Made for Each Other: Fall 2006

By Rachel Cook

Fourteen-year-old Jane Terryberry has been a horse lover for as long as she can remember. She was happy to take lessons as a young girl. She was excited to own her own Arabian, Shamir, a short while later. And she is having the time of her life taking the field master’s circuit by storm on a rescued thoroughbred racehorse named Bomb Site—“Bomber.”

The pair is a match made in heaven that almost never was. “We originally bought Bomber for my dad,” Jane confides. “But he didn’t have time to train him. So I spent time with him. Grooming, talking, being his partner and earning his trust.”

As a yearling, Bomber was purchased as a racehorse in Louisville, KY, for over $220,000. He’s a successful Kentucky allowance level racehorse and Grade I Stakes winner. He won three out of his five races, then got bored with the racing scene. As Jane explains, “He ran his first couple of races well, then got mentally tired. He didn’t hurt himself—he just got sour.”

At age five, Bomber was retired from the racetrack and acquired by a non-profit organization called Second Stride. He’d been at Moserwood Farms in Kentucky for six months when the Terryberrys saw Bomber online. That was in 2004. “We bought him, sight unseen, for practically nothing because we liked his conformation and because the kind and honest impression given us by Kim Smith, the founder and owner of Second Stride,” Jane says.

“There were times at first when he’d plant his feet and say ‘no,’” Jane says of Bomber’s first days at his new home. “He was hyper, young and spunky. I wondered how we’d ever get him to do anything.” But they’ve come a long way together, most recently taking first place at the North American Point to Point Championships in Leesburg, VA in May 2006.

They only just started racing this spring, but it’s clear that this horse and rider have found a winning combination. “I started racing just for practice. He won his first race and I thought, ‘Wow, he’s pretty good at this.’ In our second race, the Virginia Gold Cup, he won by a mile,” says Jane.

Three wins in three races—a perfect record for the young partnership, and even Jane is surprised. “I remember going to the first race and saying to my dad that if I wanted to win, I’d have brought Earnie.” Jane explains that Earnie is her father’s older, more-experienced, racehorse—an ex-steeplechaser. “Riding him is like pushing a button, he knows just what to do.”

But, as it turns out, Bomber knew what was expected of him as well. “When a racehorse is walked in the paddock and checked out by a vet, they know it’s almost race time. Bomber knew it was business from then on. He was serious about the whole game and looked every jump straight in the eye—he knew he was racing,” Jane says.

Field races resemble a foxhunt. All racers remain behind a field master, who leads the pack through a course filled with obstacles. Then at the last fence, it’s about a half-mile sprint to the finish. Racehorses were born to run this part of a field race, and Bomber leads the pack.

“Bomber can do anything as long as he doesn’t have to do it often,” says Jane. “He gets bored. That’s one of the reasons he was retired in the first place. We do a lot of different things together and he enjoys it. For fun I swim Bomber in the river. It’s great exercise when it’s hot.”

A stubborn racehorse when he first arrived, Bomber has warmed to Jane and the tasks at hand. “Now he’s kid friendly, loves his job and loves to run,” explains Jane. “He’s not hyper and doesn’t get revved up. After I run him, he’ll willingly walk on the buckle instead of wanting to keep going.”

To get Bomber conditioned to field master competition and out of the track racing mindset it took “lots of love, attention and patience with him,” Jane says. When retraining a retired racehorse, Jane advises that you spend “time with him every day—both in the saddle and out. You have to start them slow. Before you do anything big with a horse, they have to love their job.”

Jane recommends that “if you have an extra stall and can get a retired horse, get one. But take a pro with you for advice. Always have a vet check out the horse before you buy. Then turn him out for a season— graze him on pasture to relax, chill and get his mindset off racing.” It does take a time commitment on your part, as Jane suggests to “do ring work and trail rides to let him know that he doesn’t have to race. Add other horses slowly. Prove to them that they don’t have to compete and can go ahead with their regular routine. Definitely don’t race them too soon.”

In fact, that was a concern of others at Jane and Bomber’s first race. “When people saw I was riding a retired racehorse, they said, ‘After this race you’ll have a totally different horse. He’ll just want to race,’” Jane says. “But I’d trained with Bomber long enough to trust that he’d walk after the race. And he did. I’m glad I didn’t race him right away, though.”

And Jane plans to keep racing Bomber by keeping him interested and stimulated. “Talented horses aren’t easy,” Jane says with a wisdom beyond her years. Jane plans to mix things up with dressage and show jumping. “I think it will help him with his jumping,” she explains.

If Jane seems horse savvy, it’s with good reason. She plans to be a vet when she grows up. “I’d also like to ride horses for a little while— just to do it,” she admits. “Maybe jockey for horses I own and understand. A lot of jockeys don’t own the horses they ride. I can’t imagine not knowing or training Bomber before I raced him.”

Riding a horse you know is different because of the bond between horse and rider. Jane explains that “racers tend to get a lot of attention from groomers and trainers, but not from the people who will be on their back. I think that bond is important.”

“Bomber knows what I’m going to do before I do it,” Jane says. “He reads my body language real well. He knows when I’m going to ask him to gallop. Other horses I have to ask.”