FOR HORSE PEOPLE • ABOUT HORSE PEOPLE
SIDELINES JULY 2014 25
By Doris Degner-Foster
H
ow many people could say they had dealt
with the trials of a broken collarbone, a kid-
ney stone, Legionaires’ disease and the joy
of welcoming a new baby,
and
still won five Grand
Prix competitions, all within a year? The formidable
Todd Minikus could!
With over 100 Grand Prix wins in his 30-plus years of compet-
ing, Todd speaks modestly about his successes, which have been
mixed with just as many challenges.
Joys were mixed with challenges from the start of Todd’s career.
He’s come a long way from competing a former Canadian race-
horse named Thriller to win enough money so that he could buy
a truck and trailer and go into business for himself. After Thriller
tragically died in a trailer accident, Todd trained another Canadian
racehorse that he named Thrilling. He went on to set records for
the number of wins at the Washington International Horse Show
with Thrilling while competing two other horses at that show and
working as his own groom.
Discounting the idea that he’s an independent self-starter, Todd
said emphatically, “Anybody who tells you that is [saying] a bunch
of crap because you get a lot of help along the way. You can’t do
anything on your own. There were people that gave me a job for
a few years until I finally got a horse that could win enough money
for me to get a truck and trailer. They supported me along the way
until I finally got lucky and found that horse. So, that’s not self-
made; I got a lot of help.”
It seems that Todd earned the help he got. Even as a child,
he learned that riding lessons came with certain responsibilities.
“When I was 10 years old, my job was to water the horses every
night after school. It took quite a long time, an hour and a half to
water all the horses. That was my job and for that I got my les-
sons,” Todd said. With a chuckle he added, “Basically, that’s the
same job description I still have, to tell the truth.”
Todd’s life was especially challenging in 2011. After recovering
from a kidney stone, he broke a collarbone in a training accident,
then caught Legionnaires’ disease a few weeks later. Todd adds,
“And I put my best dog to sleep, and we had a baby, our second
child.” Obviously, a baby is a joy, but a lack of sleep also means
more stress.
Todd points out that no one is without problems of some kind,
and that it’s important to not give up. “There are all kinds of road-
blocks and barriers that you have to deal with along the way that
are just life. I think it’s that way in any occupation, whether you’re
a race car driver or a golf player,” Todd said. “If it’s not a horse’s
injury, it’s your injury or it’s being financially strapped. It’s always
something and although sometimes you feel like you should,
there’s no crying in show jumping.”
Todd acknowledges that a riding career can be all consuming,
but that balancing it and family life has many rewards. He said,
“At the end of the day, show jumping is not as important as you
think it is.”
Todd and his wife, Amanda, have been married for six years
and have a son, Colt, who is 5, and a daughter, Langley, who is 3.
“I think the time you get with your kids is actually more important,”
he said. “We call Florida home and that’s where we really are the
longest period of the time so the kids don’t have to travel. It’s fun
that when I’m riding in the ring the kids can be playing in the back-
yard and yell, ‘Hi, Dad!’”
At 52, Todd jokes about being an “old dad,” but Amanda said,
“Todd loves playing with his kids; I never think of him as being an
old dad. After he has ridden horses all day long, he has no prob-
lem with coming home and jumping on the trampoline or playing
catch or soccer with them, and he’s always willing to go tack up
the pony and take the kids if they want to ride.”
Todd’s relaxed perspective seems to have worked well for him.
He bounced back just six weeks after surgery to repair his collar-
bone injury in March 2011, winning the $31,000 Winter Equestri-
an Festival Challenge cup in Wellington, Florida, riding Pavarotti.
Just a few weeks after that, however, Todd mysteriously caught
Legionnaires’ disease, which is caused by a specific bacteria that
Todd competes in Wellington, Florida,
the city he and his family also call home.
Photo by Jack Mancini,
