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January/February 2013
The Paisley Pony
and had been renamed Durban Castle. (Yes, THE Durban Castle.) I helped show Kahlua on the line as a three year old. As his groom I was responsible for making certain that the trickster did not get loose and terrorize the show grounds. It took me two whole shows to learn how to keep him from bolting. The first pony with certifiable attention deficit disorder, Kahlua would walk all over anyone who did not exude the sort of confidence that kept his attention. But his lack of focus notwithstanding, Kahlua possessed a sort of charisma that real horsemen found intoxicating. Having worked with Kahlua almost entirely on her own Soozi showed him in the Large Pony Hunter sections for three years with much success. Brilliant but unreliable, Kahlua would spook at the oddest things and for no other apparent reason than to ruin an otherwise flawless trip. And he would commit these sins with a look of shear joy on his face, as if he knew exactly what he was up to. Because she wanted to win, Soozi learned how to meet the pony half way, negotiate with him, and in some cases, used manipulation to get what she wanted out of him. It makes perfect sense to me now that Soozi is a doctor with a flawless bedside manner, an excellent mother, and I am certain that her dealings with Kahlua helped develop these skills. Soozi sold Durban Castle to Susie Slacum (now hunter judge Susie Barrett) just as she had sold Miles River Moonglow to the diminutive savant years earlier. (Two things about Slacum; First she never missed. Second, I am certain that she is the rider who invented what girls on the circuit now refer to as “Hunter Hair.”) After a successful partnership, Slacum sold Kahlua to the Jacobs family at Deeridge Farm. At Deeridge, I dare say the pony probably met his match in Tom Wright and Geoff Teall. (Yes, the same Tom Wright who now trains her majesty, Strapless.) Now I don’t know if Kahlua finally got religion under Tom’s tutelage or if this was simply a function of aging, but I did see
Packy McGaughan
www.thepaisleypony.com
him some years later clocking around a very spooky ring with Katie Huber aboard, looking every inch the large pony standard bearer he should have been from the start. His consistency was the only thing that had changed. The mischievous cocky grin was still all over the bastard’s face, just where Soozi Brinkley had left it a decade before. There are certain horsemen, and I think Tom is one of them, who are attracted to difficult but talented horses. As long as the animal has a certain spark and is willing to try, these horsemen will do all they can to understand these special animals, make them successful and, above all, happy. In the process, I would bet that these people learn more about human nature and themselves that through any other endeavor I can think of. Spotting these special horses only requires that you be able to identify that look. More than a simple twinkle in its eye, horses that have it will meet and hold your gaze straight on, as an equal. Jimmy Wofford told me once that he bought his great horse Carawich because the horse stared at him straight on, ears pricked forward, daring Jim to look away first. For the record, I have never seen a horse in Tom’s barn that did not have something like this in its expression. In people we call such a similar mixture of sex appeal and charisma “star quality.” It is the thing that attracts us to each other, inspires us to follow our leaders -and no one without it ever even tried to make a partnership with Durban Castle. They would have been out of their depth, and Kahlua would have know it. In horses we call it The Look of Eagles. And here is the real point to all this. I think that Durban Castle fascinated me because he had the Look of Eagles. And all joking aside, I think I remember the breeding pen incident, not so much for the wrong conclusions I drew from it, but because, as the stallion paraded around the pen, this was in fact, the first time I had ever seen it.
graduated from Duke University and then earned a degree in law at the University of Maryland Law School. He rode with Jack LeGoff at the USET Training center from 1981 through 1982. Currently, he is a lawyer with Thelen, Reid, and Priest in Washington, DC. He lives in Clarksburg. Maryland, near the farm where he grew up. In 1987, Packy rode on the Gold Medal three-day eventing team aboard Tanzer (a horse he started as an amateur owner hunter) and was long listed for the Seoul Olympics. He has ridden jumpers with Ann Kursinski and currently holds a Combined Training Course Designer’s license.