Jean Klugman and Polly (MA)
Team #999: Jean Klugman and Polly
From: Needham, Massachusetts
Ages: 73 & 27
Combined Age: 100
Test: Introductory Level Test A
When I was zero years old, I would stare out the back window of the car looking for fencing. When I was six, my parents asked a farmer if I could sit on his cow, which is just not the same thing, plus they are bony.
So, I went home and had two imaginary horses in my basement, and I sang the Chipmunks song “I wish I had a horse” a million times until I was 50. Big life moment.
I revisited my passion, found a lesson program and one year later joined a riding trip to Tuscany. On that trip I ate a lot of Advil and met a woman who had two horses she was unable to keep - Congo, a Hanoverian cross, and Polly, a Gypsy Vanner, she had brought home following a ride in Ireland the year before. I bought the horses and we three moved to a lesson barn nearby where we remain. Congo was 32 when we put him down. Polly and I are still a pair at 27 and 73, respectively.
Following my passion brought me much more than horses - it brought me amazing people, barn work (which isn’t actually work at all) and a vastly improved sense of well-being. Thank you, The Dressage Foundation for allowing us to acknowledge our life journey together and Sage Farm for letting me live my dream.
