What once held tobacco is now the home of two world grand champion speed racking horses.
Earl and Susie Wright moved to Rose Hill last summer from Eolia, Ky., with their two horses, Stroker's Power House, and Skip's Fancy Pants. Both horses are registered with the Racking Horse Breeders & Exhibitors Association (RHBAA) and the United Racking Horse Owners & Exhibitors Association (URHOEA).
Training and showing their horses is a labor of love for the Wrights. They have shown all over the South: Florida, Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky and North Carolina. But there is more to this story than just horse shows and blue ribbon honors.
Skip's Fancy Pants, known as “Pants” or “Fanny” around the barn, is a coming 13-year-old Standardbred mare. She was purchased in June of 1999, as a trail horse. However, once Susie began riding her, she realized she had the potential to be a champion.
Susie has had horses all her life. She worked a steady job until she injured her shoulder and was disabled by rheumatoid arthritis. The arthritis is so bad that she has to take chemo shots on a regular basis. Along with these physical obstacles, she also suffers from fibromyalgia and diabetes.
While some people would just succumb to the disabilities at hand, Susie refuses to let them get in her way. On some days, she says it's all she can do to walk to the barn but her love and passion for her horses gives her the inspiration to push on.
“Just being with my horses, it's something I love and it's a major part of my life - they are therapy for the soul,” she said. “If I didn't have them, I would be done for. My grandma had rheumatoid arthritis really bad and she gave up and sat in a chair for the rest of her life and watched TV. I can't do that. Life is too good not to live it to its fullest.”
When she rides, she has to wear braces so she can hold her reins. Without them, she wouldn't be able to. Her husband Earl, who is retired, does most of the heavy work and helps her quite a bit both at home and at the shows.
And while some may be satisfied just to be able to ride, Susie pushes herself further by being competitive in the show ring.
“For me, it's the thrill of the ride, to be one with your horse and to be in a ring with 10,000 screaming fans, knowing they there to watch you ride - it's just a feeling I can't describe,” she said.
Even though the couple saves up for months to be able to show at their favorite places, they still donate their winnings back to events that benefit charities such as the Shrinners.
“I guess you could say we are poor country folk playing a rich man's game,” she said. “We pinch pennies a lot just to be able to show. We do it because we love it. Just like this barn, you know, it's nothing fancy, just an old tobacco barn that we made into a horse barn but it's still cozy and dry for the horses.”
Susie competes in a division known as speed racking, or speed classes. In these classes, horses perform three distinct gaits with speed, style, and form. These classes are hugely popular all over the south and have proved to be the biggest crowd pleasers. Horses reach breathtaking speeds and seem to float on air around the ring.
Susie and Pants have made a name for themselves both inside and outside the show ring. Starting in 2000, the two headed to the RHBAA Spring Celebration, in Decatur, Ala., where she placed an impressive third behind two other world grand champion speed racking horses.
Later that same year, Susie and Pants continued their show ring dominance and achieved the high honor of being named the 2000 RHBAA Reserve World Champion Speed.
Known for wearing a red, sparkling show coat, Susie can be spotted easily in the ring. Pants has commonly been compared to a motorcycle, because at the fastest gait in the ring, the pair lean low in the turns. The crowd screams with delight and amazement as the two seem to be flying.
Since that first ride in the big oval, the pair has earned quite a few championships and over 50 blue ribbons.
Pants is the only horse to win three world grand championships with three different associations in the speed division. Also under the list of achievements are four reserve world grand championships, three reserve world championships and several state and high point awards.
In 2005, Skip's Fancy Pants became the first speed racking champion at the Gulf Coast Charity show, a largely popular Tennessee Walking horse show that takes place each year in Panama City, Fla. She impressed the crowd with her speed, style and grace.
Pants has graced magazine covers such as Heste Sport in Norway, Hastfynd in Sweden, and just recently, she was featured in the Gaited Horse magazine.
Pants is not restricted to just printed material - she has been featured on Animal Planet's Funniest Animals, showing her silly personality.
Not only has pants been a successful show horse but is also a true trail horse. Susie and Pants have logged over 2000 hours for the Rack Across America Program. Susie says one of the best ways to make get her mare in shape for the ring is to trail ride the mountains.
Skip's Fancy Pants has fully earned the right to be called the “Queen of Speed” by her fans and has been called the official Speed Racking Ambassador for the URHOEA by winning more than half of her blues with that association.
Now, with age, Pants herself is starting to get a little taste of arthritis. Susie feels it's time to say farewell to the show ring. Her last show will be the 2006 Land O' Sky show in July at the Ag Center in Asheville, N.C., in which Susie will make her final ride and hang up the red coat she is so famous for.
But Susie has another horse she has high hopes for - Stroker's Power House, known as Stroker around the barn. The coming five-year-old stallion has already earned one state championship and a world championship.
Susie and Earl both trail ride and enjoy their horses. Susie says as long as she can still go, she will be riding and spending time with her horses.
“I thank God every day that I can get up and walk and as long as he still allows me to, I'll keep riding,” she says.
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