Page 14 - 28 September 2012

Harding served as “Los Alamitos Queen” in 1968, presenting trophies and representing the racetrack. She is shown here with the great Kaweah Bar when he was just 2.
Her early years
The daughter of a military man, Harding—then Ginny Mayton—spent her early years traveling with her family. “I didn’t grow up on a horse,” she said. “I drew them instead; I pretended.”
Meanwhile, she fed her horse passion during summers at her father’s mother’s farm. “Grandma had a great big old draft mule that
I learned to ride on,” Ginny said. “He did the running walk as smooth as glass. He couldn’t gallop, and I had to get on a ladder to get up on him, but I rode him all the time.”
In high school, Ginny borrowed a horse from a friend to feed her equine fix. And in college, she barrel raced on the rodeo team.
When Ginny’s dad left the military, he worked for Los Angeles Water and Power near Los Alamitos Race Course. After two years of college, Ginny worked for the post office to support her own horse, which she boarded at a dairy across from Los Al. One day in 1966, trainer Sonny Field asked her if she wanted a job, and she went to work as a groom, pony girl and hot-walker.
While at Los Al, she met and married jockey John Kanis, who had come to the United States
from Holland at age 13 and rode for Frank
and Millie Vessels and others. “He was a very talented rider,” said Ginny, who became the first licensed female jockey agent in California. She also handled the jockey books of Jack Robinson, Larry Wright, Jerry Richards, Duane Wells and others.
In 1974 the couple had a son, Jeremiah. “The life of a jockey is very difficult,” Ginny said. “It’s hard on marriages.” And after seven years, her marriage to John ended. But, she said—typical of her optimistic outlook—life is too short for hard feelings, and she’s still very good friends with John and the woman he later married.
During those years, Ginny also served as a
Los Alamitos Queen, presenting trophies in the winner’s circle. She frequently watched the races with Mildred Vessels. “I drew pictures of horses while we watched from Millie’s box,” Ginny said. “One day in the mid-1960s, Millie said, ‘What are you doing here—why aren’t you using that talent?’”
Little did Millie or Ginny know that four decades later, in 2006, Ginny’s artistic success would result in her receiving the Mildred Vessels Award to recognize her achievement in the Quarter Horse racing industry. “Millie would have been proud of that,” Ginny said fondly.
The Los Angeles Times printed a photo of Harding and Frank Vessels Sr. when Vessels turned on the lights at Los Alamitos for the first-ever night racing in the state of California.
“I didn’t grow up on a horse. I drew them instead.”
14 SPEEDHORSE, September 28, 2012
Los Alamitos
Courtesy Ginny Harding