74/ MARCH/APRIL 2012 THE RIDER When It Comes To Success, Timing Is Everything


Janie Greenberg was born and raised in Toronto, ON and was always a horse crazy kid. Her family could not afford a horse or riding lessons so she practiced riding a stick horses on the streets in suburbia. Eventu- ally, she went away to col- lege in Georgia in the early seventies and to her delight, leased and then purchased a grade mare - her childhood dreams of riding a real horse came true. Never having had any formal riding lessons, I learned on this mare and road regularly down the back roads of Georgia. When the time came to move home to Canada, we packed up my grade mare (whom I had bred to an Arabian stallion) and a half crazy Arabian gelding whom we had just pur- chased and moved them to Ottawa.


Her gelding taught her to ride. They would be on one side of the road and at the blink of an eye would be on the other side, but she loved it. Some days she would ride with friends for four to six hours at a time. The other horses would return home, heads hung low but Janie’s Arab gelding was still prancing. The foaling of her grade mare got Janie hooked on the breeding business. Since the mid- seventies she has been breeding Arabian and Half Arabian horses. Working full time and looking after


twenty-plus horses never left a lot of time to ride, but she hopped on a brood mare whenever the chance arose.


Janie’s show ring involvement had always been as the behind-the- scenes person. She would condition young halter horses at home, show clip them, bathe and groom them and prepare them for their classes. Her horses were always highly com- petitive in the halter arena in both Canada and the United States which finally persuaded her to personally present a few horses in the amateur halter division - with quite a bit of success. In the meantime, she real- ized that her brood mares kept having babies so could not be considered consis- tent riding horses. Having always sold the young horses, there was no alter- native but to go out and look for a gelding from her own bloodlines - and then she got even more serious about trail riding. Janie and her gelding did a few Competitive Trail Rides and literally hundreds of miles of riding in the back forty. This extended to five and ten-day riding holidays in the Adirondack Moun- tains.


Wanting to prove that her beautiful halter horses were also athletic, meant returning some breeding stock back to the show ring as performance horses. Again, Janie was the


behind-the-scenes person - groom, braider, cheering crew, etc....


In 2009, the thought came that maybe she would like to try show ring riding. She purchased all the hunt attire, but she was still not ready to do it.... finding there was a huge difference between show ring riding and trail riding. Having always had some physical limitations (bad back, shoulders, etc., from years of dealing with horses), Janie had developed a rid- ing style that was comfort- able for her body. That all had to change. She remem- bers trying to ride Pepper- mint Paddy RF+++/ but she couldn’t get the accom- plished show horse to can- ter and knew she was aggravating her. Never having had that problem on her trail horse, Janie knew she had to figure out how to change things. For many years a very talented horse woman and friend, Leslie Lloyd encouraged Janie, but she just did not feel confident enough.


In 2010, Tyler Teichert, also an extremely talented horse person, came to Rideaufield for the year. He gave Janie the push that she needed and all of a sud- den everything seemed to fall into place. He put her up on Earl Grey++/, a stal- lion bred and raised at Rideaufield. Her relation- ship with Earl Grey++/ up to this point was as his breeding person, and as she


October. This is the pre- mier event for Arabian show horses with about two thousand of the top show horses in North America in attendance. After a month of back and forth she finally decided to go for it but she had to make the decision to show in the Select Rider or the 55 and over division. Being in her early sixties, the 55 and over division may have be the more logical choice, but she opted for the Select Rider....


Janie Greenberg on Earl Grey


describes it “We just fit!” He is a beautiful and incredibly athletic horse and has an amazing work ethic and Janie felt totally comfortable on him. How- ever, she was keenly aware that she was riding a breed- ing stallion, and quickly had to learn how to ride the ring. Her first time out in the US they were in a class of thirteen. Janie was terri- fied. The warm-up ring in Syracuse NY is like a train wreck waiting to happen. She had a terrible warm-up and was ready to quit, but Tyler was not going to let that happen. They hit the in gate and somehow she became focused and totally enjoyed the ride. They won


the class and her next les- son was about to happen. Doing their victory pass, Earl Grey++/ went into “Halter Horse” mode and started bucking. She was thankful for her trail riding experience. From that class on, she learned how to ride victory passes, and happily, there were many. Janie and Earl Grey won the champi- onship in both Region 16 and 18 (unanimous), in the Hunter Pleasure ATR Select Rider, as well as Top Five in Region 16 in the AOTR 40 and over. In 2011, Janie promised herself that if she did well, she would consid- er US Nationals in Tulsa, Oklahoma at the end of


In the past, Earl Grey++/ had always been trained at Rideaufield Farms. Friend Carol Colautti showed and rode him successfully in 2009, 2010 and 2011. But neither she nor Tyler were able to go to the US Nationals with Janie. It was decided to send Earl Grey++/ to Sharon and Rodney Ecken- rode of Equistar Training Center in Pennsylvania. Rodney had ten years prior, shown Earl Grey to US Top Ten Futurity Colt in Albuquerque, NM. Sharon became Earl Grey++/ trainer and Janie’s coach. He left for Equistar six weeks prior to the show, and Janie made three trips down while he was there. After a seven hour drive, she would ride the night they got there, ride the next morning, and then drive back home. And then, on to Tulsa! She only rode twice before her class at Nationals, not enjoying


the busy-ness of the warm up ring plus she just felt comfortable in her relation- ship with Earl Grey++/ in the show ring.


Janie watched nearly every Hunter Pleasure Class at the show that she could and was totally impressed with the quality of horses and riders who seemed to not be making any mistakes. She took note of how each rider entered the ring and then dressed for her class on Tuesday afternoon. Again, she opted not to do much in the warm-up ring. She was not feeling terribly ner- vous, but rather, she felt numb. She just remember hitting the in gate and feel- ing comfortable on Earl Grey++/. He did his job beautifully, with talent, honesty and integrity. Janie feels he really made her job easier. At the end of the eighteen horse class they were all retired to the warm-up ring - as they do at the US Nationals - and the Top Ten riders were announced. It was an unbe- lievable moment for her to re-enter the show ring as a US Top Ten Rider, but to make the victory pass on her beautiful horse is a feeling she will always remember. This achieve- ment was even more spe- cial because Earl Grey++/ is a horse they bred and raised at Rideaufield - and she loves him dearly.


A Year Later, Surviving Horses In Japan Need Our Help By Kelly Bowers.


Recently, I had the pleasure of hearing from Sigrid Kube from Finch, Ontario who told me about a distressing situation on the other side of the world. Of course, we all remember the devastating earth quake and tsunami of March 11th last year in Japan. At this time, the country is still digging out and rebuilding, an effort that will undoubt- edly go one for years. Unfortunately the


needs have been so over- whelming for people and housing and the necessities of life, a secondary part of Japanese life has been looked over in many ways


- the animals. Rescue pri- orities are 1- humans 2- animals for food (cows, pigs etc) 3- animals not for food. So, who is caring for the horses in Japan? Well, according to Sigrid, there is a group of people including one of her friends, Sakai Midori strug- gling to save the horses of an area called Minami Soma City in Fukushima Prefecture.


Minami Soma City is an area of Japan where many ex-race horses spend their second lives. This area is famous for the Soma Nomaoi, a breathtak- ing festival with a thou- sand-year history which


has been designated a National Important Intangi- ble Folk Culture Property. Horses are very common where they live in back- yards and small stables, owned by horse-lovers as companions or members of their families.


Many stables near the seashore, along with hous- es and other facilities were swept away. Many people died and many are still missing, as are the horses as well. But some horses survived through the disas- ter and have been rescued, and now they need care. On top of everything, the accident at the Fukushi- ma Nuclear Power Plant


made things worse with radioactivity which threat- ens the horses. Horse own- ers were seriously affected by the quake, tsunami and the nuclear-power plant disaster and they had no choice but to evacuate and leave their horses. Yet many in Minami Soma were unwilling to abandon their horses and soon came back, as they would for any other member of their fam- ily.


At first there was a problem getting feed but once again supplies are available. With horse owners in Japan struggling, affected the Retired Horse Association (RHA; non- profit ), have been provid- ing feed to horse owners who have difficulties feed- ing their horses. After all this time though, even the RHA is struggling under the high cost of their com- mitment. It is estimated that more than 100 horses were remaining inside the 30 km area last count. In addition, 28 horses that remained inside the 20 km evacuation zone were res- cued and were moved to Baji-Koen (Horse Park). Volunteers have been look- ing after unclaimed horses and those horses are avail- able for adoption from the RHA. This past year,


twenty horses were adopted already.


adoption or not suitable for adoption due to age or con-


Trapped in the midst of an ongoing disaster,


Besides feed, another great need is for stabling and fencing. The earth quake was bad enough but when the tsunami hit, all the infrastructure utilized to care for the horses was swept away. Understand- ably, Japan’s construction efforts have focused on the needs of humans such as homes, schools, govern- ment buildings etc. but barns, hay storage, pens, fences etc all need to be rebuilt for the horses and ponies whether owned, for


dition. They need a place where they can received training and care.


In Japan, JPY 30,000 (approximately US $375) per month is necessary to provide feed and minimum care for one horse but most people are struggling there to support themselves. Often it takes up to 10 fam- ilies to give donations which are combined to feed just one horse because that is all these caring horse lovers can afford under their trying conditions.


Japan is unable to raise enough money to feed and house their horses. As Kyoko Numata, Chairper- son of The Retirement Horse Association puts it, he is grateful for “our warm support” from over- seas. His plea? “Please help us save the horses of Minami Soma, Fukushima, Japan.” For more infor- mation, check out http://rha.or.jp/english and keep your eye on The Rider’s website for updates.


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