of the longest and toughest horse race on earth: the Mongol Derby, a test of both mental and physical endurance. There are no roads, no marked routes and no guides. There are marmot holes, horses that are part bottle rocket, and a local cuisine that features fermented mare’s milk and boiled mutton.

“It seems like the ultimate test,” says Kelsey, and there is no mistaking that her slender frame is girded by a skeleton of steel. “It seems like the ultimate test of horsemanship and grit.”

It was, in fact, always so. The path the riders will trace roughly follows the mail route created by Genghis Khan in 1224, forging from vast wildlands a nerve system that connected the largest empire in history.

For 10 years, riders have been squaring off against this unforgiving landscape, pushing themselves to complete all 620 miles in 10 days or less, exchanging one barely-broke horse for another every 25 miles, navigating with a GPS and their wits. Kelsey hopes to ride 100 miles a day and finish in just under a week.

Hooves crossed.

“I’m expecting the unexpected,” she says. “If I’m being honest, I’m expecting to be terrified. I’m expecting to be at the starting point and question all my life decisions.

“But I’m expecting to cross the finish line because

if you don’t expect it, it’s not going to happen...

Mongolia doesn’t care about your plans. The endurance racer’s mantra is: To finish is to win. That’s what I want. I want to ride the whole 1,000 kilometers on my own and I want to finish in one piece.”

About half of the 40 or so riders who start don’t finish the Derby, victims of everything from dysentery – the illness is “just a fact,” says Kelsey – to broken bones from choosing a horse whose role model was a jackhammer. To concentrate on training, Kelsey left her job as a program assistant in Cornell University’s Department of City and Regional Planning and bought what can best be described in a G-rated story as a cheeky pony with a homicidal streak who bucks her off with something very much like clockwork.

“It’s a fine line between getting ready and not getting killed before I get to the starting line,” Kelsey observes with something very much like a snort.

The goal is to work up to eight hours a day in the saddle – in the Derby she can ride between 7 a.m. and 8:30 p.m. – and although she’s been riding since she was little, plays arena polo and has led horse tours in Iceland, this is, Kelsey admits, an entirely different level of horsemanship.

In fact. ask her and she will concede this is not only a world away from her home in the quiet upstate town of Dryden, it is “obviously the most ridiculous idea I’ve ever had.”

Or as coach Erica Eckstrom put it: “She needs to ride a lot crazier horses.”

Eckstrom, owner of Painted Bar Stables in Burdett and a long-distance rider herself, says Kelsey has gone from being a good rider to a “mindful” rider with a deeper understanding of the horse.

Focusing on the fundamentals, Eckstrom says by way of example, Kelsey has gone from being bucked off to understanding why her horse bucked and what she’s going to do about it.

STEPPE TO IT August 5-6: Derby pre-race training in Ulaan Baatar, travel to the steppe, meet the Mongolian horses August 7: Start gun fires August 16: Final race day and closing ceremonies Derby Words to Ride By: “This is no pony trek or guided tour,” organizers caution. “There’s no marked course, no packed lunches, no beds to sleep in.”

Follow along: theadventurists.com/adventures/mongol-derby/

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Kelsey Eliot, pictured top left competing at the Biltmore endurance ride in North Carolina, will take on the 620-mile Mongol Derby.

Traditional Mongol tack, below right, is colorful but uncomfortable. Derby riders will have a custom-made endurance saddle.

Sturdy and surefooted, Mongol horses, at bottom, can cross terrain “that would make a Thoroughbred weep.�

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On the list of riding fundamentals, that knowledge is right at the top. Because if there is one thing that is certain in the Mongol Derby it is that you will be looking up at the sky more than once, courtesy of the unguided missile you just tried to saddle.

“The Golden Rule is: Don’t get off your horse unless you don’t want to get back on,” Kelsey notes.

“If you get bucked off, don’t let go. Hold on to your horse or you’ll never see him, or your pack, again.”

While riders will be aiming for Kelsey’s pace of 75 to 100 miles a day, each horse is only used for one 25-mile leg of the race and is retired after reaching the next checkpoint. A fresh string of horses is waiting at each station — called an urtuu — and it’s first come, first served. The riders who arrive last, get what’s left.

Kelsey says she’s been advised by past Derby contestants not to be afraid to ask the herders for help. They may not have a spoken word in common, but they are united by the language of horsemanship. Ask, and “they’ll give you the best horse they can give you.”

Riders can overnight in yurts at the horse stations, where they stay with families approved by race organizers and where they will be under cover and fed, more or less. “They’ll feed me, but basically they’ll feed me mutton, flavorless mutton,” says Kelsey, who plans — unsurprisingly — to include some power bars in the 11 pounds of gear she is allowed to pack.

Riders also can take a chance on getting ahead by riding out of the day’s last urtuu and camping between checkpoints or finding a family who will take them in for the night. A spot tracker issued to each racer allows organizers to pinpoint where they are, whether and how fast they are moving, and if they

are riding beyond the designated hours – endangering themselves and their horse in the dark and bringing down penalties including disqualification.

Vets check each horse before and after each leg, despite DNA that — race organizers note — makes these tough-as-boiled-mutton equines “impervious to heat, cold, hunger, thirst, flies, floods, deserts, and really anything else that Mongolian Mother Nature can throw.” All horses must be declared sound, with a heart rate of no more than 56 beats per minute. Elevated heart rates that do not return to normal after 30 minutes can be extremely costly: Veterinary time penalties cost U.S. endurance rider Devan Horn the lead and ultimately the race in 2018.

Riders cannot weigh more than 188 pounds fully dressed, not counting their pack and their tack — a Franco C endurance style saddle custom made for the Derby — and an SOS button. Because when the spot tracker says a rider has stopped, it could mean they are admiring the view, checking their location or, in a country riddled with whatthe-heck-was-that, much worse. Pushing the emergency button will end that rider’s race, but also tell the operations room that an emergency crew should be dispatched.

“They don’t want us to die,” Kelsey says, tongue possibly firmly in cheek. “They just want us to get maimed.”

And indeed, as organizers note, this is not a race for the faint of heart, the weak of stomach, or anyone who thinks a horse should appreciate a pat on the neck and a kiss on the nose: “We don’t police Mongolia and remove hazards like drunks, perverts, giant flesh-eating dogs and plague-infested marmots.”

It’s the rider, the elements, and the horse.

As it was nearly a millennium ago, so it is today.

To finish is to win.

The Mongol Derby recreates Genghis Khan's horse messenger system. The exact course changes every year, and is kept secret until shortly before the race begins.

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A traditional Mongol herder’s yurt, above, is a stopping point for Derby riders to eat, rest and exchange horses.

Kelsey is packing protein bars, because the traditional herders’ diet features boiled mutton.

An equestrian monument to Mongol Emperor Genghis Khan, at left, towers above the flatland in a statue complex 33 miles from the capital city of Ulan Bataar.

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KELSEY’S CARRY-ON Kelsey Eliot can pack only 11 pounds of gear in her saddlebag for the Mongol Derby. Here’s some of what she’s bringing: An ultra-lightweight sleeping bag and an ultra-light puffy jacket. Worth every ounce, says Kelsey, because Mongolia is hot during the day and cold at night.

A bunch of plastic bags to keep things dry A First Aid kit, antibiotics and Imodium. “Everybody gets dysentery,” Kelsey says. “It’s just a fact.”

A voice-activated Go-Pro. It will chew up a lot of ounces, Kelsey concedes, but all right: “It’s a luxury item, but I’m OK with it.

I want to document all of this experience.”

Power Bars. Because who wants to race 620 miles on a diet based heavily on old sheep?

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Sangerfield, home and hideout for New York’s most notorious horse thieves

n 1802, horse rustler George Washington Loomis rode into Oneida County and found what he was looking for in the forbidding marshes and dense woodlands of Nine Mile Swamp. He’d been chased out of Vermont for stealing horses and, in the impenetrable swamp, recognized the perfect spot for stashing ill-gotten goods.

Loomis was back in business. He placed a mansion on an overlook, carved a hideout from the swamp, and with his six sons built the Loomis Gang, the largest organized crime family in 19th century America. For decades, from their stronghold near the village of Sangerfield, the gang ran roughshod over the law in what was then America’s western frontier.

They specialized in stealing horses, but also dabbled in burglary, stolen goods, counterfeit money, bribery and barn burning. Wash Loomis, the second son, became the ringleader in the early 1840s and grew the gang into a multi-state syndicate with the family farm as the nucleus.

During the Civil War, when the Union Army needed cavalry mounts, the Loomis brothers obliged by selling them stolen horses.

“They changed their color,” Bob Loomis, a greatgrandson of Amos “Plumb” Loomis, recounted in an interview with the Utica newspaper. “They would use paint, or silver nitrate or even mashed potatoes to put a star on their forehead or change their legs or whatever, so they wouldn’t be recognized. Sometimes, they would even sell the same horses twice.”

By all accounts, Wash was sophisticated and well-dressed, with a magnetic personality. To sharpen his criminal wits, he studied law.

The third son, Grove, inherited both his father’s love for horses and his aptitude for stealing them. “There was not a better horseman or judge of horseflesh in the country,” reporter Amos Cummings wrote in 1877 in a retelling of the gang’s exploits in the New York Sun. “He kept none but blooded stock, and when pressed (by the law) sailed over the country on horseback without regard to roads or fences. The finest horses stood in the barnyard night and day, saddled and bridled, ready for use at a moment’s warning.”

Count among those fine horses, the famed trotter Flora Temple, long thought to be the “bob-tailed nag” of Stephen Foster’s song, Camptown Races. Sired by a stallion owned by Wash Loomis, Flora Temple was foaled in 1845 and, within an hour of her birth, had her tail docked with a jackknife, a common practice for driving horses in the 19th century.

But Flora, like Wash, was not destined for workaday living. She proved a bad match for pleasure driving but a champion of the track, where she equaled or lowered the world record six times while becoming the first horse ever to break the 2:20 mile. She died an icon at age 32.

Wash’s reign of criminal terror came to an equally fitting end. On Oct. 31, 1865, armed vigilantes led by Sangerfield Constable James Filkins raided the Loomis home. Wash was killed.

“His skull was broken,” Cummings recounted in the Sun, “and he was beaten to a jelly.”

The outlaws’ power was in tatters. Eight months later, another mob burned the house, left the family with nothing but the clothes they wore, and half-hanged Plumb Loomis as a final payback. As the sun rose, the Loomis Gang was done.

Listen closely, though.

If the stories are true, the Loomis Gang continues to ride the countryside around Sangerfield and the Nine Mile Swamp.

Drive carefully and keep an ear cocked for hoofbeats on Halloween night. Legend holds they belong to the ghosts of the Loomis Gang and their ‘finest horses,’ returned to mark the vigilante raid and exact revenge at last.

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Celebrating its 150th running this summer, the Travers Stakes has been Saratoga’s signature event since the days of the Civil War

BY BRIEN BOUYEA

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ne of those classic Saratoga showdowns loomed in the 1962 Travers Stakes as a pair of elite colts — Jaipur and Ridan — prepared to slug it out for supremacy. It was a warm August afternoon with a large Saturday crowd of 26,183 in attendance for the 93rd running of the race known as the “Midsummer Derby.”

Nothing about this race was typical. Nothing about the Travers ever is.

Jaipur was riding a five-race win streak, including a victory in the Belmont. Ridan was also a known commodity, thanks to wins in the Florida Derby, Arlington Classic and Blue Grass Stakes.

Lined up next to each other, Jaipur and Ridan broke well from the gate and quickly engaged in an epic duel that spanned 1¼ miles around the famed Saratoga oval. Under Manuel Ycaza, Ridan took a half-length lead into the first turn, but the menacing presence of Jaipur and Bill Shoemaker lurked right behind.

There was no discernable separation between the two colts on the backstretch. They thundered down the stretch, neither willing to concede even an inch.

Someone had to win and, in the final strides, Jaipur extended himself just enough to sneak his nose ahead of Ridan in a photo finish for the ages.

Kentucky, winner of the first Travers, run in 1864 46 NEW YORK HORSE NYHorseMag.com

William Travers, first president of the Saratoga Association, the stake’s namesake The time was 2.01 3/5, breaking – by one-fifth of a second – a stakes record set by Man o’ War that had stood for 42 years.

The 1962 Travers is regarded as one of the greatest races in American history, but the Midsummer Derby has a long legacy of producing thrilling results. From its inaugural running in

1864, the Travers Stakes is annually one of the premier events on the American racing calendar.

Two legendary Travers upsets of Triple Crown winners – Gallant Fox in 1930 and American Pharoah in 2015 – helped cement Saratoga’s reputation as the graveyard of champions.

“I think, without question, the best way to put it, without insulting anybody, or without showing my own prejudice, I would say the Travers is the fourth leg of the Triple Crown,” said Hall of Fame trainer Nick Zito, who won the race in 2004 with Birdstone.

“The Triple Crown is three legs, but the Travers stands alone by itself. It is very, very important, and I like to participate in it.”

Saratoga Race Course opened on Aug. 2, 1864.

The first race at the new track was, fittingly, the Travers, named in honor of William R. Travers, the first president of the Saratoga Association. Travers undoubtedly enjoyed himself that day, as his own horse – Kentucky – won the first running of the new stake.

Kentucky went on to win the first two editions of the famed Saratoga Cup in 1865 and 1866, en route to being inducted into the Racing Hall of Fame. He’s one of 23 Travers winners to earn Hall of Fame honors, including Man o’ War, Twenty Grand, Whirlaway, Native Dancer, Buckpasser, Damascus, Easy Goer, and Holy Bull.

Greatness has always been linked to the race.

Several of the 19th century’s top horses won the Travers, including Hall of Famers Harry Bassett (1871), Duke of Magenta (1878), Hindoo (1881), and Henry of Navarre (1894). The fourth Travers, in 1867, was won by Ruthless, the first of only three fillies — along with Liza (1895) and Lady Rotha (1915) — to win.

And it has inspired great traditions, from lavish hats to giving the winning owner the honor of

To the winner goes the Man o’ War Cup

having their silks painted on a canoe that floats on the infield pond until the next year’s race. Only once since the custom started in 1961 – when 33-1 longshot Golden Ticket and the favorite, Alpha, finished the 2012 Travers in a dead heat – were two canoes placed in the pond, remaining tethered together until the following summer.

The Travers was not run in 1896, 1898, 1899, and 1900 because of the track’s struggling financial status and in 1911 and 1912, anti-gambling forces shut down New York racing entirely. However, other than those dark days, the Travers has produced many epic runs, from heart-stopping dead heats to brilliant romps. Here are a few: Dead heat, part 1: In 1874, Attila and Acrobat finish in a dead heat over a distance, at that time, of

Man o’ War triumphed in the 1920 Travers, setting a blistering pace and a stakes record that stood for 42 years

In 2012, a dead heat meant two canoes were painted with winners’ silks

1¾ miles. (Today’s Travers is 1¼ miles.) But instead of having co-winners, both horses were given a brief rest before a run-off at the same distance. Attila prevailed, actually going faster in the run-off, shaving his time by three-quarters of a second to 3:09.

The greatest: Man o’ War, considered by many to be the best racehorse of all time, wins the 1920 Travers in 2:014/5, a record that stands for four decades. The Man o’ War Cup, which he won by defeating 1919 Triple Crown winner Sir Barton in a match race, is now presented each year to the winner of the Travers.

Triple Crown curse: Jim Dandy, at odds of 100-1, defeats Triple Crown winner Gallant Fox on a muddy track in 1930. It is the only loss of the year for Gallant Fox and Jim Dandy’s only win from 20 starts. It still ranks among the biggest upsets in racing history.

The one and only: In 1941, Calumet Farm’s Whirlaway becomes the first — and to this date only — Triple Crown champion to win the Travers.

Finally: Continuing one of the sport’s greatest rivalries, Triple Crown winner Affirmed crosses the finish line ahead of Alydar in the 1978 Travers, Then, in a stunning reversal, Affirmed is disqualified for interference and Alydar is declared the winner.

IF YOU GO The 150th running of the Travers will take place on Aug. 24. It anchors the biggest day of racing at Saratoga this summer, with five other G1 stakes: the Ballerina, Forego, H. Allen Jerkens, Personal Ensign, and Sword Dancer.

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PHOTO BY MICHAEL DAVIS

Like father, like son: General Assembly, a son of Secretariat, sets a new track record of 2:00 over a sloppy track in the 1979 Travers.

Northern exposure: Kentucky Derby winner Gato Del Sol, Preakness winner Aloma’s Ruler, and Belmont winner Conquistador Cielo meet in the 1982 Travers – where they are defeated by Canadian invader Runaway Groom.

Weather or not: Birdstone wins the 2004 Travers as a powerful thunderstorm descends upon Saratoga and the race is contested in near darkness.

Dead heat, part 2: In 2012, the first dead heat in the Travers since 1874, long shot Golden Ticket crosses the finish line simultaneously with Alpha, the favorite.

Triple Crown curse, cont’d: Keen Ice, at odds of 16-1, shocks Triple Crown winner American Pharoah in 2015. Pharoah tires in the stretch and finishes second.

Blistering: Arrogate runs the fastest Travers ever, winning the 2016 race by 13½ lengths in a track record of 1:59.36. He shaves nearly a half-second off General Assembly’s record, which stood for 37 years. (Watch Arrogate’s victory at youtube.com/ watch?v=7HMyD7svqEI) “It’s a race with so much history. Everybody wants to win the Travers because it’s such an important race and has so much prestige with it,” said Hall of Fame jockey Angel Cordero, Jr., who won 14 riding titles at the Spa and took the 1985 Travers with Chief’s Crown. “I feel lucky to have won the Travers. I wish I had won it a few more times, but just to say I won that race is pretty special.”

… AND THEY’RE OFF!

PHOTOS AND OTHER IMAGES COURTESY OF THE NEW YORK RACING AUTHORITY AND THE NATIONAL MUSEUM OF RACING

Relive these moments from the rich archives of Saratoga’s summer classic

The Travers produced many historic finishes (clockwise from top): Alpha and Golden Ticket finish in a dead heat in 2012; Whirlaway, in1941, is the only Triple Crown champ to win the Travers; Arrogate runs the fastest Travers ever in 2016; General Assembly pulls away from the field in 1979, setting a track record that stood for 37 years until broken by Arrogate.

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Railbird

\'ra-lberd\ noun: a racing enthusiast who sits on or near the track rail

e

PHOTO GALLERY BY MICHAEL DAVIS The railbirds were flocking at Saratoga before the word was invented.

They arrived by horse-drawn carriage in August 1863, just a few weeks after the Battle of Gettysburg, for the spa’s first Thoroughbred meet. For the faithful – then as now – whatever else was going on in the world, including a Civil War raging one state away, it took second place to the draw of betting on a herd of large animals galloping around a track.

“A large concourse of people included a host of the fashionable in carriages and tallyhos turned out to enjoy the sport and excitement,” one local newspaper gushed as the first day unfolded.

By the second day, track attendance swelled to 5,000 and, by the next, the grounds were thick with carriages of every description.

The fourth and final day of the meet had been set aside by President Lincoln as a national day of thanksgiving for the recent Union military victories. He encouraged Americans to gather at their usual houses of worship. No matter. Not even a presidential decree could deter Saratoga’s racing fans from heading to the track in the largest numbers of the week.

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Railbirds.

It would be another 30 years before the term was coined, a purely American addition to both the dictionary and track lore. By then, the clan was established.

“Racing folk form as distinctive a cultural milieu as steelworkers in Pittsburgh or cocoa farmers in Ghana,” the great anthropologist Lionel Tiger would write more than a century after the first big spenders lost their first two-dollar wager. An observant fella who coined the term ‘male bonding,’ Tiger knew an unexplored tribe when he saw one. “They form a defined social group as worthy of study as seemingly more consequential ones, such as chartered accountants, ambitious brigadier generals, and senior civil servants.”

Brighter plumage, too, these rail dwellers, with their half-chewed cigars, well-chewed pens, sheaves of pockmarked papers and perpetual squint.

Over 150 years, they have been the most dependable of migrating fowl, returning to Saratoga every July for the summer meet. Here, in the long shadow of the track’s iconic spires, champions rose and fell. Horse-drawn carriages lost to horsepower of a different sort. Waistcoats and top hats became sports shirts and ballcaps.

But some things are eternal. By 1866, the New York Times would report at the height of the meet’s social season: “Pure air, fresh breezes, crisp fried potatoes, a great deal of very weak human nature, some exceedingly disagreeable water, and the New York morning papers are here.”

As long as Thoroughbreds thunder toward home and the faithful look to the Daily Racing Form to unlock the secrets of the universe, this much will always be true.

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“Nowhere will you meet more companionable people than at a racetrack’s rail. These spaces might be the most democratic patches of ground left in America. Here class and status — not to mention race, gender or sexual preference — mean nothing. If you want the real diversity, come to a racetrack.”

— Alan Pell Crawford

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God & the Backstretch For more than 30 years, chaplain Herb Wagner has ministered to the workers at Finger Lakes racetrack STORY BY JANIS BARTH PHOTOS BY MICHAEL DAVIS

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unday morning, half-past July, and the backstretch at Finger Lakes Racetrack is silent enough to hear the hoof falls of two horses lazily rounding an ancient hotwalker.

Drive past the guard shack, past the low blue shed rows that are home to the workers who bathe and groom and feed the Thoroughbreds who race these long summer days for a dwindling number of fans. Turn left at the concrete-block building, the one with the white fascia board and the handlettered sign bearing four crosses:

+ RACETRACK + CHAPLAiNCY + FiNGER LAKES + Barely 11 and it’s hot. Hot enough, as the vintage pop tune goes, you’d almost bet you could hear yourself sweat. A fine cloud of dust hangs in the heat as the small knot of faithful walk inside.

Donuts and coffee on a side table; a patchwork medley of chairs pressed into service as pews.

Chaplain Herb Wagner walks to the front, raises his hands, and the room is stilled.

“Welcome to the Finger Lakes racetrack church service. Thank you for this fine summer day.” A whisper of praise rolls through the congregation which, on this fine summer day, numbers a dozen or so. “Bless our time together. Hallelujah.”

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For more than 30 years, this has been Wagner’s ministry. Where others may have aspired to stained glass windows and soaring arches, Wagner has found his calling caring for the workers who labor on the backstretch of this smallest of New York’s Thoroughbred tracks.

Worship services are Sunday. Monday night is prayer and Bible study. Saturday’s the Alcoholics Anonymous-Narcotics Anonymous meeting.

It was his own struggles with alcoholism, Wagner says, that led him here. He’d been in

construction in New York City before entering a recovery program, making a profession of faith and becoming a Christian. After planting a church in the hard streets of Newark, New Jersey, he came to the track in the mid-80s and stayed; an unwavering belief in the presence of God and the goodness of his ministry a constant as the decades and the backstretch changed.

When he began at Finger Lakes 34 years ago, Wagner says, the workers were almost uniformly white. Now, perhaps 95 percent are Hispanic. The ministry has shifted too, focusing more on the community’s social life. They offer dinners and barbecues and “God is there,” Wagner says. “You’re there, and you’re there to help out, and if they want to listen to the word of God, they listen.”

Steve Lareau listened. The backstretch worker got sober, met Wagner some length of years ago – “Jeez, I don’t know when” – and now plays guitar at the weekly service, a mix of folk standards and gospel.

“We try to help the workers back here any way we can,” Lareau says. “We get them mattresses, clothing, air conditioners – whatever. Our main goal is to lead people to Christ, but we try to provide what we can for them.”

The track isn’t big enough to have a full-time chaplain, as they do at Aqueduct, Belmont Park and Saratoga, the three Thoroughbred tracks operated by the New York Racing Authority. There, serving a community of more than 3,500 backstretch workers, the ministry is open around the clock and programs range from soccer leagues and sports clinics for the children of workers, to translation services and Path to Citizenship classes.

At Finger Lakes, add everyone together, and the employees working at the track and gaming complex number around 500. And someday, maybe soon, who knows how many that number will become. In its 57th year there is uncertainty about the future, for the generations of families who have worked here and for the hamlet of Farmington where the flash of silks and thunder of hoofs has been a cornerstone.

“I can remember when the stands were packed,” says ministry volunteer Peggy Wyman, whose husband was a trainer at Finger Lakes. “Now there’s no one. There are plenty of cars in the parking lot, but they’re all inside the casino.”

So Wagner is here the hours he can, puts out Bibles and devotional materials, and lists his email and phone number on the program for the worship service, with the simple message that he is available for counseling. The workers’ recreation center serves as the chaplaincy church, and the prints of Jesus and shelf of hymnals share space with a fridge, a ping-pong table and a rack of pool cues. A statue of St. Francis buddies up to a photo of a rugby match.

“It’s a presence ministry,” Wagner explains. He NYHorseMag.com NEW YORK HORSE 57

leans in close when he speaks, part spiritual leader, part social worker, white hair slicked back from a face that is a map of the good and bad that life has brought.

As pay and housing conditions have improved, loneliness and missing their families have become larger problems in the community that is the backstretch. “We hatch, match and dispatch,” he says, a shorthand rhyme that takes the full measure of what he does. Cradle, yes, to grave. When there is no one else at the end for one of his, it is Wagner who will say a final prayer and spread their ashes on the track.

+ RACETRACK + CHAPLAiNCY + FiNGER LAKES + Find, in those three words, his world, purpose and devotion. Wagner flips through a well-worn Bible to the morning’s opening prayer, from Psalms 46:1-11.

“God is our refuge and strength,” he begins, fixing the room with a single sweep of his eyes.

There is a hum in the close air. A woman in a blue-flowered dress raises her hands, palms pressed inward, eyes closed. In the front row, Lareau leans back and clasps his hands.

“Be still, and know that I am God,” Wagner says slowly, lingering on each word. He closes the page, knows the verse by heart. “Be still, and know that I am God. “Amen.”

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Side Effects Riding aside may have started as a way to maintain female modesty on horseback, but today’s sidesaddle devotees love the discipline for its challenge and elegance B Y K AT I E N AVA R R A

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ecades before the televisions series Downton Abbey glamourized women riding aside, Julie Basile was fascinated by sidesaddles.

The décor in her childhood home included four Victorian paintings, all of ladies riding sidesaddle. She pored over books that featured photos of women riding sidesaddle.

“I was mesmerized,” said Basile, who calls Buffalo home. “I loved the elegance, and it was different from anything I would see at local horse shows and events.”

On the third Saturday of each month, she attended the Sherman Livestock Auction where used sidesaddles often surfaced for sale in the mid-1980s. Although she only owns two today -- an English style Martin & Martin and a Western-style saddle made by Lillian Chaudhary – Basile estimates having purchased more than 15 over the years. But it wasn’t until 2001 that she bought a sidesaddle that fit her and her horse and began competing.

“The saddles I found at the auction were Victorian era and apparently women were tiny, so if they were sound enough to ride in, only a child would fit,” Basile said.

TRY RIDING ASIDE Maggie Herlensky, president of the American Sidesaddle Association, will lead a clinic June 29-30 at HillCroft Stables, Schenectady.

The clinic is open to riders of all levels and experience.

Contact Kelley McCarty by email at robar_13@yahoo.com or phone (518) 925-5751.

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Scroll back a few centuries. Sidesaddle, or riding aside, may have started as an aristocratic style to allow women to be ladylike while on horseback. Princess Anne of Bohemia, who rode aside while traveling across Europe to marry King Richard II in 1382, is credited with popularizing the style in England.

Today’s sidesaddle riders, however, ride for the thrill of the challenge on the trail, over fences, in the show ring and purely for the fun of it.

Rochester rider Karen Martz also started sidesaddle long before it was romanticized on TV. In 1998, the American Morgan Horse Association asked Martz to showcase sidesaddle in a breed demonstration at Equitana USA in Kentucky.

She had six weeks to train herself and teach her Morgan gelding, the aptly named Triumphant Courage, the discipline.

“I was very nervous and unsure if I was doing it properly when I arrived,” she recalled.

Debbie Smith, the former president of World Sidesaddle Federation, approached Martz while she was practicing and asked how long she had been riding sidesaddle. Martz worried that she wasn’t riding correctly and explained she learned by reading a book, Sidesaddle Legacy.

“She was so taken aback and told me that we looked so good. She asked me to represent the World Sidesaddle Federation in their demo,” she said. Since then, Martz said, she has learned how to jump, trail ride and execute dressage movements sidesaddle. “It was all beyond my wildest dreams ... I had no idea that my world of riding would change.”

Any breed of horse can be taught to be ridden sidesaddle. Maggie Herlensky, the American Sidesaddle Association president, has ridden both draft horses and light breeds sidesaddle. “As long as the breed rules don’t specifically prohibit sidesaddle you can compete in it for classes that are judged on the horse,” Herlensky said. “Saddlebreds, Arabians and Morgans offer classes.” The American Quarter Horse Association, for one, forbids riders from showing sidesaddle, although stock breeds can certainly be ridden aside informally.

The New York State Fair Horse Show offered all-breeds sidesaddle classes as did the Empire State Arabian Horse Show, and indeed the options are limitless when it comes to what a rider can do aside rather than astride.

Riders can compete in steeplechases – the Genesee Valley Hunt Races will feature a crosscountry sidesaddle race this October – flat races, drill teams, sanctioned United States Eventing Association competitions, parades, endurance rides, pleasure shows and more.

A quiet, willing horse and an interested rider is all it takes to get started. Herlensky has worked with riders whose horses who knew the basics – how to turn and stop – all the way up through Prix St. Georges dressage horses (those four-legged

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PHOTO BY SCOTT THOMAS PHOTOGRAPHY

The 2018 Arabian Horse Show at the state fairgrounds in Syracuse included a sidesaddle class

magicians with the extended trot, canter half-pass and other fancy footwork).

“The horse really only needs to know how to direct or neck rein and respond to whoa. The less leg cues a horse understands the better to start off – so they’re not waiting for the right leg cue,” Herlensky said. “The biggest thing is that the horse must be pretty quiet to mount and dismount. That’s the hardest part. There’s no graceful way of getting on and off.”

Regardless of the rider’s current discipline, there’s a sidesaddle that’s similar. There are Western, English and hybrid style saddles to choose from. When Bloomville rider Amy Morris saw a Western sidesaddle she was intrigued, especially because it is touted as more comfortable for people with joint pain.

“I was intimidated at first, but I met people online who were supportive and shared info. When you find a group of friendly people as a beginner it’s easy to ask for more,” Morris said.

Comfort is the reason that Herlensky began riding sidesaddle as a teenager. She suffered from joint pain and her mother read an article in Western Horseman touting the comfort of

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riding sidesaddle. She’s ridden sidesaddle ever since. She has logged 3,000 miles participating in endurance rides while riding aside and has ridden in Presidential Inauguration parades.

But just because of its history as a ladylike way to ride, don’t think there’s nothing more to riding sidesaddle than sitting sideways. Sidesaddles have a curved pommel that cradles the rider’s right leg. In the 1830s, a revolutionary second pommel – also called the leaping head – was added for the left leg, giving riders more stability and control and allowing less modest equestrian pursuits like galloping and going over fences.

The biggest challenge to getting started in sidesaddle is finding a saddle. Fit, riders say, is more important in sidesaddle than with any other discipline. A tree that is too narrow or wide will roll off the horse. And if the seat doesn’t fit the rider precisely, she will feel as if she’s falling off.

“Even if it’s only a half-inch off, it won’t ride right,” Herlensky said.

Measuring a rider for a sidesaddle is slightly different than astride saddles. The seat size is based on the length of the rider’s thigh and not the size of their rear. To get a measurement, the rider sits on

a table or bench with the edge at the bend of their knee. Then measurements are taken to the back of their backside and an inch is added. Herlensky is 5’ 8” and rides in a 23” sidesaddle seat.

Sidesaddles aren’t as plentiful as other styles making well-made saddles pricey. Before investing, Herlensky encourages interested riders to reach out to her – she’s at maggieszoo@horizonview.com -- or other instructors for advice. She often recommends buying a used saddle even if it needs basic repairs and flocking to fit.

“Used sidesaddles have a sweet spot where the

rider sat, but it might not match up with you so it’s important to spend time to find the right one,” she said.

As an ambassador of the discipline, Herlensky is a clinician and instructor and invites riders to participate in club activities. Thanks to the internet and social media, finding a group of enthusiasts has never been easier.

“Our unofficial motto is: ‘You can show up in your underwear,’” she said. “We’ll have a horse, the equipment and all you need to ride. Most of our riders learn in the parking lot before their first parade.”

THOSE DARING YOUNG WOMEN ON THEIR FLYING HORSES Stop complaining about those tight breeches. Mrs. Esther Stace — in a corset and long skirts — set a sidesaddle show jumping record by clearing a 6’6” fence at the Sydney, Australia,Royal Easter Show in 1915.

The record stood for nearly a century. It was broken in 2013 by Susan Oakes, who cleared a 6’8” puissance wall at the National Horse Sport Arena, Dublin, Ireland.

Watch Oakes, and her stallion SIEC Atlas, clear the bricks at: www.youtube.com/ watch?v=szeRobRvK8I Now as then, sidesaddle remains a female equestrian discipline although, as writer and fox hunter Rita Mae Brown observed, “If the world were a logical place, men would ride side saddle.”

The ability for women to gallop and jump fences while riding sidesaddle was made possible by the addition of a second pommel called the leaping head, which increased the rider’s stability and control.

The leaping head was invented in the 1830s by Jules Pellier and his design remains in use today -- virtually unchanged other than the addition of modern materials and manufacturing techniques.

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MASTER CLASS: LEE TUBMAN

L

‘It’s not over until you get off ’ and other words to ride by

ee Tubman is thinking about chess. The horse and rider on whom Tubman is currently focusing his attention are taking a walk break. The horse, in particular, has taken a liking to moseying around the arena rather than cantering a 20-meter circle.

By the time the rider picks up the reins, the horse has developed amnesia.

Canter? He is certain he does not remember how to do that.

Tubman leans in. “You play chess with the horse,” he says, and parcels out advice with this postscript: “You outmaneuver him mentally. There’s no skill in outmaneuvering him physically.”

The FEI 4* dressage judge, a former Canadian National Grand Prix Champion, has trained horses from a variety of disciplines including eventing, hunter/ jumper and western. Tubman’s focus this clinic is dressage, but his advice – equal parts practical horsemanship, classical principles and personal philosophy – hold true for anyone who has ever swung a leg

FAST FIVE 1. “The walk’s the most important part of the warmup. Start the computer correctly. Engage the musculature that you need for what you’re doing correctly.”

2. “When you don’t know what to do, do something with conviction. The horse will not follow you when you don’t act with conviction.”

3. “I hate in a lesson when someone says, ‘You have to nag me about this.’

I don’t nag anyone. You have to take your own responsibility.”

4. “A horse is a statistician. They keep track of everything you do and, more importantly, everything you don’t do.”

5. “It’s not over until you get off.”

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over a saddle. Listen in on his clinic at Canterbury Stables, Cazenovia, and ride better: “I’ve asked, on several occasions, of various people: Who are you in this relationship with your horse?

Who are you? And one of the descriptions that I gave, other than mentor, was fearless leader or pilot. So when something goes wrong – the horse overreacts, makes a mistake, whatever it is – you are the one that needs to be the overall calming influence that stabilizes them, refocuses them and continues to guide their course of action.

“My philosophy of riding is this: I would like to intellectually ride the horse as much as possible, to solve as many mistakes or problems as possible, and my last resort – my last-ditch resort – would be to become physical. I will still do it if need be, but I want to try to outmaneuver the horse intelligently, because this method of solving the problem is the best and will solve it forever. Forcing a horse to do something physically does not problem solve. It creates a momentary satisfactory result which, generally speaking, the horse resents.

“My first philosophy of training was to correct the horse ... and I’d be at the walk and I’d have to correct five things before I could trot on. Why? That’s not normal. But unless someone says it’s not normal, we all think it’s normal.

“Don’t think ‘I must prepare to do things.’ Ride with such quality that (the horse) is always prepared. That has a name and that is called normal. It’s not normal when you have to go around and fix things all the time.

“The horse will not care if you ask him to do something and he doesn’t

really do it and you keep going. He won’t care about that. But he’ll also notice that you did ask him to do it and he didn’t do it. This will lead him down the path of ‘I don’t have to listen to you.’

“The three most important characteristics of training – it could be anything, it could be training rabbits – is one: Know your theory. There should be no question that I could ask you that you cannot answer theoretically.

“Number two: Apply the physical aids that conform to the theory.

Correctly. That’s challenging for some people, but that’s not the most important point. The third one is.

“Number three: Self-evaluation and self-assessment. Teach yourself through feedback. Ask the horse to do something.

Then ask, ‘What happened?’ Evaluate the answer and adjust accordingly. You must do this all the time.

“Don’t keep going on and on and on if something is really significantly not working. This is quality control.”

“Don’t think ‘I must prepare to do things.’

Ride with such quality that the horse is always prepared. That has a name and that is called normal. It’s not normal when you have to go around and fix things all the time.”

— Lee Tubman, FEI dressage judge

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EQ STYLE

Let us pause to consider the most fashionable of equestrian companions Yes, there is a natural affinity between poodles and flowered hats

T

heir official responsibilities are to be well behaved and very cute, and the carriage dogs of the Lorenzo Driving Competition take their duty seriously.

A lap dog tucked into a wicker basket channels the dowager duchess. The terriers smile. A bulldog is sporting a top hat and a tuxedo bib.

The spectators are putty in their paws.

Carriage dogs trace their roots to the working coach dog, who ran alongside a rig and was trained to protect its occupants, serve as an escort and keep the horse company. In competition today, the coach dog is still considered a working animal who, the American Driving Society notes, “uses his training, innate intelligence and affinity for horses, his sense of pride and duty, to keep everyone out of trouble.”

The carriage dog however – not so much First and foremost a companion and goodnatured ham, the carriage dog lives to melt the hearts of competitors and spectators. They have evolved from security guard to furry chum; the lowoctane version of the family pooch flying down the highway with their head out the car window.

The Carriage Dog Class, which has become increasingly popular at pleasure driving shows like Lorenzo, is judged primarily on how well they perform the job of four-legged seatmate. “What is preferred is a well-trained companion dog that politely and calmly accompanies the turnout,” the ADS Pleasure Driving Committee says, “either riding in the vehicle or obediently traveling on the ground in close proximity to the turnout.”

It’s meant to be a fun, stylish and entertaining class, and there’s a huge ‘awww!’ factor that is not part of the official judging criteria which, for the record, is: suitability of the dog, 60%; performance of the horse, 30%; and overall impression of the turnout, 10%.

It isn’t really a costume class for dogs, although there does seem to be a natural affinity between poodles and flowered hats. They can stand, sit or lie down in the carriage, but like any good passenger, they should be quiet, well behaved and appear to enjoy the ride.

(Acting classes not required. Treats not prohibited. Having to tell your dog ‘Don’t make me pull the carriage over’ … definitely points off.)

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PHOTOS BY LISA CENIS/SHOOT THAT HORSE! PHOTOGRAPHY; GENE GISSIN PHOTOGRAPHY; MITCH GREENWALD/ROCKDALE PHOTOGRAPHY;

CATCH THE CLASS The Lorenzo Driving Competition is July 19-21 on the grounds of the Lorenzo State Historic Site, 17 Rippleton Road, Cazenovia.

The carriage dog class is Saturday, July 20, and is typically one of the last classes before the lunch break.

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PARTING SHOT

“And, in the end, the love you take Is equal to the love you make” — Paul McCartney

Love thy Neighhhbor by photographer Kendra Potasiewicz of Gansevoort was selected for the inaugural Photo Finish exhibition at the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in Saratoga Springs. The two horses featured are Lucky Long and Causforcelebration. The image, capturing a friendly nuzzle between the stablemates, was taken at trainer Tom Morley’s barn at the Oklahoma Training Track during last summer’s Saratoga Meet. The photos selected for the juried exhibition can be viewed online at racingmuseum.org/collection-gallery/photo-finish through the end of 2019.

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