“It’s neat to see these kids who wouldn’t under normal circumstances have these opportunities. You give them a little support and direction and they want it and they fight for it.”
Once Gracie was healthy and settled into the program, the pair got right to work. The first thing Lendon did with the mare was work her in hand, because Matt could not get her to move sideways off his legs. “She wasn’t even on the bit,” re- calls Lendon. “But his dream when he arrived was to do Third Level. Darn if by the end of the three months he didn’t take her out and show her at Third Level earning over a 60%!” “The program (in Florida) was
absolutely life changing for me,” says Matt. “I had never experienced a more in-depth learning experi- ence with horses than I did with Lendon’s program. There aren’t enough words to express my ap- preciation for Lendon because she absolutely changed my ride. She changed my training and she changed my horse. I went from having a First Level horse to doing Third Level and even Prix St. Georg- es. It was an incredible experience.”
More Difficulty Arises Matt and Gracie had to face yet another hardship before the WIT program ended. “She colicked again,” recalls Matt, “and this time it was worse. Nothing seemed to work and Gracie was not recover- ing. It was devastating. I was go- ing to have to put her to sleep. We couldn’t keep her up. I had two vets there for hours. Just to walk her into the equine hospital there would cost $5,000 which I couldn’t afford.” For a third time an angel came to his aid, this time a friend
of Lendon’s. “Liz Staschak paid for Gracie to go to the hospi- tal,” recalls Matt. Still, the prognosis was not good. “I signed euthanasia papers,” he continues. “At that point I was hysteri- cal because everybody knows this horse means everything to me. I love her.” Concerned for Matt, Lendon made sure he had someone
from the WIT program stay with him. Within 24 hours Gra- cie started to turn the corner. “She was supposed to ship out of Florida around the time she colicked but because of this incident I had to stay a little longer...I thank my lucky stars every day for all the people who helped me. Liz saved my horse’s life,” Matt says with gratitude.
The Shadbelly Matt’s shadbelly has its own story. “Oh yeah, I guess another cool tidbit I can share with you is that
28 January/February 2015
Michael Barisone, who was in Florida at the time, gave me one of his shadbellies. And that honestly is what drove me to keep pushing so hard to do PSG and not give up on my horse,” Matt says. (Matt and Gracie later were able to tackle Prix St. Georges at the Maine Dressage Society shows in 2014 with good results.) A friend of Michael’s who managed Lendon’s program told him about Matt and he went to see this aspiring young rider. Michael, who with his wife Vera splits his time between full-time training residences in Wellington, Florida and Gladstone, New Jersey, says, “I saw this big strong kid from Maine taking on dressage with this horse…that got my attention.” He learned Matt was doing Pilates along with 13 or 14 girls in the pro- gram. “I told Matt to come with me—we’re going to my gym to lift weights. I figured other people did stuff for me, so I took an interest in Matt.” As for the shadbelly, “I was clean-
ing out my closet and I’m looking at two tail coats. There are two young guys who could use these coats, kind of big guys like me, one being Matt,” recalls Michael, “so I gave him one of the coats. People in my life have paid it forward for me, so in a way it’s re- turning the favor.”
THE PROGRAM WORKS If the goal of Lendon’s program is to find hidden talent, she has succeeded. “Find the kids who haven’t had the oppor- tunity. In some cases with the program I’m able to speak with the parents and say, you know, this kid really has tal- ent and it would be nice if the effort could be made for this child or person to be given the opportunity. Sometimes that’s all you need,” Lendon explains. “Sometimes the aver- age parent doesn’t know if their child has talent or not. Part of the D4K program in some cases is giving the kids a little bit of a mentoring program. Some of these kids have good trainers and they’re fine. But a lot of them are off by them- selves. I’m always available to them to talk with them and give them direction or help them find the person who can help them out. We’re able to do some really good things
for those kids that don’t have the opportunity. We give them support and at times even find them a suitable horse.” Gracie was an unlikely dressage horse in the care of a de- termined young man who, with time, patience and guidance
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