Secretariat’s owner, Penny Chenery, dies at 95

On September 18, 2017 By Liz GoldsmithIn Thoroughbred Racing1 Comment

Helen “Penny” Chenery, known as “Secretariat’s Mom” and the First Lady of Racing, died September 16th from complications following a stroke. Chenery was 95.

Chenery is best known for breathing life into her father’s Meadow Stable when his failing health left him unable to manage the farm. This part of her story became immortalized in the Disney movie, Secretariat, which shows her working against the odds in an industry dominated by men.

What the movie didn’t tell us was what an interesting and accomplished woman Penny Chenery was even before she bred Riva Ridge and Secretariat, fulfilling her father’s dream to win the Kentucky Derby not once, but twice.

Penny graduated from Smith College in 1943. Eager to help with the war effort, her first job was working for the naval architecture firm that designed Normandy landing craft. She then served as a nurse’s aide in a stateside hospital. In 1946, Chenery went to France and Germany with the American Red Cross, working with demobilizing GIs. Once home, she

entered Columbia Business School, one of only 20 women in her class. However, just six months before graduation, she became engaged to Jack Tweedy, a Columbia Law graduate. Her father pressured her to quit and concentrate on her wedding and she complied.

Chenery put that business school training to work when she ran Meadow Stable, taking the farm out of the red while also breeding two of the best racehorses ever.

Chenery went on to blaze more trails in the Thoroughbred Racing industry. To name just a few of her accomplishments, she was the first female president of the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association, was one of the first women elected to the Jockey Club, was the president of the Grayson-Jockey Club Research Foundation, helped form the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation and, in 2006 won the Eclipse Award of Merit for lifetime contributions to the Thoroughbred industry. In recent years, she advocated for laminitis research and care advancement as well as efforts to ban the use of performance-enhancing drugs in racing.

A true ambassador for the sport of racing, she was a great advocate for the horses. As she put it, “The horse can’t talk – but I can.”

The best weekend to buy a helmet

On September 16, 2017September 16, 2017 By Liz GoldsmithIn equestrian, equestrian helmet, Rider SafetyLeave a comment

Thinking of buying a new helmet? This is the weekend to do it! Hundreds of retailers are offering discounts on helmets as part of International Helmet Awareness Day.

The helmet brands that have committed involvement in International Helmet Awareness Day 2017 are: Caldene, Champion, Charles Owen, Gatehouse, GPA, Harry Hall Hats, International Riding Helmets (IRH), Kask, KEP Italia, LAS helmets (Leslie Sutcliffe UK), One K, Ovation, Samshield, Tipperary, Troxel and Uvex.

Riders4Horses began the initiative to educate equestrians about the importance of wearing helmets every ride in 2010 as a direct result of US Olympian Courtney King Dye’s accident — an accident that demonstrated that bad falls and Traumatic Brain Injuries can happen to the best riders, even when riding on good footing and in a controlled environment.

Don’t miss your chance to get a great price on an approved, well-fitted helmet and keep your brain safe for another year.

Helmet Haiku

On September 14, 2017September 13, 2017 By Liz GoldsmithIn equestrian apparel, equestrian helmet, Rider Safety1 Comment

Friends with helmets — Getting ready to ride out on a hunter pace with our helmets!

What a fun way to increase awareness of the importance of helmets! I’m not a poet, but here’s my haiku. And yes, I wear a helmet every time I ride.

Flying through the air
I have time to celebrate
My helmet wisdom.

Getting Fit

On September 13, 2017 By Liz GoldsmithIn fox hunting, foxhunting, trail riding1 Comment

Our Workout — To get my horses — and me — ready to hunt, we need to cover some miles. I track my rides on MapMyRun.

The end of my summer was busy. And it didn’t include a lot of riding. So now I need to get myself and the equines in shape for hunting. Pronto.

Zelda is happy to stop and enjoy the view.

The only way to do that is to cover some miles. Right now I’m riding the horses about five miles per day doing walk/trot intervals. Zelda is a bit more “fluffy” than Freedom (who manages to keep himself pretty fit), so the ride above shows her intervals. Tracking my time per mile is something I find very helpful because it keeps us moving and it provides a fitness baseline.

I am hoping to hunt Freedom this Saturday; Zelda needs to be able to hold a faster pace over that distance before she goes out.

How do you leg up your horses?

We’ll Never Forget

On September 11, 2017 By Liz GoldsmithIn CommentaryLeave a comment

This commercial is particularly poignant to me because on the morning of 9/11, I was listening to the radio at the barn when the first plane struck the North Tower of World Trade Center at 8:46 a.m. I couldn’t believe my ears then and I am still stunned by the magnitude of what happened.

Caution!

On September 7, 2017 By Liz GoldsmithIn Commentary, trail riding2 Comments

How do you know when you’re riding a thoroughbred? Well, first off, I think they can read. While I was traveling, a new gate and some very yellow caution tape appeared at the entrance to our trail system.

Secondly, they are very sensitive to new things. They remember exactly what the trail looked like the last time they walked down it. Freedom took one look at the tape and the gate and started to shake. He thought seriously about bolting. Can’t you see it says caution? He asked me. We need to get out of here!

Not wanting to escalate the situation, I dismounted and stood with him by the tape. The wind blew. The tape shook and rattled. Freedom snorted and jumped. Then he planted his feet.

No way — Two weeks ago he was afraid of the new cobblestones. They don’t seem so bad in comparison to the yellow tape.

We stood quietly and contemplated the new path and the rustling tape. I scratched his neck for awhile. He stretched way, way forward without moving his feet and sniffed the wood chips on the ground. After several minutes, he moved incrementally toward the path. In total, it took him about seven (long) minutes to walk through it with me in the lead. For several more minutes he jumped whenever he heard something rustle.

Coming home was better. I still had to dismount but he was content to follow me through. I love how he trusts me to be brave even when he isn’t.

Then I took out Zelda. Riding a draft cross is a completely different experience.

Zelda sees only grass — Zelda took a good look at the new gate and the glowing yellow tape. She was more interested in the grass.

Zelda looked at the new fence. She considered the caution tape. She looked long and hard at the grass growing behind the tape. She was mightily disappointed that she was not allowed to taste it. Then she walked through the gauntlet of tape onto the scary new wood chips like she had done it every day. I love this horse. She is smart. Sometimes she’s too smart, but she’s always thinking.

Coming home was no big deal. But then again, she knew it was dinner time.

After the Finish with Paul Tapner

On September 4, 2017 By Liz GoldsmithIn 1, Competition, Cross Country, EventingLeave a comment

It’s a thrill to cross the finish line at an event like Burghley, but rarely do we see what happens once the riders jump off. Follow Paul Tapner and Bonza King of Rouges behind the scenes after they finish their cross country round. It’s a real family affair. The pair finished 19th.

Oliver Townend holds on for the Win

On September 3, 2017September 3, 2017 By Liz GoldsmithIn Commentary, Competition, EventingLeave a comment

Oliver Townend’s lucky color must be gray. After winning Burghley in 2007 on Carousel Quest, Ballaghmor Class carried him to victory again today. They used up the rail they had in hand early