didn’t rate him enough down the line, he just sat down and rounded over it with no problem. There was a skinny at fence six that had rails drop frequently during the day. It was a climactic ending to the show, because the rider that was leading ended up getting unseated a bit at the in-and-out, turned to the skinny and had a stop and a fall. The entire top 20 were sent scurrying, because so many rails were dropped that a rider in 20th place who had already gone back to the barn and untacked, had to retack and come running to the ring because she ended up 11th. Alyssa Ford, a new friend of mine who won reserve champion, moved up from seventh to second. It was definitely moving day!” Liz and Apollo are coached by Nadeem
Noon from Up-N-Over Stables in Bloomington, Indiana, who was also at the championships, but Liz did all of the grooming and prep work herself with support from Nadeem’s other students. “I did not have a groom, but I had a couple of good friends that were there from Indiana. Unfortunately, their divisions ended long before mine and they had to drive home before I went in for stadium and later my victory gallop. The victory was emotional for me because of all the sweat and time that had gone into that moment. I was very proud of my horse and I think I smiled for a week straight.”
Juggling Acts As a busy mom, she squeezes in time for riding between shuttling
her children and taking care of the family home, called Hidden Creek Farm, a 20-acre property in Brownsburg, Indiana, just northwest of Indianapolis. She and her husband Mike, an attorney and fellow Notre Dame graduate, have three children, Zachary (13), Beth (11) and Jacob (8). Hidden Creek has woods, fields and a small barn and an indoor arena. Apollo, a.k.a. “Paulo,” and his turn-out buddies, Woody, an off-the-track Thoroughbred whom Liz showed in hunters and jumpers, and two ponies for the children, Blaze and Troubadour, make up the Messaglia equine herd. The family dog, a rescued 85-pound black Labrador Retriever named Henry, rounds out the family and keeps them all laughing. “When my kids were younger, I tried to always ride after they
went to sleep or when they were at school. In fact, my kids have rarely seen me ride,” she says. “I try to get all my horse chores (stalls, turnout, feeding and riding) done while they are in school. It doesn’t always work out and I’ve been known to ride at 11 p.m. and then clean stalls. My neighbors have said to me, ‘We saw your barn lights on at midnight, were you out there riding at that hour?’ and I laugh and say yes. We do like to have dinner together most nights for family
68 January/February 2012
American Trakehner Association
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