Team #650 Jane Barrack and Sara
Team #650: Jane Barrack and Sara
From: Colorado Springs, Colorado
Ages: 74 & 26
Combined Age: 100
Test: Introductory Level Test B
Date: June 3, 2023
I am grateful that my mare, Sara, and I have accomplished our last goal which was the Century Club ride. It was a long journey for both of us. It began with my friend raising sport horses by crossing Clydesdales and Thoroughbreds. Sara was from this stock and was born on June 27, 1997. I knew almost immediately that she was a special horse, very sure of herself, smart, and liked to learn. Even though I didn't need another horse at the time, I bought her as a weanling. She has been my horse of a lifetime. She has a calm and steady demeanor, is a superb trail horse, and is proficient at dressage. She has learned all the movements up to and including Third Level work. She always loved a challenge, one that she could work through and add to her repertoire. If my trainer and I didn't keep her mentally challenged, she would have grown bored and annoyed, she did have her opinions.
My earliest memories are of drawing horses. I played with toy horses, making cardboard barns. I read every kind of horse story. My dream of a real horse came true in the summer of 1958 when my dad bought a Pinto Quarter-type Horse from an auction. When my dad later asked me what I wanted for Christmas I answered that I had what I wanted and didn't need anything for Christmas. A few years later when we had a foal born at our home, I became interested in learning how to teach and train horses. There were few available riding lessons in the early 1960s in Colorado and the only English riders were jumpers. There was little in the way of systematic training of horses. I turned to reading dressage books, which were all about teaching and learning.
Sara and I have learned from each other. She is the one I've owned the longest, twenty-six years, and the one that I've reached the highest level (for me) in dressage. I was truly happy that family and friends could be with me at my Century Club ride event on June 3, 2023.
