Team #744 Judith McConnell and Wren
Team #744: Judith McConnell and Wren
From: Aiken, South Carolina
Ages: 82 & 19
Combined Age: 101
Test: Introductory Level Test A
My riding career began as a child taking lessons on the weekend and riding double on my best friend’s pony at her farm. That soon ended until my father remarried after losing my mom. My stepmother was a rider and breeder and introduced our whole family to horses at her farm in Southern Pines, North Carolina, in the 70s. In 1986, my husband and I bought a small farm in Chagrin Falls, Ohio, that allowed us access to the Emerald Necklace, The Cleveland Metropark’s miles of trails. Our trail riding led us to the Chagrin Valley Trails and Riding Club, a wonderful family riding club located in the Chagrin Valley. In 1991, we were asked to become members of the Chagrin Valley Hunt.
Our foxhunting days were off to a wonderful start with pretty good horses and a lot of help from friends. In 2000, I became a Master of the Chagrin Valley Hunt, which entailed taking care of about 250 landowners, mostly Amish, keeping enough money in the till to pay for feeding hounds, hunt horses, and paying a Huntsman. In 2004, I was invited to join the Board of the Masters of Foxhounds as the Central District representative covering 10 hunts in Ohio, Michigan, and western Pennsylvania. During those years I was privileged to hunt with my husband, a dear friend and her husband, my daughter-in-law, and even my granddaughter.
However, in 2013 we moved to Aiken, South Carolina, to avoid the awful Cleveland winters. We landed in an amazing horse community of small farms and 30 miles of trails. We quickly joined the Whiskey Road Foxhounds, whose Huntsman had been Huntsman for the Chagrin Valley Hounds for eight years. After 10 years on a young horse, I gave up this year and borrowed a horse from our Huntsman’s wife. I wanted to have fun hunting in my senior years and was looking for a safer mount.
Enter Wren or Guapo. He is a small Thoroughbred with amazingly perfect manners. He raced once, tried eventing, and was finally being used as a polo horse when Kim purchased him and rode him for four years as her main whip horse. She says he will do anything asked of him. Fox hunting was his spot in life. We no longer jump but had an amazing season and look forward to another.
As the season was coming to an end, a neighbor asked if I would join her in attempting to do a Century Club ride. We are both 82, so didn’t want to wait any longer. Both of our horses qualified. We secured a perfect trainer to teach us the simplest test possible as neither horse was used to ring riding let alone mirrors. We managed to ride to the ring for each lesson. Our trainer introduced our horses to all the things they needed to know, and exhausted we rode home after each lesson. We succeeded in accomplishing our goal on April 30, 2024 thanks to our wonderful horses, trainer, judge, friends, and family.
