Like most amateur riders, Kimberly Nevitt has had to learn how to juggle her passion for horses with her family and a very necessary career. But she hasn’t let some scheduling challenges stop her from not only showing on the A circuit, but also winning the title of Pennsylvania’s Most Wanted Thoroughbred at the Pennsylvania World Horse Expo in March.

Hard work, strong relationships and a willingness to skip sleeping have led Nevitt and her 7-year-old off-the-track Thoroughbred Pardoned into the hunters and into the spotlight after winning the Most Wanted competition, part of the Retired Racehorse Project’s offerings.

Nevitt, 29, takes care of four (and a half!) horses in three locations and works second shift as a geriatric nurse in Warrington, Pa. She and her husband live at Hickory Run Farm in Newtown, Pa., where she keeps Pardoned and her retired Selle Francais, Maestro, while a horse she will be showing this year, Liberty for All (Libby), lives at a nearby farm.

Trainer Patricia “Penny” Silcox, who has a show stable at Hickory Run, works with Nevitt, who does self-care for her own horses in order to be able to keep them there. Also requiring some care is her retired Dutch warmblood, Ernie, and her mother’s Thoroughbred, both at her mother’s place.

“I’m at three farms a day, all within 15 minutes of each other,” Nevitt said, and the organization required would stymie all but the most dedicated horse lover.

Mornings are her busiest times. Nevitt said she starts early by feeding at Hickory Run, then she zips over to her mother’s place, where she helps with chores. Then it’s back to Hickory Run to ride Pardoned and then next door to collect Libby for a ride.

Most days, she changes clothes and drives off to work in the afternoon for an eight-hour shift. That’s one place her schedule can hit a snag, because nursing doesn’t always entail regular hours. “Just because your shift ends doesn’t mean you get to go home at 10:30 [p.m.],” she said. Medical emergencies sometimes keep her at the job until 2 a.m., putting sleep in short supply.

Nevitt is also at the mercy of the nursing home schedule, working every other weekend. In some parts of the country, that would put a crimp in her showing opportunities. However, living northeast of Philadelphia in an area thick with horses, she had enough venues to choose from when she isn’t working.

Help from her banker husband Alex is vital to her care regimen for Pardoned and Maestro. “My husband is not a horse person,” Kimberly said. But if she organizes everything before she goes off to work, he will feed and turn them out.

Her relationship with Silcox is also vital to Kimberly’s training program with Pardoned and Libby. The trainer accepts sweat equity in place of hard cash for help with the mares.

Kimberly has always found ways to support her horse habit. “I was never the kid who could afford horses,” she said. So she has spent countless hours braiding manes and tails and clipping show horses for necessary cash and she grooms many of the horses in Silcox’s stable before they ship off to shows.

Kimberly Nevitt and Pardoned showing in the green hunters.

Also, she has started to win some money in the hunter and jumper rings with Pardoned, cash that helps cover the cost of showing, Kimberly said.

Kimberly and Pardoned took home $500 from the Pennsylvania World Horse Expo, pleasing the crowd by performing three lead changes on a straight line, jumping bareback and performing reinbacks and western-style side passes.

Kimberly thinks the clincher was when she removed her jumping saddle while still mounted—a game she’d taught Pardoned at the farm.

Kimberly Nevitt and Pardoned wowed the crowds at the Pennsylvania’s Most Wanted Thoroughbred contest. Photo by Rough Coat Photography 

Pardoned wasn’t just a 5-year-old OTTB when Kimberly found her, she was on the verge of being put down, the rider recalls. The 16.1-hand mare with the Jockey Club name Proud Chestnut (Horse Chestnut—In By Six, Saratoga Six) wasn’t earning her keep on the track and the owner didn’t have the resources to keep her.

Silcox helped Kimberly re-purpose the young mare and, in return, Pardoned turned into a wonder horse. “She was just 5 when I started her in 2013. We did two shows at 2’6” that year, then came right out at 3’6” last year,” Kimberly said. “Pardoned never says ‘No.’ She’s an incredible horse.”

Kimberly showed Pardoned in the green working and green conformation divisions last year at shows like Garden State (N.J.), St. Christopher’s (Pa.), HITS-on-the-Hudson (N.Y.), and the Winston National (Va.). This spring, they’ve started in the 3’6” amateur-owner division as well.

Money is always at the back of Kimberly’s mind and the future is uncertain.

“Technically, Pardoned and Libby are supposed to be sale horses,” she said, adding that both were purchased as investments. “I casually market them.”

Her goals, as the summer season warms up, are to get more exposure for Libby and to shift over from hunter classes to jumper competition for Pardoned. If she has to part with one of them, her next horse will likely be a Thoroughbred, as well.

“Thoroughbreds have always been my first love,” she said, and Pardoned has just strengthened that connection.

Although she may not be able to hit as many shows this year as last year, having two horses to ride in classes may make up for that.

Meanwhile, her very busy schedule probably won’t slow down much.

“Sometimes I sleep—but not when there’s a horse show,” Kimberly said.