Jennie Brannigan

I hear it more and more these days—“Horses will break your heart.” 

I’d say with some experience that yes, that statement is very, very true. But what most also know and don’t really talk about quite as often is that riding and competing these unbelievable animals really helps you heal as well. So when everyone at TPF and Windurra USA set off to compete this past weekend at Waredaca in Maryland, I knew that it would be the first step on a long road of recovery, especially for Boyd and Woodzy.

At 12:30 a.m. on Tuesday, May 31, a fire destroyed Boyd Martin’s barn at Phillip Dutton's True Prospect Farm in West Grove, Pa. Six horses died and many others were injured.

Three years ago I had the opportunity to come to True Prospect Farm, and needless to say, coming here has changed my life. Little by little I’ve had the pleasure of getting to know the Duttons, the Martins, Ryan Wood, Caitlin Silliman, and last but not least Lillian Heard.

Well the time has been passing on since I wrote my last blog after The Fork Horse Trials in North Carolina in April—I know it’s been way too long!

After The Fork we had the Fair Hill Spring Horse Trials (Md.) which was a busy but fun weekend, with Walkabout coming second in the advanced and Indie winning the preliminary. Dreamboat also had a good go in the training, coming in fourth, and I’m so pleased with how he’s coming along.

Well it’s now been a week since I’ve been back in Pennsylvania, and I’m very happy to be back home. All the ponies are happy to be back too, and they’re looking very well. I was really glad to get back to all the young ones and am looking forward to Fair Hill this weekend, where my rides keep changing! Looks like it will be a fun and exciting weekend!  

Well I’m back in Pennsylvania after the last few weeks in Aiken and the weekend we just had at The Fork in North Carolina. I have to say, that that place is seriously incredible, and they do an amazing job running such an amazing event with so many great horses.

Well, healing is continuing as well as it possibly could! I got to ride Walkabout in the training sessions on my second day because Mark was quite happy with how Ping was going.

Well since my last blog I feel like life has been a little bit of a whirlwind. If you’re just catching up, I broke my collarbone schooling a young horse on March 1. As you can see in the picture, I busted it up pretty good.

In my last blog I spoke out about the selection process, which is a pretty sticky thing to get involved with. However, I am very confident in our Active Riders Committee. I think our country will end up with a good coach regardless of the upset of the process.

I am often hesitant to take a stand and put my opinion out there when controversial subjects arise, but over the past few days I have had time to sit and really think about the fact that Bobby Costello and Phillip Dutton did not get named to the short list for our future Chef and Technical Advisor.

The season is cranking up, and we are well under way here at Red Oak down south. We started off the year with the lower level horses running at Sporting Days.