In October of 2013, GoHorseShow wrote an article about amateur competitor Martha Fabry of Fairchance, Pennsylvania showing again after 33 years. Her mount, old timer, New Lark In Town (Scotty) was one of the reasons she decided to start showing again. This past weekend at an AQHA Show in Centre Hall, Pennsylvania, Scotty showed in his last class and went out in style with four firsts in Select Amateur Trail. Fabry had decided this show was the last one for this 21 year-old “grouch” with a huge heart and talent.
“Scotty is so smart that he seemed to be able to read the trail pattern,” Fabry told us, which may be the case since he has amassed over 2,300 points, most of them in the trail. Scotty also received two AQHA World and Reserve World Championships in the class. “I felt like it was time. He was still sound and looked great and I wanted him to go out on top. Everyone is calling me and congratulating me on his retirement. You would have thought he was actually an employed person with a real job,” says Martha laughing.
Fabry, who hauls with Jim and Linda Becker, threw a retirement party at the show grounds with a huge cake in Scotty’s honor. Photographer Ali Grusha took some great photos. “It was rather an emotional time,” Fabry says. “I’m glad he now is able to rest and have fun–up until this point, his life has been all work. I’m so glad he is able to spend out the rest of his days at my close friend, Lisa Mathew’s farm in Jefferson, Ohio.”
Mathews, who originally told us about Scotty’s retirement, said that she is honored to have this special guy at her farm.”It seems everywhere we go there is someone who knows Scotty. He nickers whenever he sees me because he loves sour patch candy and I always make sure to have some for him. It is a great privilege to able to have him live out his days in our barn. He has a double stall that he can look outside and gets turned out every day. Because of Scotty, Martha and I have become great friends.”
Former owner, Kathy Tobin of Arizona, had some kind words to say about her past teammate. “Scotty was the greatest, but he liked a certain warmup routine. Then, once in the show pen, if you just pointed him at a trail obstacle and then just sat, stayed out of his way and let him figure it out on his own, he’d take you through it cleanly. He gave me more consistently clean goes than any other trail horse I’ve ridden. He started out loving peppermints then switched to loving sour patch candy in his older years. I loved him, may he enjoy his retirement!”
Mabry wanted to specifically thank trainer Patty Vatterott for selling Scotty to her. Vatterott had bought him for her granddaughter. Vatterott wanted to share some memories about the gelding with us.
“The luckiest horse owners sometimes get a chance to have a horse in the barn with so much personality that he commands the attention of everyone around him. Scotty was a horse like that for us. Our resident ‘cranky old man’, he demanded to be taken care of according to his terms only. We quickly realized Scotty knew exactly what he wanted and needed and the easiest plan was to let him have it his way,” Patty revealed.
His daily requirements included but were not limited to very little exercise, lots of food, always have his fan on and of course, an unlimited supply of Sour Patch Kids for snacks. An interesting snack for Scotty as he was a little like his favorite treat–sour at first then sweet on the inside. He always gave one hundred percent in the ring, picking up those big spotted feet and not touching a trail pole even if his rider couldn’t do much to help him. Our family will always be grateful for the opportunity to have Scotty in our barn and for the lessons he taught us. We are better horse owners, trainers and exhibitors for having had him with us.” (pictured above–first day of retirement)
Happy retirement old man!
