FOR HORSE PEOPLE • ABOUT HORSE PEOPLE
SIDELINES SEPTEMBER 2012 49
low, sweeping trot, but when she picked up the canter - I knew.
Normally I don’t like really big horses but this horse was so
light on his feet he just skimmed the ground. The canter was
beautiful - he covered the ground effortlessly and stayed light in
her hand. She jumped the jump a couple of times - and in typical
European style they had it at 4 foot after the third jump. His jump
was a little quick and fat which was to be expected considering
what he had been doing; but if it could be improved he would be
something special.
Maggie got on him and rode him around. She jumped him
over the jump a couple of times. She wasn’t in love with him
at this point. He didn’t seem that pretty to her - just a plain bay
horse in an ugly bridle. I really liked him but knew she needed to
jump him over more than one jump. We asked if we could come
back the next morning and try him over a course of jumps in the
daylight so we could make up our mind. They agreed.
Still Only Three Shoes
When we arrived the next morning, the horse we had
nicknamed “Three Shoes” because we didn’t know his name,
still only had three shoes on. And the “ring” was literally a
slippery mud hole with three rickety jumps in it and a couple of
railroad ties to pop over. Normally I wouldn’t even ride a horse
in footing like that but we couldn’t possibly consider going over
budget on a horse after just jumping a single jump, even though
he had me sold after the canter. Maggie jumped him around the
little jumps a couple of times and we called it quits before he hurt
himself. The decision would have to be made off of my instinct and
what we saw the night before, and Paul’s knowledge of the horse.
We spent two more days looking at horses but we never saw
another one that gave me the same impression “Three Shoes”
did. I told Maggie I thought he was the one - a diamond in the
rough.
A month later, as we waited at the quarantine station in
Newburgh, New York for him to be led out to our trailer, it seemed
like it had taken forever to get him vetted, purchased and shipped
over. What came through the door was a horse that was much
prettier than we had remembered, and even taller, if that was
possible. We chose the name “Poetic” for him - partly because
when I had looked at his passport in the dark of his Belgian barn
and because I didn’t have my glasses on it looked like his mothers
name was “Poem” (when it fact it was “Paem”) and because I
thought his movement was poetry in motion.
Maggie and Poetic went on to be Circuit Champion at the Winter
Equestrian Festival in the children’s hunters that frst winter she
had him, even though she moved up to the junior hunters by mid-
circuit. He won the frst junior hunter under saddle class he ever
showed in at WEF, so I knew my instincts on his movement were
right but he still needed some improvement in his jump.
Maggie was competing him more in the equitation division that
summer of 2008 since her trainer at that time felt it was important
for her to do the equitation and thought his jumping style still
wasn’t good enough to be the winner in the hunters. She showed
him in the Medal and Maclay fnals in 2008 and 2009; but then
Maggie started training with Val Renin and she agreed with me
that he could be very successful in the hunters. Val thought that
showing him in the equitation division was not doing his jump any
service and so together Val and Maggie turned him into a top
winning junior hunter.
Horse of the Year
At WEF in 2010, he was champion three times, reserve
champion three times, won seven under saddle classes and won
the Large Junior Hunter 16-17 Circuit Championship. He went on
to be champion 10 times that year, including Capital Challenge
and the National Horse Show. He was named the 2010 USEF
Grand Champion Junior Hunter earning more points than any
other junior hunter in all age groups and sizes. It was an amazing
fnal junior year for Maggie, with Poetic taking her to the top of her
sport.
In 2011, Maggie and “Three Shoes” competed lightly at WEF
in the Amateur Owner hunters as she commuted back and forth
from college in Texas and then won all 10 classes in the Amateur-
Owners over the two weeks of showing at Old Salem in May. She
was Grand Champion both weeks and then went on to Champion
at Fairfeld, Lake Placid and HITS. She competed at USHJA
Derby Finals and then fnished up the year with a Championship
at the Washington International Horse Show.
Maggie has turned professional so her future plans for Poetic
are to compete mainly in the hunter derbies and then perhaps let
me, her mom, have a few rounds in the Adult Hunters on him to
complete that journey that started almost fve years ago in a dark
barn in Belgium, with three shoes on. One might call that poetic
justice.
About the writer: Elizabeth Boylan grew up in Maryland and
foxhunted for the early part of her horse life. After graduating
from Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. she moved to
New York City where she worked in pubic relations and sports
marketing before ending her career to raise two children, Maggie
and Michael, and
become involved in
showing horses and
dogs.
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Poetic and his
award-winning jump
Photo by James Parker/
The Book LLC
Poetic and Maggie
Photo by James Parker/The Book LLC