200 pounds underweight. His ribs poked through a patchy coat that was riddled with scabs from a skin infection called rain rot. His hooves were the equivalent of tires with their tread worn bare. He had run 21 races — never winning a single one. His career earnings totaled a paltry $11,539. In his final race, the comment on his race record stated simply, “No factor.” Just because he was slow didn’t mean he was without po- tential. I bought State Deputy to be my partner in the sport

Far left: Pilot in February 2006, when the author bought him. Left: Pilot in May 2006.

PHOTOGRAPHS COURTESY OF THE AUTHOR

of eventing, which requires the same horse and rider pair to compete in dressage (where the rider must guide the horse through a complex series of patterns at varied gaits using subtle leg and rein cues), cross-country jumping and sta- dium jumping. Thoroughbreds excel at eventing and have dominated its upper levels for years. I wanted to reach those levels, so it made sense to buy a thoroughbred. But money was an issue. A successful upper-level event horse can cost as much as $30,000, and I didn’t have that kind of cash to drop on my hobby. In contrast, most off-the-track thoroughbreds sell for $2,000 to $6,000. When Rebecca Roach, my trainer and the owner of Moon Rising Farm in Boyds, called in Feb- ruary 2006 to say she’d found a horse that cost just $650, I asked, disbelieving, “Does he have all four legs?” She laughed. “Apparently,” she said. “Then why is he so cheap?” “You’ll learn soon enough that off-the-track thorough-

breds are a dime a dozen,” she said. “More need homes than can find them.” She was right. I would learn it — sooner than I expected.

MAY 30, 2010 | The WashingTon PosT Magazine

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