Sandy Hider and A Pretty Penny (NY)
Team #1084: Sandy Hider and A Pretty Penny
From: Henrietta, New York
Ages 70.17 & 30.83
Combined Age: 100
Test: Training Level Test 1
I started as a horse crazy girl in a non-horse family with no finances to help me. I began taking lessons when I was fourteen, and at sixteen, I got my own pony for $250. I did many jobs to pay for him – cleaning, feeding, giving trail rides, working at a dry cleaners, and even collecting golf balls from the pasture and selling them back to the golfers! The barn was across the street from a golf course.
I was always on a shoestring budget, but somehow made it work.
When I was sixteen, a friend took me to the Eastern States Dressage Championships in Geneseo, New York. I was mesmerized! My goal was to someday do dressage.
I went to Meredith Manor School of Horsemanship and was certified to teach and train.
After the birth of my second daughter in 1985, I met my dear friend and mentor, Michael Barisone, and never looked back. A few years later I bought Certainly, an unbroken Anglo/Trakehner mare and earned my USDF bronze, silver, and gold medals on her. Most people would say Certainly was unsuitable, barely fifteen hands, and a fire-breathing dragon! One of my students commented that she was an ordinary horse that learned to do extraordinary things!
A Pretty Penny became my training project when she was four years old, and here we are 26 years later for our Century Club ride!
My great thanks to Anne Gohlke, Penny’s owner, for allowing me to ride Penny for this honor.
