News: Articles: Luck

An Amateur Point of View

That intangible asset called luck — and how to get it.
by Russ Vento

Okay, we all know that the best way to have good luck in the show ring is to work hard, ride a good horse and keep your confidence up. But I won’t turn down anything legal that can help my ride, and that’s why I’m addressing the subject of good luck charms.

My oddest good luck charm was a little, fat, gold pig. It was like one of those rubbing stones and it was about an inch square. Natalie Jones and Gail Deuel, the previous owners of Monrovia, loaned it to me the first time Monrovia and I competed at Scottsdale. Natalie had won several unanimous national championships with it, and it did its job for me. We won.

Later that year, at Canadian Nationals, I was getting a little stressed out, so I found Natalie and said, “Natalie, I need the pig! I need the pig!” And she replied, “Russ, it only works one time with each horse.” Talk about a letdown! But Monrovia and I buckled down and got the first of our national championships.

These little good luck charms are the untold story of the show ring. All kinds of people have them. Although big-name professional trainers aren’t going to advertise that they have their own good luck charms or rituals, they too practice whatever lends that extra bit of confidence or dispels that added tension. They just don’t go around admitting that they carry a fat gold pig in their pocket, or take the exact same route to the show ring they used the last time they won a big championship.

Good luck tokens take many different forms. I replaced the pig with a tie pin, and every time I won a national championship, I had it on. Bob has won many national titles with it, Marla Ruscitto had it on when she and Hucklebey Berry won their national championship, and both of my kids have gone national champion with it. It’s one powerful pin—a little gold Bennett horse head with a blue sapphire.

Not every charm is quite so fancy, but that’s not important. If something works, you don’t slap fate in the face. Several years ago, one guy won nearly every amateur title there was to win, and the story went that he had a pair of lucky purple socks. That’s not surprising; clothing is often “lucky.” What made his socks unique (a polite term in this case) was that he never washed them. He just wore them, year after year, at the Nationals and he won. And won and won.

Somewhat on the prettier side, some women riders swear by my buns (no pun intended—I do the hair for a lot of very good riders). I remember that for one, I put a sprig of baby’s breath in her hair at the Oklahoma Centennial, and she won so convincingly that she used baby’s breath for the whole year and won her national championship.

Sometimes doing the buns has worked out better for the ladies than for me. Once I was in the warm-up ring, getting ready for a class, when a lady whose hair I often did arrived late. She was riding a knockout horse (eventually they went on to win the Triple Crown), so I jumped down and arranged her bun. We both went into the ring—and she won. I was reserve.

Truthfully, I guess I don’t really believe in good luck charms. Well, not in bestowing a sort of power in themselves. But I do believe in anything that helps us for that moment when we are most nervous. If something takes a little of the pressure off us, because we for some reason believe in it, why not use it? That little extra bit of confidence might be all it takes. Of course, just in the interest of sanity, it helps to be aware that good luck charms, rituals, superstitions—what have you—don’t always work, and cannot be substituted for ability.

Here are a few stories from our barn and others that demonstrate both sides of the luck issue. One of the best examples is the case of the yellow shirts. A competitor I know thought yellow shirts meant bad luck, and she wouldn’t allow her husband to wear one when she was showing. At one competition, when her husband was in the ring, she was reassured by the fact that Bob, who was also in the class, had on a yellow shirt. The theory was that the shirt would keep Bob from winning. Didn’t work.

Sometimes good luck charms are not quite so quirky. For instance, many halter trainers swear by specific halters; after one horse wins a national championship in a particular halter, they’ll recycle the halter for other horses, and often add more titles. It might, of course, have something to do with the caliber of the horses and how good a trainer is, but it’s always nice to have that added little boost and bit of tradition. Bob has the bridle Gai Argosy won all of his national titles in. Years later, he put it on Magalad, and Magalad won his championships in it too.

I can remember one four-wheeled buggy we had which we paid more for than we probably should have, so we were pretty careful about how we used it. We would say, ‘whenever we use it, the horse goes national champion.’ And it worked! We had one horse who had been a perennial bridesmaid, always reserve, for years. We put him in that buggy and the horse went national champion.

Unfortunately, just as there are good luck charms, there are bad luck items or practices as well. One year I had a green riding suit made for Bob for his birthday. Now, I should have known that the thing was cursed when it arrived in my size, but I persevered, and sent it back to be fitted for Bob. The first time he wore it, he clearly won his class—and got the gate. Every time he wore that suit, he failed to win his class. We got sense and I sold the suit, and the person who bought it also watched his record take a dive. I don’t know whatever happened to it, but if someone was smart, they burned it.

Another rather historic instance of bad luck comes to mind when I think back to the 1970s and the outstanding *Bask son, Fire Wind. He was practically an odds-on favorite to win the title of U.S. National Champion Stallion one year. Then one evening before the show, his owner, Barbara Spring, and trainer, Bruce Howard, went out to dinner. And Barbara, who was pretty superstitious, said, “Pass the salt.” Innocuous words, right? Bruce passed the salt directly to Barbara. Did not pass go, did not put the salt down for her to then pick up. Well, an old Italian superstition says that that’s a sure road to bad luck. Bruce immediately said, “Oh, my God, he’s not going to win.” And Fire Wind didn’t win. To this day, I’d be willing to bet that Barbara Spring believes that that’s why her very good horse didn’t win the title of National Champion Stallion.

It’s also worth noting that some lucky rituals can be hard to keep up. The first year that Magalad won his national champion title, his number was 122. Bob’s lucky number is 22. The room that he was staying in at the hotel was 222. Every sequence of numbers that year included 22. Fortunately, that only happened at the U.S. Nationals. If we had started the season that way, it would have been a major headache to keep up with all the 2’s.

Strange as it sounds, though, someone did just that. Years ago, Burr Betts, who was president of AHA, had a gelding named Burrtez. Burr’s trainer was Carol Chapman, and this was back in the days when horses showed often and did everything. Burrtez showed in English open and amateur, costume, western, you name it, and at every event, he wore the number 13. He won everything; he was one of the hottest geldings in the country. It’s been 35 years—I was 11 at the time—but I’ve never forgotten it. I asked Carol Chapman about it, and she told me that since it was Burrtez’s lucky number, they asked for it at every show.

There are any number of rituals I’ve observed. Some people refuse to have their classes taped, figuring that having a video will “jinx” their chances. This is fine if it works and they win the class, but an inconvenience if they lose and they need to figure out what they could improve. And then there are many professional trainers who normally don’t smoke, but who will light up one cigarette before a big national championship. Probably the strangest pre-class ritual I know of was an equitation rider whose mother insisted that before a class, she sit quietly with headphones, listening to whale mating calls.

Although I appreciate the benefits of good luck tricks, and understand their limitations, I have to say that when they work, they enrich my memories. The year that I won with the pig at Scottsdale, and then won Canada with the tie pin, Monrovia colicked on the way to the US. Nationals and was unable to show. I was also riding Ames Queen that year; I’d won Scottsdale and Canada with her. But at Louisville, I wanted Monrovia to be part of it all, so when I got on Ames Queen, I wore the shirt and tie that I always wore with Monrovia … and won. In fact, it was at that show that Bob gave me a new diamond ring, which became my good luck charm for Ames Queen. Carol Ruscitto held it for me during Amie’s class.

One of the best memories came at that show when Marla Ruscitto rode Hucklebey Berry in Amateur English 18-39. He is a great horse, and his record in open was very, very hard to follow—he’s the only Arabian stallion to win the open title three times unanimously under a five-judge system. Marla was in her first year of college, and flew in only the night before, which gave her very little practice time. She got through her preliminary class, but it wasn’t the best ride she ever had. By the time she went back in the final, it would be an understatement to say that she was very tense. I remember saying, “Hold on! Hold on! I’ve got it!” It was just the night after Ames Queen’s class; I took off my diamond ring and told her, “Your mother held this when I was national champion, and now she’s going to hold it for you.” And then I gave her my lucky tie pin and said, “You put this on and everything is going to be all right.” And she went in there and rode like she had never ridden in her life. She and Hucklebey Berry gave a phenomenal performance and were named national champions.

That spells what good luck charms are all about. It takes a good horse and a good rider to win, but sometimes we all get nervous. We’re looking for something to help us calm down and focus. A good luck charm helps you relax and give the performance you are capable of.

I close by citing one of my favorite good luck rituals. Every year when we do the advertising for our young riders on the way to Nationals, we make sure that whatever we say has the word “dream” in it. It may be just a good luck thing, but I like it. Because in reality, that’s what this passion for the show ring is all about, and where charms come in. It’s all about realizing a dream.

Russell Vento Jr. has been involved in the Arabian industry for 25 years, and since 1989 has been a partner in Battaglia Farms. He was honored with the APAHA Amateur Horseman Male Award in 2001. To date, he has owned or shown 30 U.S., Canadian and National Show Horse national champions, and he now enjoys watching his daughter Skyler win on many of the horses with whom he was successful. He has been a Large R USAE/AHA judge since 1996.

Related Links:

Show Results
Recent Sales
Articles
Calendar