Team #499 Leslie Palos and Ploof

Team #499: Leslie Palos and Ploof
Ages: 72 & 28
Combined Age: 100

Leslie Palos says she didn’t have a Century Club ride fixed as a goal; “Who wants to be this old?” she says with a laugh. But once she and her horse, Ploof, approached the magic numbers, she started to think about it. Then she watched a friend, Jeannette Hogan, complete her Century Club ride in 2018 at the Vermont Dressage Days show, and she warmed to the idea.

It’s something of a surprise that Leslie is riding at all. Though she began riding as a kid in Japan where her father was stationed and rode for most of her life, she quit in 2003 when she had to put down her beloved event horse, Mystic Quest. She and Mystic evented in Connecticut, New Jersey, and Vermont, and the pair won Area 1 Training Level “Horse of the Year” in 1992.

Leslie sold her trailer and her tack, but a stray lead rope led her back to the saddle in 2011. Someone needed a rope, so Leslie pulled the old lead out of the trunk of her car, which prompted the question: “Oh, you ride?” The subsequent conversation rekindled her passion, and she decided to take “a few” lessons at a barn in Enfield, New Hampshire. The school horse she rode was Ploof. 

Ploof was something of a challenge when Leslie happened upon him. He was trying to be a school horse, but even though he was 18, he was too hot for most of the students to ride. He was a bit hollow-necked, and when Leslie put her leg on him, he would invert himself and take shorter, faster steps. Still, there was something. So, when Leslie learned he was going to be sold, she was determined to take him on and attempt to transform the older, inverted, spooky fellow.  

Leslie thought he might make a good trail horse, but he spooked at everything. She started training him to hack by walking him a short distance down a dirt road from the barn to a telephone pole and back. And then to a second telephone pole, and so on, for months. Today, 10 years later, Leslie hacks Ploof all over the trails at Pirouette Farm in Norwich, Vermont, where she now boards, and Ploof has become a reliable babysitter for young or spooky horses new to the trails.

Dressage? Never! Or so said several people who knew the horse. Leslie persevered.  Ploof overcame horse anxiety to compete for the first time about a year after Leslie’s first ride on him. She and Ploof went down the centerline in an Opportunity Training Level class at Dressage Days in Essex, Vermont. They won.

Since then, Leslie and Ploof have successfully competed at First Level at several shows in New England. Leslie credits their success and longevity as a team to the “village” of people that have helped Leslie expand her dressage intelligence (including Sally Swift and her Centered Riding concept) and the trainers, veterinarians, and barn managers that have kept Ploof happy and healthy. Leslie believes the increasing number of Century Club rides is a testament to the growing sophistication of equine medicine, which keeps horses healthy longer. 

As Leslie went down the centerline in her Century Club ride, the scribe was none other than Jeannette Hogan, who serendipitously ended up assigned as a volunteer to the right ring at the right time. Jeannette joined the host of supporters to help Leslie celebrate the event. Ploof happily posed for pictures with his fans. He and Leslie went on to compete the next day.

Leslie and Ploof completed First Level, Test 1, on June 19, 2021, for their Century Club Membership.