34 SIDELINES AUGUST 2012
FOR HORSE PEOPLE • ABOUT HORSE PEOPLE
By Lauren R. Giannini
Annie Yeager earned her US Pony Club “HB” rating when she
was 15, then re-directed her energies by going to England one
summer as a working student with Ann Hardaway Taylor and the
next, riding with Karen and David O’Connor. Now 19, she has
six years to pursue her A-rating: “because it’s a landmark and so
important to 3-day eventers.” She stays busy with galloping and
racing, foxhunting, eventing Quick Proposal and Mainstay, plus
partnering with Mischief, her father Steve Yeager’s hurdle horse.
Annie has six wins in 19 starts (fat, hurdle, timber) for 2012. On
May 5 at the Virginia Gold Cup, she fnished third in the Starter
Allowance Race, purse $25,000, with Mischief.
You came to Virginia to ride with the O’Connors, but your
prelim horse needed time off for an injury. How did you deal
with that?
Obviously, it was disappointing not to have a horse to take
south this past winter to ride with the O’Connors and compete
on the spring circuit, but that’s really just the ebb and fow of the
horse industry. You have to rebuild your string over and over
again. I went on a big trip to Europe last fall with Karen O’Connor
and Marilyn Little-Meredith.
Karen found Mr. Medicott and I got to sit on a lot of lovely
horses. Since I didn’t have much to ride at the time and I was
already galloping for a trainer, I thought giving racing a try in the
spring might be fun, and it’s turned out to be all of that and more.
How did the racing come about and will you continue?
I transferred to Foxcroft, in Virginia, for my senior year of high
school in the fall of 2010. They hadn’t let any seniors in for 20
years – I was lucky, and it was one of the best years of my life.
I became best friends with Clancey Yovanovich. I kept asking
her over that fall/winter if she thought her dad [Thoroughbred
racehorse trainer Donny Yovanovich] would let me work for him
after we graduated in the spring, so she fnally gave me his phone
number and it just sort of went on from there.
I really like the timber races. With my eventing background
I feel more at home in a timber race than riding over national
fences [hurdles]. The distances are longer and the courses
more varied which makes for a more interesting race. The
equivalent to Rolex Kentucky in eventing is the Maryland Hunt
Cup in timber racing, both of which I would love to ride in
some day, but I still have a lot to learn before I reach that
Annie Yeager
Photo by Lauren R Giannini
point. I would also really like to ride in the Virginia Gold Cup
and a few of the other big timber races on the circuit.
What are your long-term eventing plans?
Riding on the team is obviously the elusive goal, but it takes
more than just riding ability, drive and ambition. Making the team
has a lot to do with luck with horses and things coming together at
the right time. I have a lot to accomplish between where I am now
and (hopefully!) putting on that pinque coat someday, so keeping
the goals in perspective and just trying to improve my riding and
horsemanship from day to day is what I tend to focus on.
Do you have any “heroes” (horse or human) and why?
Jimmy Wofford is one person I have a great amount of respect
for, not only as a rider but also as a trainer and coach. Great
riders don’t always make great trainers, and vice versa, but he’s
one person that really has the knack for both, and a tremendous
amount of knowledge about horses and theories of classical
training.
If you could ride any horse in history who would it be?
Snowbound, the horse that Mike Plumb rode on the Three-Day
Eventing team in the late sixties, and then went on to compete
with Bill Steinkraus in Show Jumping at the Olympics and World
Championships. Besides competing at the highest level in two
very different disciplines, Snowbound also had a moderately
successful racing career before ever coming to the team. I
remember reading an article by Steinkraus and he said ‘you felt
you could ride Snowbound through the eye of a needle and that, if
you pointed him at a house, he’d try to jump it.’ That would have
been a very cool horse to ride.
e