Thoroughbred Tales II

_{We met Mary in the upstairs stabling area of Claremont Riding Academy visiting her favorite school horse.  The riding school was housed in an old stable building in Manhattan near Central Park.  The riding arena was about street level, the horses lived either upstairs on the second floor or in the basement.  Mary had fallen in love with a very special school horse, Galloway.  Galloway had captured the hearts of many students at Claremont, he was kind and funny and a blast to ride in the city park.  But life in a city stable took its toll on the former racehorse, he was often unsound and it was hard to keep weight on him.}

_{Galloway’s life took as sharp a turn when Mary finally decided to buy him.  And Mary reinvented herself:  The city girl moved out of her doorman building into the bucolic greens of Pennsylvania, the business woman took off her heels for paddock boots and she has since been watching the temperature of horses instead of trade and stock market numbers.}

_{Thank you, Mary, for sharing your story and photographs with us.}

City Girl Meets City Boy

My registered Thoroughbred, Galloway knew Angelika and Sean before I did.  He was their friend in addition to so many other people over the seven years he spent as a ‘lesson’ horse at the Claremont Riding Academy.

Mary and Galloway on Amsterdam Avenue in Manhattan

He wasn’t always just a lesson horse…..he has a history…..and a very interesting and noble one at that.   My ‘baby’, was foaled in Ontario on March 14, 1993.  He sold for the first time in Jan 1994 for $21,000 when the mean sales price was $9,000 and then re-sold in Sept 1994 for $37,000 with a mean sales of $22,000.  Someone thought he was something special and meant for the track.  First race was 4/20/96 at Garden State Park and he placed….it was a fast track that day,   Over the next year and a half, he would visit 5 tracks in the Tri-State area, race 21 times, win 3, place 5, show 3, and have jockeys as well known as Edgar Prado ride him.  In fact, as I watched that fateful Kentucky Derby where a cocky bay horse named Barbaro took the track, I commented to my mother “Well, I’d bet on that horse, he looks like G and they share the same jockey”.  When I met the great Barbaro later at New Bolton where I worked, I kissed his nose, stroked his neck and told him in addition to the rest of the world, his distant cousin G wished him a speedy recovery….yes, they are related…..out of Bold Ruler, as so many great horses are.  But back to G…   I meant to get this article in for February posting…..because you see, Galloway is the love of my life.  We met in January of 2004, when as a single woman in her late 30’s, I took up horseback riding.  My dream was to ride in Central Park on a sunny day….and feel as if I’d truly arrived in NYC.  He was the second horse I’d ever ridden at the academy and the first horse I’d ever cantered.  Unfortunately for him, at almost 17 hands, he was good looking,  with a bomb proof temperament, so many people rode him, many times a day. many times a week.  At times having a lesson with him broke my heart, he was so tired, so overused….surviving on sweet feed and Bute.  I told myself that with him and all the Claremont horses I rode, I could promise them an hour with me meant below average demands and lots of treats at the end.

Galloway on his nightly walk with Mary - he was sickly and very thin

Once I gained enough experience to ride in the park, he and I as a team were unstoppable.  I would book him a week in advance for a month…..  Over the Labor Day weekend in 2004 we had a life-changing moment.  I was out in the park and a man on a bridge, a German tourist, yelled out to us “May I take a photo?” and as we stopped to pose, he said, “I’ve already shot you at a distance, I wanted you to know that I thought you and your mount were very well suited”.  As I walked the big man back to the stables, I said to myself  “that’s it, he’s the one, I’m going to buy a horse, and this is the horse”.    Over the next year, according to my instructor, I ‘outgrew’ G and I was assigned to other horses.  I loved my lessons, but I missed G.  During that time, I was sent to FL for work….and G was laid up with bad feet – an issue that plagues us to this day.  I returned after a rough 6 weeks for him (and me!), ”the night manager said to me, “well, I’ve got a surpride for you”, down the ramp comes a horse, it was G.  He walked right up to me and sniffed me from head to toe.  I wasn’t sure what was going on, and my intrsutor said “He thinks he knows you, he’s just making sure are who he thinks you are”.  We had an awesome time that night, my intructor said I sat as tall and as straight with him as he’d ever seen me.  While I was away in the Spring of 2005, he was used for a special assignment.  Maybe others knew what that was…..but I was in the dark.  The summer of 2005 he was very sick, with an upper respiratory infection and I was in negotiation to purchase him.  It was a long and stressful negotiation and for those of you with a love of history, it was liberating him from indentured servitude.  I basically paid the price he commanded for several months work, something most horse people would reprimand me for later, but as I’ve said, he’s my ‘baby’.

Galloway at his new home in Pennsylvania

Fall of 2005 brought him home with me to Pennsylvania.  And that November, he showed up on national TV on “The Apprentice” in the episode where they ride horses in Central Park with Shania Twain.  He is the horse that tries to take Randal back to the barn, bored with all the fussing before the trail ride.  My phone rang off the hook, I owned him by then, but the series was taped months before.  Oh well, the royalties would have bought us a lot of Stud Muffins, but in the end I got the prize!   Now….on to the best, past 5 years of my life!!!!  He is the most amazing horse…..on his back he has willing carried those from 18 months to 67 years of age.

Galloway meets his little "sister" Merrylegs

He is thankful every morning for his grain, his water, his hay.  He walks into his pasture each day sniffing the hay in the feeders and running down to the creek….taking it all in as if it’s the first time he’s seen it.  His best friends are a registered Paint and a Bureau of Land Management Mustang, both geldings.  He lets the Paint rub his head on his butt and they play “Racetrack pony” where in a bit of role reversal, Galloway is the calm one and the Paint chews on his neck as if they are about to load in the gate.  I love this horse about as much as I love anything in my life….my family knows this, and most of them are okay with it.  In 2006, I lost my 16 and a half year old cat to cancer….who did I run to for comfort?  G….and he was there for me, to the point that HE became so distressed he almost went off feed….that’s how sad he was for me.  If I walk into the barn happy and hug him, he’s over the moon excited….about what?  He doesn’t know….and he doesn’t care!  If I need to throw my arms around his neck and cry….he will stand still for as long as I need him to.    The sadder part is, if he’s in pain, he won’t show me.  Back in 2007 he lost hundreds of pounds and I didn’t know what to do for him.  It was a very serious Vit E and Selenium deficiency and the muscle wasting was heart breaking, an acute form of Equine Motor Neuron Syndrome.  However, he fought hard to stay on his feet….and with proper veterinary care, he responded.  So many mornings when things looked bleak I told him “If you don’t want to fight this anymore, I will let you go…..but as long as you’re in it, I’m in it with you.”.  Over the next 6-9 months, he let me know he was in it and would fight to the finish.  He and I have also had lots of farrier bills in the past five years….he has soft soles and under-run heels….no surprise there.  I used to work on Wall Street and was quite the shoe and shopaholic…..but nothing compares to the money I’ve spent for the shoes my boy has been through….again, anything he needs, he gets!!  He’s now barefoot in the rear and has graduated from his elevated bar shoes in front to regular horseshoes.  His arthritis will always haunt us…..but the multiple grams of Bute a day in the past have been replaced with an all natural joint supplement and recent radiographs show his joints are no worse than any other 16 year, soon to be seventeen year old horse.

Galloway happy as can be

In closing, I would like to add that Sean and Angelika have visited my boy over the years, and he remembers them, greeting them warmly.  Sean, as someone who rode him and cared about him, Angelika as someone who kept his tack clean and gave him a gentle pat, kind word and treat as she walked through the barn.  Horses remember those who pay them the smallest kindnesses…..we should all strive to live our lives that way.  Whether we are on the receiving or giving end, they depend on us, acknowlege us and are grateful.  I know few other ways to live my ‘treat others as you wish to be treated’ credo.  God bless all of you who care for these magnificint creatures and I know they will repay your many kindnesses.

1. 

   kenny says:

   June 16, 2010 at 6:49 pm

   another touching story of horse gets girl
2. 

   Meg says:

   March 24, 2010 at 6:51 pm

   I am one of the lucky “caregivers” of G.
   He is so full of Love and Thanks that I always smile when I get feed and take care of him.
   I wish all horses were as lucky to receive the kind of home that G has.
3. 

   Melissa says:

   March 24, 2010 at 3:16 pm

   Mary and Galloway, a lovely story. Interesting details that I had not known about your dearest G ! He is beautiful inside and out, and so is your love for him and all the animals out there in our world. Thank you for making a difference in the lives of those precious animals.