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This submission was authored by former Blogger Contestant Holly Ratcliff. Holly caught up with Mary Bess Sigman and her super ponies Cooper and Coda, the famous Teddy brothers.
Cooper and Coda
Mary Bess and Cooper, photo by Mark Lehner, used with permission
At the beginning of August, I was at River Glen Horse Trials here in Tennessee volunteering as the cross-country warm-up steward. The warm-up ring had emptied out as the preliminary division finished up and the training riders were slowly trickling down from the stables to hack around the arena. One of the first horse/rider pairs in the ring was a small, blonde girl on a chestnut pony. As I looked at her number, I noted it was Mary Bess Sigman and checked her off the rider list. Since there was a 30-minute lag between the end of prelim and the start of training, the riders were relaxing and chatting contentedly, and I kept noticing Mary Bess on the adorable pony. She was the first rider to go in the division, so she made her way over to where I was standing and she stopped to chat with my friend Kelsey, Colin Fraser (waiting nearby to start on his horse), and several other people gathered at the in-gate. I hadn’t been listening to everything she said, but I heard her describing how her pony was very smart, opinionated (as ponies are wont to be), and that she honestly thought he was “as talented as his brothers” and could “go as far as he wanted to go.” At that moment, she circled and I got a good look at her pony’s little face. I was struck by the familiar, perky chestnut ears, the small white dot in the center of his forehead, and the sparkling cleverness in his big brown eyes. “He looks a lot like Teddy,” I thought. Sure enough, Theodore al Coda is a full brother to the late Theodore O’Connor. As Mary Bess trotted over to the start box, I made a mental note to catch up to her at some point and ask her more about Coda. Later that afternoon, I found out she has been competing another member of the family, Foster’s Bold Favorite (aka “Cooper”), who is also a full brother to both Teddy and Coda. After hearing this, I was convinced there was an interesting story to be told here. And, an interesting story it is….
Back in early 2010, Mary Bess received a phone call from a Hamilton, GA eventer asking to schedule a few lessons with her. Mary Bess agreed and the rider took a few lessons on a cute, little white horse. A short while later, the same rider – Mary Carol Harsch – rode in a clinic with Mary Bess in Newnan, GA. This time, she was riding a nice, talented, dark bay pony, and they were poised to take off together on a successful, adult-amateur eventing career. However, as so often happens, fate threw a wrench in Mary Carol’s plans when her pony slipped on some uneven terrain and she took a tumble, badly injuring her shoulder. As she would be out-of-commission for a good while until her shoulder completely healed, Mary Carol approached Mary Bess about riding her bay pony for a while. When Mary Bess agreed, she took on the pony because she liked Mary Carol and her husband, John, and because she really liked what little she had seen of the athletic and talented pony. She knew nothing beyond any of this initial introduction to the Harschs and Cooper, but she would soon be taken on a journey that completely changed her life.
It wasn’t until she had been riding and training Cooper for a while before Mary Carol even thought to mention to her that Cooper was the full brother of the wonderful Theodore O’Connor (John and Mary Carol had also been part owners of Teddy). Not that it particularly mattered to Mary Bess, but it was an interesting side note that she filed away mentally and didn’t think too much about on a daily basis. As she started to forge a bond with Cooper, their partnership clicked and fell into place rather quickly, and the connection they had became apparent to John and Mary Carol. They decided to completely place Cooper in Mary Bess’s hands and they have created an arrangement that will allow the pair to go as far as they can or want. At this point, Cooper’s future is in his own hands, or…um…hooves. Mary Bess mentioned to me that as she really started to get to know Cooper and they began running horse trials together, she was struck by how much he really loved his job. The energy, intelligence, and enthusiasm he has for cross-country seems to be a family characteristic that started with Teddy, runs through Cooper, and continues on with Coda. When I asked Mary Bess what it was like to ride Cooper, I could hear her smiling through the phone and she said that the first time she took him cross-country, he was so fun to ride that she found herself “grinning from ear-to-ear, galloping around like a little kid again, which is really why I do this [eventing] in the first place.”
As the special partnership between Mary Bess and Cooper continued to grow, fate had another surprise in store for her. In mid-2010, Christan Trainor – knowing Mary Bess had Cooper in her barn – called her up to talk to her about another horse that she thought she should have: Coda. Christan had made the momentous decision to leave the U.S. and set-up in Australia, and she couldn’t take all of her horses with her. As she started the difficult process of selling the rides she couldn’t keep, she instantly thought of Mary Bess as a good match for her pony. Although Mary Bess was thrilled at the offer and wanted to have Coda in her barn, she just couldn’t come up with the funds to make an offer. Things fluctuated for a short period of time thereafter, when John Harsch stepped in and, just as he had done with Cooper, bought Coda for Mary Carol. In true Harsch spirit, they immediately turned him over to Mary Bess and she then had a matched set of super ponies in her program.
According to Mary Bess, the string of events that has placed the ponies in her barn has been like a dream come true. From that first phone call from Mary Carol asking for a lesson, to agreeing to ride Cooper until Mary Carol was mended, until the day Coda walked off the trailer at her farm, she has been blessed time-and-again by not just the chance to ride and compete Cooper and Coda, but also by the generosity of the Harsch’s. To hear the gratitude in Mary Bess’s voice when she talks about the Harschs and their two ponies brought tears to my eyes to think that a “homegrown” eventer from Georgia – who had suffered a debilitating freak accident (another incredible story, for another day) and had retired her much-loved advanced horse – would emerge on the other side of those set-backs at the center of a heart-warming story such as this one with Cooper and Coda is….well, extraordinary. In Mary Bess’s own words, it was the realization of the old saying: “When one door closes, another one opens.”
To add to the emotional nature of the tale of Teddy’s two brothers finding a home together, competing with the same rider, and rising up the levels to follow in the hoofsteps of their legendary sibling, it is important to recognize another prominent figure in this equation: Karen O’Connor. Earlier this year, Mary Bess contacted Karen to set up some winter training sessions in Virginia. Mary Bess had ridden with Karen on other occasions with her previous upper-level horses, so they know each other well and Karen has been a positive influence in Mary Bess’s career thus far. But, to have the chance to train a rider on Teddy’s full brother must be an opportunity that Karen couldn’t let pass her by. In regards to this scenario, my inevitable question to Mary Bess was: “So, what was Karen’s initial reaction, seeing Cooper for the first time?” Mary Bess said that Karen was touched, obviously, because she loved Teddy so very much and to get to work with his sibling must prove cathartic, to some extent. I asked the same thing regarding Coda, and she said it was actually Max (Corcoran) who saw Coda first. They were at Chattahoochee Hills earlier this year and Max approached Mary Bess and said, “Who is this cute pony?” Mary Bess grinned and said, “It’s funny you should ask that….” When she told Max he was Teddy’s brother, Max ran across the barn to get Karen and they came back full of excitement. Mary Bess said Karen was smiling and she immediately went for his little ears, which are “just like Teddy’s.” They also noted that all 3 ponies – Teddy, Cooper, and Coda – have the same distinct double-whorls on their foreheads.
Mary Bess said Karen has been incredibly invaluable, not just in the capacity of a knowledgeable rider/trainer, but because she herself learned so much about the physical nature of riding a pony at the upper levels and that a rider must handle her body differently while in the saddle. Mary Bess has learned that all of the ponies have a very distinctive hind-end clearance over fences that seriously runs the risk of their over-rotating in the air and landing on their nose on the other side. This is wonderful in show jumping, when their exuberance typically results in clear rounds, but it does make it harder to ride that kind of scopey jump. She has been working on opening up slightly at the top of the jump in order to have Cooper and Coda flatten slightly in the air, while not impeding their natural bascule. She has also learned to ride with a longer rein, so they have their full neck length free in order to jump better and more powerfully, particularly on cross-country. Although the ponies are physically a different ride than an average-sized horse, Mary Bess stated it is imperative that she mentally “ride them just like a horse.” This includes strategizing in a way that pays attention to their small stature, but trusts that they will find the right spots, make the striding, and more importantly that she “believe that they can do it.” And, “believe” is something Mary Bess has down to a science. She is amazed at the way that these aren’t just ponies, but they are true athletes. She continually praised their unique talent and intelligence, saying over and over that they are “smart, brave……they just get it.”
As my conversation with Mary Bess came to an end, I asked her “What would you say has been your favorite moment with each of the ponies, so far?” She thought about that for a second and then she said, “My moment with Cooper had to be cross-country at Richland at the end of August. I was worried about riding him somewhere that the crowds were actually large enough to be noticeable.” She wasn’t sure if he would be spooky, jittery, or backed-off, but in true pony style, he galloped out of the start box, saw the crowds around the fences, and “he just galloped around as if saying, ‘Hey, look at me!’ He loved the attention. They [the ponies] are such show-offs.” She also mentioned that the day she spent at Karen’s riding Cooper, with Mary Carol and Wynn Norman (the phenomenal breeder of these wonderful ponies) there as well, was a day she’ll never forget. When it came to defining a moment with Coda, Mary Bess got a bit more introspective and she said, “You know, there isn’t just one moment with him. My partnership with Coda is still new enough that we haven’t had that one perfect instant and we’re still getting to know one another. But, every time I ride him, or jump him, or take him cross-country, and I feel him try for me more and more each time; those are the moments that really stand out. It’s been an emotional journey with him – to gain his trust – and every day with him is special.”
The obvious thought on everyone’s mind has to be, “So, what are your plans for the ponies?” When I posed this question to Mary Bess, she said that the only thing that she, and Mary Carol and John, want for them is to let them go as far as they want to, for however long they want to. The day that they aren’t happy, that they aren’t having fun, is the day they come home and do something different. There is no aggressive plan, no ambitious agenda, no pre-defined end result on the horizon. I find that must be a satisfying and rewarding prospect for Mary Bess. Imagine getting the rare opportunity to ride not one, but two amazing ponies, and to get to go out every day and just do it for the love of the sport. What is it they say? If you love what you do, then you will never really work a day in your life? It sounds to me like for everyone involved in the breeding, ownership, and riding of these ponies that they will get to love what they do by doing what they love for a long time to come.
If you enjoyed Holly’s writing, please visit her blog at http://4stargazing.blogspot.com/.
