Going the Distance Together: Larry’s Dream and Louise Spilsbury
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Over every hurdle they have faced, on their own or together, Larry’s Dream and Louise Spilsbury have always found a way to endure.
For the past 10 years, the Thoroughbred and the longtime equestrian have moved in lockstep, their bond built on love, trust, mutual respect, and an unspoken understanding of one another’s needs.
“I could talk about him for hours,” said Spilsbury. “Being an equestrian is part of my identity, and I haven’t had to give that up yet, which is wonderful. I never really foresaw what my riding career would be like winding down and this is the perfect way. Both Larry and I are very lucky.”
It is an improbable, yet ideal, match.
From Racetrack to Retirement
Over a modest 20-race career, Larry’s Dream, a son of D’Wildcat out of the Pirate’s Bounty mare Tangled Dreams, made one trip to the winner’s circle. That victory came at Fort Erie on October 19, 2008, accompanied by a pair of seconds and thirds and $20,765 in purse earnings.
The Ontario-bred dark bay’s final start came on July 14, 2009, also at Fort Erie.
Soon after, Larry’s Dream was donated by his connections to LongRun Thoroughbred Retirement Society, a respected horse retirement and adoption organization established in 1999. He took up residence at LongRun’s farm in Hillsburgh, Ontario, joining dozens of other former racehorses on the sprawling 100-acre property.
A Horse in Transition
His journey from there was somewhat nomadic.
“The backstory I got was that a man called Mark Greenwood got Larry from LongRun to train as an event horse for his teenage daughter. I am not quite clear on how long they had him – I think it is about four or five years – and I am piecing things together over the years that Mark has shared with me.
“My daughter Meaghan and I were at the barn where we had found our first LongRun horse named Lakefield,” recalled Greenwood, Director of Instruction at Ballantrae Golf & Country Club, in Stouffville, Ontario. “We were looking for a companion for him, and we had an empty stall since our other Thoroughbred, our original and first Thoroughbred named Hollywood Beau was being trained and boarded down the road from us.
“I remember distinctly looking at one horse, turning and seeing this head peeking over the stall door beckoning me. I thought the horse was small. I walked over to see this handsome bay gelding giving me the “please pick me look” and realized the stall he was in was deep and he was actually about 15.3 hands or so. Meaghan immediately felt he was the one, as I did. So, she took him for a quick spin in the arena. She jumped down and said, ‘We better call LongRun – this guy is coming home with us.’ I agreed and was pretty happy he was all we thought he was. Handsome devil. Gentle, smart, but I just knew he was looking for something other than racing. I knew when I laid eyes on him, even before Meaghan rode him, that he was coming home with me. I was happy that Meaghan wanted him as well, but I always felt Larry was my horse.”
When circumstances changed, Greenwood and his daughter had to find Larry a new home. They entrusted him to a young equestrian in her final year of high school, who brought him into her world.
“When this young lady came from Ottawa to the Guelph area, she brought Larry with her,” said Spilsbury. “She had him training as an eventer and had shown at low-level events. Within a year, he had stopped wanting to jump, so she put him up for sale so that she could find a horse more suitable for needs.”
That’s where Spilsbury entered the picture.
The months leading up to bringing Larry into her life were marked by personal challenges.
“I have always had a horse to ride. The horse before Larry went acutely lame from one canter stride to the next and he was diagnosed with a muscle tear. My vet said he would take three months to recover, and I wouldn’t be able to ride him. I was also going in for breast cancer surgery at that time.”
Spilsbury sought the expertise of Dr. Alan Young, an FEI-accredited veterinarian who served as Team Canada’s vet for 23 years at multiple Olympics, World Championships, and Pan Am Games, to assess her horse’s condition.
“Alan came to check on the horse, whose name was Tristan. He had somehow reinjured himself during the three months off. So, Alan said that now Tristan needed a further six months off. This made me decide that the kind of riding I wanted to do would probably be too strenuous for him, so I found him a home.”
The Right Horse at the Right Time
Her riding coach then asked if Spilsbury was interested in looking at another horse to bring into the fold.
At first, she wasn’t sure.
“I eventually decided to see if there was a horse out there. Larry was the second horse we looked at, and he was 12 minutes down the road from us. When I first tried him out before I put an offer in on him, he was so willing to go and never put a foot wrong with me. I wasn’t trying to jump, we were just trotting and cantering and he was lovely. I would take him out into the arena myself and I felt perfectly safe. He was such a good boy.”
After three visits, Spilsbury was convinced.
“I didn’t want to do any jumping with him, so it was a match made in heaven. After I expressed my interest in him and put in an offer, the coach said that he had been listed for a while and there had been no interest. But once I put my offer in on him, she said she started getting all kinds of calls. The others wanted to use him for his jumping ability, so she was very glad that he came to me. It was almost as if it were meant to be.”
Learning Each Other’s Language
Early on, it didn’t seem that way.
Spilsbury soon realized building trust would take time.
“I had never had a Thoroughbred. My first year with Larry was pretty painful because my previous long-term horse, before the one I had who was injured, was a warmblood, a lovely guy. So, it took me a while to figure out how to ride Larry. He would object strenuously at how I rode him in the beginning.”
At times, Larry’s frustration was clear.
“I remember one day, he was reaching around trying to bite my foot. I said to the coach to look at what he was doing and he said that he was biting at a fly or something. I said, ‘No, he is trying to bite my foot.’ The poor guy.
“After I had him home for about a month, he started balking. I think at that point he had gotten over the whole shock and transition. I suspect he was objecting to my style of riding. It wasn’t until I found a new coach, who has a very soft, sensitive approach, where I figured him out. I have never looked back.”
Ten years later, horse and rider are inseparable, having navigated their share of ups and downs.
It was seven years ago when Spilsbury sensed something was wrong.
“In late 2019, he stopped wanting to go forward and to canter. If I was trotting him, he would do it with his nose on the ground, burrowing the ground between his front feet.
“Dr. Young came over, saw him trotting on the lunge for literally 10 seconds, and said that he was lame in both front feet. He recommended skipping the x-rays and going straight for an MRI. It was in February 2020, a month before the pandemic was called, and it was the coldest day of the winter. I trailered him in for the MRI – the place was only about 10 or 15 minutes away – and he was diagnosed with bruising on the wings of the coffin bone on one foot, arthritis in the coffin joint on the other foot and mild navicular syndrome, so he had good reason to not want to go forward.”
Finding the right farrier proved to be a turning point.
“We adjusted his shoeing with pads. He had a habit of pulling shoes, so the blacksmith had to be sure to not extend them too far back. I have a really great blacksmith and Larry is really good now – he doesn’t pull shoes much anymore.”
Finding a New Rhythm
These days, life moves at a slower, but equally fulfilling, pace.
“I haven’t really ridden him for about a year now because he has physical issues and I have my issues, too. Hopefully, we can do some riding this summer, but we are both more or less retired.
“I had a very demanding career. I was a laboratory supervisor and having a horse was always my mental health, my safety valve. I have always gone out to ride my horses three or four days a week. Larry has given me the continuity of having a horse. It’s unfortunate that when you get older, in your mind you are still young, but your body has different ideas.”
Still, their bond remains as strong as ever.
They’ve also found a sense of community at the farm where Larry now resides, about 25 minutes from Spilsbury’s home.
“There are a lot of ladies of my generation, who use the barn for their horses. We have a lot of elderly horses between us. Our barn is not formally a co-op of any kind. The lady who runs it is older, like me, and she pays people to clean the stalls. The turnout and turn-in, especially the turn-in at night, we boarders arrange amongst ourselves to make sure there is at least one of us to bring the horses in. It’s partly a safety thing and partly that more hands make for lighter work.
“Three or four of us are there on a regular basis. It’s a very community-oriented barn. That is partly why I have scaled back on the riding. I am still part of a wonderful community of horse ladies and want to enjoy their horses. Being amongst people like me is so nice and Larry is so happy. The lady who runs the farm prioritizes the health and happiness of the horses in every way.”
Larry, now 21, is exactly where he belongs.
“I go out and see him five days a week. He has a huge paddock to run around and enjoy. He is in a paddock with three other geldings. It’s pretty amusing – they sound like a barbershop quartet. It’s Larry, Jack, Dave and Sunny. I remember one day I went to help put them out. They went out in order, two at a time, and Larry and this little Quarter Horse would go out after the first two, and when we turned them loose, they just galloped as fast as they could to the far end of the field. It’s a big field, so it takes them about 30 seconds. There is Larry, with his long Thoroughbred stride and there is this little Quarter Horse, with his little legs pumping, the two of them side-by-side, just enjoying life. It is so nice to see them do that.”
It’s one of many stories Spilsbury recently shared at a LongRun fundraiser.
“Kathie Wilkinson introduced me to Vicki (Pappas, LongRun co-founder and chairperson) at the Horse Heritage Movie Night & Fundraiser in Erin [Ontario] in April. I had a lovely chat with Vicki, mentioned that Larry had come from Long Run, and was blown away that she remembered Larry from all those years ago.
“I let them know that Larry had come from them, so it was nice to share that with them. I also told them about Mark [Greenwood], who reached out to me after I bought him and asked if I could keep in touch because he was interested in knowing what was happening with him. I was thrilled that someone in his past cared enough about him to want to stay in touch.”
Greenwood simply had to.
“It was important for me to stay in touch with Larry and Louise because I honestly felt he was special and as I said and I felt he was my horse. I also took my responsibility of adopting Larry and Lakefield seriously. I felt an obligation to make sure they were being cared for as I would care for them and of course, I was certainly very attached to Larry. Hard to explain, but I am still attached to him. I think about him frequently. I believe Larry found a great person in Louise and Louise a wonderful horse in Larry. I couldn’t be happier for both of them.”
And Spilsbury could not be happier when she thinks of what lies ahead for her and Larry.
As the old proverb goes: "If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”
A sentiment perfectly embodied by an equestrian and her cherished Thoroughbred.
(For more on Larry’s Dream, visit horselover.life/category/larry/)
Chris Lomon, Woodbine
