Page 16 - 28 September 2012

the bus, she gave up driving to pursue drawing full time. Jockey life again took its toll, and she and Larry divorced after 18 years.
racinG sidelines
Consumed by racing, early on in the ’60s Ginny had bought a mare and started breeding. She named one colt—by the Go Man Go son Big Man Go— Mymanjon after her first husband, John Kanis.
Through the years, she and her second husband, Larry Harding, also bred some nice horses, and the tradition continues with Ginny and her present husband, Harry MacRoberts, whom she married in 1996. “We have one mare we’re still breeding,” she said.
She and Harry bred Toll Tax Bac (Browns Dasher-Honey Tac, by Tolltac), who was trained by Sleepy Gilbreath. The 2000 gelding was paid into the Triple Crown at Ruidoso but missed
the trials for the All American Futurity due to a spider bite. In spite of the hard luck, Ginny said, “The shareholders had a ball. We all bought jackets and had such a good time!”
Ginny and Harry also bred the 2005 stakes- winning gelding High Win Warning (Dash Thru Traffic-Breathe The Wind, by Tolltac), who holds a race record of 11-5-3-0.
Her racing involvement led her to the Northern Racing Quarter Horse Association, where she started a scholarship fund for youths involved in racing; won the Directors Award in 2006; and now serves as president.
Financial assistance
Through personal experiences when both of her jockey husbands were seriously injured on the track, she launched her Jockey Series of signed trading cards in 2009.
“The Jockey’s Guild has wonderful medical insurance, but you still have to survive while recovering: pay your rent, buy groceries and pay other expenses,” Ginny said.
So to provide financial assistance to injured jockeys, she produces three jockeys’ cards each year, including deceased, active and retired riders. The living jockeys sign their cards,
and the cards are sold during Los Alamitos’ Champion of Champions weekend and Ruidoso’s All American weekend.
The 2011 cards featured riders including Jacky Martin, who was critically injured on the Friday of All American weekend that year.
“Jacky was going to sign his cards at Ruidoso last year,” said Ginny. “He had come and picked up a couple hundred of his so he could sign some ahead of time. When he got hurt, his wife, Tracey, gave the 70 he’d signed to the hospital chaplain for us, and we raised about $5,000
just that weekend for Jacky’s expenses.” At a Montana year-end awards program, a single card sold for $500.
The 2012 series is comprised of 2011 All American-winning jockey Roy Baldillez— who coincidentally rode Ginny and Harry’s gelding Toll Tax Bac; Charlie Smith, who was a champion rider in the 1950s and ’60s; and Bobby Adair, a now-retired leading rider for many years.
“The riders are passionate about it and bend over backwards to sign those cards,” she said.
dear to Her Heart
Ginny is also involved with writer Richard Chamberlain in a book called Distant Thunder. “He’s writing and I’m illustrating,” Ginny said of the project, which they hope will print in
2013. The book will feature many of the great horses and their connections involved in racing over the last four decades, and those connections are purchasing many of the artwork originals to help publish the book.
“We want young people to know the stories of these great horses and people,” Ginny said. “We’ve talked about it for 10 years. We both have the passion for these horses and the project.”
lookinG Forward
Although Larry Harding passed away in March 2012, Ginny and her husband and boys remain close to his family. Together, she and Harry dote on their 13 grandchildren, who love to come over and ride the couple’s elderly mares.
In addition to her many works in progress, Ginny continues to accept consignments, including the All American Futurity
winner and the Los Alamitos Champion of Champions each year. Her artwork has won numerous best in show and people’s choice awards, and she has also won two AQHA Sprint Awards. She continues to illustrate magazine covers, racetrack programs, book covers and rodeo posters.
In preparation for future commissions, she travels to the major races and sales to keep up old friendships and forge new ones, and
to photograph and sketch horses, farms and connections that she can later “draw on” to achieve her signature spot-on portrayals.
“I love meeting people and being around these great horses,” she said. “And when I deliver a picture that I’ve been commissioned to do, and see tears come to the person’s eyes, I can’t tell you what that does.” She then knows that she has captured the horse’s soul.
16 SPEEDHORSE, September 28, 2012
Harding is illustrating the book Distant Thunder in corroboration with writer Richard Chamberlain.
Distant Thunder