BY SCOTT HUNTER HADDOW
Rick Smith lives week to week. One week, Smith will be wearing a tuxedo at the Royal Winter Fair in Toronto rubbing elbows with top names in horse jumping and the next week, he is in overalls mucking out a barn rubbing bottoms with an 1,800 pound horse.
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?I?m glad I am not in an office,? says Rick Smith, whose passionate attention to detail has brought him to top horse shows in California, Florida, Arizona, Vancouver, Halifax and Toronto. |
Smith is a farmer, senior horse jumping course designer, farrier and a jack of all trades.
It?s a life he wouldn?t change for anything else in the world.
?I get to work outdoors all across North America,? said Smith. ?I?m glad I am not stuck in an office.?
Smith, 51, was born and raised in Azilda. He grew up on a farm. His dad owned several horses, and as a youngster, Smith rode Western horses. He went to school in the Chelmsford district and graduated from Chelmsford High School. After school, Smith worked in the construction business for a while.
His love for horses eventually got the best of him and Smith purchased a small farm in his early twenties and started boarding horses on Gordon Lake Road.
When he was 30, Smith and his wife, Cathy, purchased Foothills Farm out in Chelmsford in the 80s. They?ve been operating it ever since.
Along the way, Smith developed a keen interest for building horse jumping courses. In the 1980s, Smith started creating courses for the Pony Club and, then for the Trillium Circuit.
He quickly established a reputation for designing challenging and exciting courses. Soon, Smith was designing courses for the Canadian National horse jumping circuit. Over the years he became certified and, he?s now a senior course designer.
?It?s just part of the horse business and I liked doing it,? said Smith. ?It?s very interesting work because there are so many factors that go into designing a course.?
Developing a course is more than just placing obstacles randomly around a jumping ring.
?Each competition is different in every city,? said Smith. ?You have to look at the ground surface, calibre of horses, footings, spectator stands, heights and distances between jumps among other things. It takes an incredible amount of careful planning.?
Smith has to have thick skin to be in this line of the horse business.
?Horse people are big critics,? said Smith. ?They all let you know in a hurry if a course wasn?t great. One day you?re the best at it and then the next day you?re the worst at it, according to them.?
There?s a great deal of pressure on Smith when a horse show is underway.
?The course will make or break a show,? said Smith. ?Horse exhibitors will look to see who is designing a course at a show and then decide if they will go or not.?
The course has to be designed so some horses make the jumps and some don?t.
?You have to have the right balance,? said Smith. ?You try to build it for all the horses.?
Event organizers invite designers to their shows to create courses. Smith gets his fair share of invites, even though he only designs part time.
?This year I?ve done about 18 shows so far. Full time designers typically do about 30 shows a year,? said Smith. ?Event organizers pick designers based on all their previous work.?
Smith?s passionate attention to detail has brought him to top horse shows in California, Florida, Arizona, Vancouver, Halifax and Toronto. This summer, Smith conceived several Grand Prix shows in Canada.
?It was fun building courses for the top horses in Canada,? said Smith. ?It?s a great job and I get to meet all kinds of people from around the world.?
