If Kelly Girtman had any less gumption, she would have quit riding years ago.

A working amateur rider on a budget, Girtman has had more than her fair share of bad luck in the horse ownership department. It’s a love for the horses, hunter sport and some very supportive friends that kept Girtman coming back to the barn when tragedies and massive financial strains threatened to keep her away.  

It all started back in Girtman’s post-undergraduate days—a Pony Clubber and show hunter rider in her junior days, Girtman graduated from the University of South Carolina (where she rode on the school’s IHSA team) with a degree in photography. Unsure what career path to take, Girtman, 34, spent a few years searching for employment in Charleston before signing on to work for her father at Altria Group Distribution Company, in Richmond, Va.

“I didn’t get paid a lot by him, but I was allowed to live at home rent-free, and at that point I had some money so I could find a young horse that I could bring along and pay board,” Girtman said.

Like many riders in her situation, Girtman did not have the budget for a made hunter. She bought a young, well-bred and well-built horse hoping for the best, and when the horse turned out to be too hot-blooded for her, she sold it and tried again, this time with a quieter mount.  

“She was a 2-year-old filly, a Thoroughbred-Quarter Horse cross, and she was kind of the exact opposite of the other horse,” Girtman said. “She would trot poles and just nothing bothered her, and she was the sweetest horse.”

The filly, Jean Louise Finch (Indi), also happened to be right in the middle of an awkward young horse growth spurt. “I talked with my trainer and said ‘Well, she’s kind of ugly right now, do we think that she’ll grow out of this? Because she kind of looks like a donkey; she has really big ears,’” Girtman continued.

With assurance from Jill Carter, her trainer at the time, that big ears were nothing when paired with a great brain, Girtman bought Indi and brought her home to begin the process of raising, training and breaking a young horse to ride. A professional gave Indi her first three rides, but then it was mostly Girtman bringing her along in lessons with Carter.

Girtman and Indi were champion of their low hunter divisions at the TWA CHSA show at Rose Mount Farm, their last two together. “Two firsts over fences and a second in the flat. I will remember that forever,” Girtman said.

Then, when Indi was 5, tragedy struck.

“We had just moved up, and she was doing the 2’6”, and doing the real step, and the changes, and she was just coming along beautifully,” Girtman said. “There was a really bad storm one night, and it looked like she was trying to jump out of the field and missed and just completely obliterated the fence. She cut herself open from just behind where the girth goes all the way to middle of her flank.

“It went straight all the way through, and it stopped at the body cavity,” Girtman continued. “She was found the next morning still standing and still alive, so they don’t know when she did it, and she was rushed to Woodside Equine Clinic [in Ashland, Va.], and they spent five hours stitching her up. It was a pretty harrowing experience.”

The accident happened in the blink of an eye, but the recovery for both Indi and Girtman’s bank account would take almost a year.

“My first vet bill was $10,000,” Girtman said. “There were many nights where I had full-on panic attacks and woke up in the middle of the night.”

Girtman was able to get a loan to help cover the expenses of what ended up being a two-month stay for Indi at the Woodside clinic. The horse recovered, and nine months after the accident, Girtman was able to sit on her again. After a full year of slow and steady progress, Indi was cleared for full work, with just a large scar to show for her ordeal.

“The scar was a little bit of a concern for the show ring—it could be considered a lameness—but we were pretty sure it would be OK,” Girtman said. “I had put her on full board, because it was getting time to start jumping again, and I wanted a trainer to get on her and really do it right. Then she coliced.”

The call came to Girtman’s office that Indi was acting abnormally, and she headed out to the barn immediately. By the time she arrived, Indi was listless and largely unresponsive to what was going on around her.

“She was in her stall, and the only acknowledgment I got was an ear, which was more than anybody else got,” Girtman said. “I spent a year with her [when she was recovering from her accident], twice a day on Saturday and Sunday, and I would walk into the barn and she would whinny and nicker and carry on.

“It’s the most time I’ve ever spent with any horse on the ground and not in the saddle,” Girtman continued. “So we had a really good connection. When I walked in and she didn’t even lift her head, I just got an ear, it was one of those things where you just know.”

After treatment didn’t resolve Indi’s colic, Girtman and her vet made the decision to euthanize the mare. There were a few other clients at the barn when the call was made, and one in particular, Alison Thayer, was good friends with Girtman and had been through a similar experience.

“Alison made sure to get [Indi’s] shoes, and made sure to get a piece of her tail, and she even got her forelock for me,” Girtman said. “She did some thinking for me, because she had been through that with her horse, so she knew.”

Thayer and Girtman both ride with Sarah West at West Equine Training and Sales, and with their friend Allison Elowski, they make up an adult amateur saddle club of sorts.

“We all just support each other, its like a family,” Girtman said. “And that’s really nice to have, because there have been times when I felt anxious about something, and they were always there to say ‘OK, we’ll help you tack up, we’ll help you do this, we’ll hold your horse.’

“We’re all kind of struggling with the same things, so it’s nice,” Girtman continued. “We’re really good about being there for each other and not being stuck in our own head. It’s an individual sport, but we’re a team.”

From left: Allison Elowski and On Broadway, Alison Thayer and First Soprano, and Kelly Girtman on Best Of Both at their standing-date Wednesday night group lesson. All three riders train with Sarah West of West Equine Sales and Training (foreground). 

It took Girtman a few months to recover from Indi’s passing, but eventually (with encouragement from Sarah and “the Allisons”) she began taking weekly lessons again, and a few months later decided to once again begin the search for a horse of her own. Her “high as the sky” goal, as she termed it, would be to find a horse that could take her to the 3’6” amateur-owner divisions, but realistically, with her budget, she is looking for more of a 3-foot horse.

“I would be just as happy and just as successful doing that,” Girtman said. “You’re always like ‘I want something athletic, and I want this,’ but really our goal was to find a horse with a brain.”

Girtman was able to find a sales horse to ride and show while she looks for one of her own, and is always scanning Thoroughbred adoption websites for a prospect in her budget.

“I love Thoroughbreds; I love the way they look,” Kelly said. “The horse I’m riding now is a Dutch Warmblood, and he’s great, but I still love the really nice Thoroughbreds. There’s nothing better in the world than a Thoroughbred with a brain.”

In the meantime, Girtman will continue enjoying her borrowed horse with her barn friends.

“Shenanigans happen,” Girtman said of her time spent at the barn with Alison and Allison. “It’s why I have a broken tail bone, currently.” 

Do tell!

“There was apparently a monster in the woods, and I was not informed of said monster before I was unceremoniously unseated,” Girtman said. “And then of course I landed in a wheat field, and they couldn’t find me because the grass was too tall, and I had the wind knocked out of me. I couldn’t yell, I was just going ‘Mhhmhmhmhm!’ and I was trying to wave my hand, but I couldn’t even stand up because I had the wind knocked out of me, and apparently broke my tail bone at the same time.”

If there is ever a good time to get tossed into a wheat field, surely it’s when two good friends are around to catch your horse, make sure you’re uninjured, and laugh hysterically as you ride back to the barn, off to make more memories (hopefully, sans broken bones).