ShowBiz Feature
Opportunity comes knocking
and when it does, it behooves a rider to
be ready and prepared. On occasion that
means standing around with a saddle in
your hand being willing to ride anything
presented by anyone, without question.
Such is the case with Natalie Rae
Medlock, a 20 year old rider from Orange,
California, a suburb of LA. Being in the
right frame of mind at the right time has
taken this young lady into dreams beyond
comprehension, and her riding career is in
full swing.
Never having ridden anything but pony
rides at the Orange County and LA Fairs,
Natalie was just 6 years old when her
grandmother, Dorothy Adamo, made the
decision that Natalie Rae should have a
pony and ride. Excited at first, she thought
it was going to be western; she had little
choice to make the quick adjustment to
English.
“I was really excited because I thought I
would get to do wild stuff like broncs and
bulls, but my mom said, ‘Absolutely NOT,
you are NOT doing that’. And moms
always have the final say,” says Natalie with
a giggle. “Grams was buying me this pony
named Cinnamon; and when we went to
see it, I saw jumping for the first time. It
looked really fun. I thought that would be
great too; so I changed my mind and said,
‘OK THAT’ and have done that every
since. I am so glad things happen the way
they do.”
“I took lessons from Kathy Gergets,
at Rancho Del Rio in Orange, and had a
Then came a move to Rob Gage at Middle Ranch in Lake View
wonderful basic start. She really taught me
Terrace. The drive was far, but she had gone to take one lesson and
the love for horses and just being around
was really comfortable there. Rob and his assistant, Ronnie Anderson,
them to breathe in the smell of them,”
helped purchase her first “real” horse, Verone, a bay mare from Don
Natalie says, a bit nostalgic. “Grams was
Stewart in Maryland and Natalie hit the show ring! But, alas, life
and still is my biggest supporter, and we
changed again when Rob left to move to New Mexico for married life.
had so much fun there together. Since
Tracy Wade took over the business, and Natalie made the adjustment
lessons were part of Grams’ requirement
of selling Verona to buy an equitation horse, Capito.
for me having a pony, Mom agreed.”
“Karen Healy had been graciously supporting me in the Medal
Kathy helped with the purchase of Mardi
classes, and generously, let me ride this horse,” Natalie muses. “He
Gra, a bay mare, from Lucy Stewart. Then
was a bit difficult, but taught me a lot about patience so we bought
Pure Platinum, a grey, cranky mare for the
him. At the same time Tracy was getting young race horses off the
equitation and hunter classes and showing
track and I rode a bunch of those. They taught me to be consistent,
became a part of the Medlock language.
no matter what. You never know what you are getting on so you have
When showing presented itself as an
to be careful and wait them out to get them to ride better.”
option, Natalie Rae was 11 years old, and
“I sort of had gotten in a rut and wanted a change so we went to
Mom had finally gotten really committed.
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