Rosa Caliente, a four-year-old standardbred mare, gets a bath after jogging around the racetrack at Roaring Brook Park in Barton, the scene of a harness racing workshop last week. Holding her is Ken Griswold of North Troy, and washing her are Josie Monroe of Barton (left) and Norine Phillips of Glover. In the background is one of the barns the workshop is raising money to repair and maintain. Photos by Bethany M. Dunbar
BARTON — Rosa Caliente, a four-year-old mare, was getting a lot of attention at the fairgrounds on Friday.
Petting, baths, carrots, praise — the beautiful dapple gray standardbred pacer took it all in stride as her due. She and her colleagues — harness racing horses whose schedule is normally a bit more intense — were the stars of the show at a four-day harness racing workshop to raise money to restore and renovate the old barns.
“I watched it at the fair last year,” said Norine Phillips of Glover. Then she saw an advertisement for the workshop that would give her a chance to try it herself.
“When I saw it, I said, I just have to do that.”
On Friday she was thrilled that she was taking the course. She said she had experience with horses back when she was a teenager, but none since.
Kim Brooks, who organized the event, said it surpassed all of her expectations. Twelve people took the workshop for $100 apiece, and she said her
Dr. Stanwood Churchill of Orleans explains veterinary issues commonly found in racing standardbreds.
goals were achieved — they had a great time, learned a lot, got rid of some misconceptions, and caught the spirit of excitement.
“The magic of the horses and the thrill of the sport won them over,” Ms. Brooks said. She knows because everyone kept showing up a half an hour before the workshop started each morning and staying longer at the end of the day — just to be there.
Other clues were the grins on everyone’s faces and the fact that one of the local stores ran out of carrots as participants kept feeding them to their favorite horses.
The horses at the workshop belonged to Dale Allen of Brushton, New York. Barb Stephenson is half-owner of two of them.
Workshop participants ranged from almost complete novices to experienced saddle horse owners who always wanted to try this particular horse activity. There was a father-daughter combination and a mother-daughter pair. On Friday, people were raving about how much fun it was, and a couple of participants were talking about the possibility of forming a partnership to buy a racehorse.
“The only thing I knew about horses was how to spell it,” said Mike Caruso, who divides him time between Citrus Springs, Florida, and West Glover.
Mr. Caruso took early retirement from IBM in Tampa, Florida, where he worked as a senior project manager in data networks. In nearby Ocala, horse racing is huge and is only for the wealthy. The owners and trainers won’t let the general public anywhere near the animals, and would never stop to explain how to put on a harness.
Horseshoer John Simons of Sheffield explains how he looks at a horse’s conformation and the wear on its shoes and feet to figure out how a particular horse needs to be shod.
Ms. Brooks has been wanting to do this kind of workshop for about ten years, and actively planning it for the past three. Getting insurance coverage turned out to be one of the hardest parts, as many companies won’t insure any activities involving racehorses.
Ironically, one of Ms. Brooks’ missions in life is to dispel myths that racehorses are drug-crazed, out-of-control, dangerous creatures anyone would be wise to avoid, and that they are routinely mistreated in the racing industry.
No doubt racehorses exist that are not treated well, but Ms. Brooks said that in harness racing the judges are vigilant about drivers whipping too much, and drug testing makes sure that no one can get away with cheating in that way.
A chestnut mare named Ruby Red Slippers did her best to dispel any myths of crazy behavior on Friday as she stood quietly for two and a half hours while she was first used for a demonstration of shoeing, then for a demonstration of veterinary issues.
Participants learned the basics of day-to-day horse care, how to harness the horses, hitch them to the jog cart and drive them, a bit about the business of racing, and some basic information about veterinary care and horseshoeing.
John Simons of Sheffield showed participants what he looks for when shoeing.
“An awful lot of horses don’t have exactly the right conformation. So it’s my job as horseshoer to line them up as much as possible, without putting undue stress on,” he said. He measures the angle of the hoof to make sure those match, and the length of the toes. Various styles of shoes will help correct imperfections in the horse’s conformation of feet.
Dr. Stanwood Churchill, a veterinarian, raced standardbreds for many years.
“It’s pretty difficult to buy or find a perfect horse,” he said. But he said there are some issues that raise red flags right away — a horse that toes in or out quite strongly is likely to interfere with himself — knocking his feet or legs together.
Dr. Churchill drew a diagram of a horse’s knee on a big piece of paper, and Ms. Brooks offered to be the easel and hold the pad, adding, “We will be auctioning this off at lunch. The autograph will cost extra.”
Karen Rosemark of Sheffield has a saddle horse, and her daughter is in 4-H. She decided to take the workshop as a way to learn about a form of
Mr. Indepedent is driven by Karen Rosemark of Sheffield. George Churchill is also in the cart.
horsemanship she had not tried. She has logged with draft horses, owns a riding horse, and owned miniatures in the past. She said she was interested to see how different and streamlined these animals are. Even pacers are different from trotters, she said. Both are types of standardbred racehorses — with different gaits.
She said she was surprised at how easygoing the workshop was, since it was about racing.
“I thought it was going to be a little more edgy,” she said. She said the racehorse owners and trainers are clearly crazy about their animals and take extremely good care of them.
“I hope everybody supports the fairgrounds because boy, this should stay here,” she said.
“Any horse person in Orleans County really needs to check this out,” she said. She’s hoping that there could be a workshop specifically geared to 4-H clubs for children to learn more.
Ms. Brooks said harness racing has been at the fairgrounds for 143 years, and she sees these workshops as a way to keep the interest alive. She hopes to put on workshops on a regular basis, hopefully more often than annually.
“I want to expand the program in any way that people want to participate,” she said. “I want to promote the sport.”
It’s an American tradition, Ms. Brooks said, and she hopes to keep it alive.
