Standardbred Horses Are Born to Race

“I’m the nanny and caregiver for our horses,” says Jennifer Wishart, president and owner of Whisco Ltd., a distributor in Fredericton, New Brunswick. Jennifer and her husband, Ronnie Hildebrand, raise Standardbred horses. They have 12 horses in their barn right now, including a “babysitter” (a retired show horse) who goes to the pasture with the young horses to play with them, teach them to eat hay and keep them out of trouble.

Standardbreds are synonymous with harness racing, a sport that was founded when farmers hooked up their horses to carts and raced down country roads. The Standardbred got its name in the late 1700s when it became a requirement that horses of this breed had to reach a certain standard in running a mile.

Jennifer’s horses go off to the track once they’re old enough to race. Then people like Michelle Ruvola, vice president of The Standard Cos., a Chicagoland janitorial supply distributor and textile processor, drive the horses.

Michelle is an amateur harness race driver, and won the 1998 Mid-Western Amateur Drivers’ Association Championship. Winning this championship runs in the family. Michelle’s mother, Rose Bonomo, won it in 1997, and her dad, George Bonomo, won in 1999. The official definition of “amateur” is that the drivers do not accept compensation.
As it has been for more than 200 years, the length of a race is one mile. The contestants travel that distance in a harrowing two or so minutes.

“Everybody would laugh at me because on race day, I couldn’t eat or talk and all I could do was pace up and down the aisle of the barn,” Michelle says.

The drivers ride in sulkies, which are about two feet off the ground attached to the harness, and pulled by the horse at 30 mph.

In a race, Michelle says, you want a horse with speed and with heart. “Heart,” by Michelle’s definition, means the horse will give you extra effort, even if it’s tired. “Horses have personalities, just like people do,” Michelle says. “Some want to work really hard, and others would rather not be racing.”

Most Standardbreds love to race. Jennifer believes that these horses are unhappy if they’re standing idle. “Our youngest horse often races in the pasture with our dog,” she says.

“As soon as the horses are born, we start working with them to get them used to people. We want them to be comfortable with their handlers at the racetrack,” she adds. At about a week old, Jennifer’s horses leave the barn. “When they go into the pasture for the first time, they race off, tail in the air, awed by the great outdoors. The babies run circles around their mothers, just like they’re racing around a track. It’s a thrill,” Jennifer says.

In harness racing, women compete with men on an equal basis. Michelle’s dad, George, is the one responsible for his family’s involvement in racing.

George Bonomo, who is president of The Standard Cos., races internationally. He recently represented the United States in the Friendship Competition held in Palermo, Sicily — a two-day event organized by the Italians to show solidarity with Americans after the 9/11 tragedy. George is an amateur driver, a horse owner, and even spends two mornings a week training his horses.

The best thing about harness racing for Michelle is “being the first one under the wire in a race.” For George, it’s the competitiveness of the sport.

It’s no surprise then that while competing against each other in one of their first races, George held his horse back to help Michelle get into a better position. What did Michelle do? “I knew my dad would pass me, so I did everything I could to get my horse to go faster so my dad’s horse would have to speed up and get tired out. And it worked.”

Oddly enough, neither Michelle nor George remembers who won that race. It was, however, the last time either of them showed any sympathy toward the other on the racetrack.

Gretchen Roufs, a 15-year janitorial supply industry veteran, owns Auxiliary Marketing Services of San Antonio. To suggest someone you think should be featured in “freetime,” contact her at (210) 601-4572 or e-mail.