Maggie Vessey talks horses
Rising US middle-distance star Maggie Vessey talks to spikesmag.com about how her passion for racehorses helped her become a 1:57 800m runner.
“I have always been into racehorses since I was a kid.
I was just horse crazy as a child.
From the age of about eight my mom used to drop me off at the barn at nine am in the morning during the summer and on a weekend and pick me up again when it was dark. I would be exercising other people’s horses
and I was really into it. I had an ex-racehorse of my own which I also used to ride. I called him Dillon, although his registered racehorse name was Pickwick Papers.
I always had a fascination with speed and I used to ride him as fast as I possibly could.
I used to ride competitively for fun in quite low-grade competitions. There was a big group of us who all trained together
and I definitely would like to involved with horses again once my athletics career was over. I had gave up riding horses because I had to dedicate my time to running and when I went to college I had to sell my horse because I wouldn’t be at home.
I even had ambitions to be a veterinary for racehorses. I got deeper and deeper into chemistry classes at school, but training as a vet is an intensely competitive programme to get into. I was in tutoring classes to try and get my grades up, but it was starting to affect my running.
So I had to make a choice; to commit to running or being a vet and I decided to give track 100 per cent.
Looking back, I think riding horses definitely helped my athletics, particularly in terms of leg strengthening. I also rode English-style with an
English saddle - as opposed to with a Western saddle –
which is a more proper style and improved my posture. A lot of people have commented on my posture (when I run) and riding definitely helped that.”