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Q: Do you have a nickname and, if so, what is it and how did it come about? A: My dad always called me Katydid, and I’m not even sure why.
Q: What is the strangest personality quirk you have ever seen in a horse? A: I’ve had a couple in my life that are escape artists. They could get out of jail. It’s weird how they could get out of places you’d think they couldn’t. Anywhere you put them just about, they’d figure it out. Horses are a lot like people. There’s some you like better than others because of their personalities, and they all have a different one.
Q: If you were not in the horse racing business, what job would you like to have?
A: Being a motivational speaker if I had a speaking voice. I’d have to go train somewhere. Or a singer or an artist. And I can’t do any of the three. I’ve dabbled around with some painting.
I love it, and I couldn’t sing a note. My poor husband and my best friend from high school are the only two who let me sing in the car even, but those three things would make me happy, I think.
Q: What is your favorite thing about living where you live?
A: We have 30 acres and we can close the
gate up front. When we first moved here 22 years ago, there was cow poop on the porch.
I planted a park on the west side of our house and the trees are over 50 feet tall, some of them, now. It’s kind of our own little paradise. It’s not gorgeous, fantastic, but it’s ours.
Q: What drink would your friends describe you as, and why?
A: Some crazy wine name. At my age, my friends say, “How about a glass of wine? A glass of wine will help.”
Q: Who’s your favorite athlete of all time, and why?
A: Zenyatta or Rachel Alexandra would be a couple of my hero athletes. because they are so amazing. Two Thoroughbred females and they brought so many people back to racing. And they helped women out. And, of course, my horses.
Q: If you could vacation anywhere on the planet, where would it be & what would you do there?
A: I’m a mountain girl. My family had 200 acres above Ouray, Colorado. I guess since beforeIwasborn.Ithadamineonit.Asa kid, I rode back in the mine in the ore cars with the hard hats with my dad. I would go anywhere with him. It was dark and noisy and kind of scary. When I was even smaller, I went down in a straight shaft in Torrero, New Mexico, around Santa Fe. My brother and his wife had a coffee shop there for years. This past year we went down to Port Aransas. Our daughter had a rental property. I’ve been to Turkey and Greece with my mother and those were wonderful.
Q: If you were making a movie about yourself, who would you cast to play you, and why?
A: Somebody pretty feisty. Probably Shirley MacLaine. She’s pretty feisty.
Q: What’s one thing you don’t like about Quarter Horse racing?
A: I would really like if they ran as three year olds instead of two year olds. Start them as three year olds. I think that causes a lot of problems in our whole industry. I don’t see that happening because of the money that it takes. Then they really are at the age where they’ve bloomed and grown and everything is solid.
Q: What’s one thing you like about Paint Horse racing?
A: When you have a Paint, it’s like Christmas morning. You never know what you’re going to get. It’s like opening up a package and you just have no idea. The fun of raising them as babies and watching them play here at our place and play together and run. Anything can happen in any race. It’s the excitement and I guess the legacy that we have built with Livewire and his foals. As my husband says, ‘It’s the highest high and the lowest low.’ If you’re driving five hours home and you won, it takes an hour. If you lose? Long drive.
Leading Paint sire/2-time World Champion CRM Livewire, sire of nearly $1 million in 2019.
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THE LIGHTER SIDE