Steady Smiler

This is so exciting I had to share!
Steady Smiler is his race name and with the help of a new friend that I met at Event Camp and a little research I found out alot about Steady's races in various articles and also that he was owned/raced by the same people for most of his life.  So I went on a google hunt to see if I could contact these people.  It wasn't all that hard to find them and soon I came across an email address for them.  I took a shot in the dark and sent an email.  I will just copy and paste the correspondence we have had since then.  It is so freaking amazing!!

Hi there, my name is Amy Grayson and I currently own Steady Smiler and I am retraining him to be a family pet/eventer. I was just researching his history and saw that you owned/raced him for many years. I was just wondering if you have any information, photos, videos of his racing days. I would love anything you have or can tell me. He just retired last year running his last race at the age of 10 when I got him. Thank you in advance.

Amy Grayson

Hello Ms. Grayson, I am so happy that "Smiley", is doing well. Rob and I purchased Smiley as a yearling, and proved to be the best investment we ever made. We were sad when we lost him in Toronto, but that is racing. I have Smileys winning pics along with DVD of his races, and would be happy to copyand forward them to you. Currently my house is under renovations so you will have to bare with me for a monthor two. Hope that works for you. Smiley is a very intelligent horse, he could never be pushed to do anything, but when he is ready he gives it his all. you have an amazing horse on your hands, I wish you all the success no matter what you do with him. Please send me your address and I will forward the info. Sheena

I am sooooo grateful that you responded. I would have to agree with everything you said about Smiley's (I call him Steady now :) personality. He is a fantastic horse and continued racing until he was 10. His owner wanted to keep racing him but thankfully his trainer at the time stepped in and since the owner owed her money she sold him. She felt he deserved to have a retirement while he was still sound, which was a miracle in itself.

I would love those things the copies and I would be incredibly grateful to you for them.
I am attaching a photo from last week that was taken of Steady (Smiley) and me jumping.
Amy


Ahhhh! I miss him all over again. Thank you he looks fantastic. Please keep in touch and letme know how he gets on, after all he was the best we had. I should tell you that you can never push Smiley, he is his own master, he preformed so well for us because we allowed him to be that way, obviously after we lost him he was pushed to preform, and he never did well. At Hastings Park, when Smiley went out to gallop, he would step onto the racetrack and automatically back himself into the corner, and for 20 minutes he would look at the mountains,the other horses galloping by, and only when he was ready to go, that he would indicate so.Such an intelligent man.


I can't tell you how it fills my heart to know and hear where he came from and that he was truly loved. I would have to agree that he is a very special horse. I couldn't have described his personality better myself. He has taught me those things about him over the last year and a half I have owned him. I initially tried to push him to do things but that never went well. Now I have learned that if I am patient and kind he will do anything for me and will never give up. The more I know and learn about him the more I am just in awe of all he has done seen and is capable of doing. I feel blessed that he owns me. He has a good life now and has many 'jobs'. He has a knack for bringing people together that otherwise would have never met, he is sweet and gentle with my three little girls, he puts up with me :) he loves trail rides (as long as he is in front) and like I said we also do low level eventing. I will definitely keep in touch and I really look forward to the photos and dvds! And I definitely understand the renovation part. Are you still in racing? Who knows maybe some day the family and I may make our way to hastings and we can meet. Again thank you, you have blessed my soul with you words.

Amy

Like I said AAAhhhmazing!  Also here is a photo that my friend found for me online of Steady in his racing days.  He looks sooooo young here.

                                                                                                                                                                        With all of this in mind along with the last year and a few months I have owned Steady and the experience of event camp I have had a huge revelation about me, my horse and the path that we are on.  So be on the look out for the post titled "The Revelation".  It will be after all the camp posts are up since all of those experiences are so relevant to the revelation.