Lifestyles: Lacrosse People in Unique Places

Lacrosse Magazine's "Lifestyles" series features people of prominence and human interest who possess ties to the nation's fastest growing sport. These are their stories, as told to Clare Lochary.

Former Temple standout Whitney Richards tends to one of her teammates in her career as a horse trainer. © Ken Weingartner

Whitney Richards was a standout for Temple lacrosse, earning All-American honors and an Atlantic 10 Tournament MVP as a senior in 2008. These days, the former midfielder’s teammates are of the four-legged, equine variety. Richards works as trainer for harness racing, and she recently talked horse sense with LM while dragging the track at her family’s farm in New Jersey.

Can you give us the lowdown on what harness racing is? What kind of horses do you work with?
The breed is called the standard breed. With in that, you have trotters and pacers, which each have a different gait. With trotters, their right front is in sequence with their left hind leg. The pacer is the opposite – the whole right side moves together. Pacer is a man-made gait; the trotter is natural. I have mostly pacers but a few trotters, but they’re babies in training. The horses pull sulkies, which are two-wheeled carts, almost like a chariot. The drivers are actually behind the horse, not on top of the horse like in thoroughbred racing.

How do you get a horse to do the pacer gait?
Over the years it has been bred into them, but it’s never going to be as natural as a trot to them. They wear equipment -- hobbles that go around the legs. The hobbles don’t hurt them – it serves as a guideline to keep their gait as they begin to go fast.

How did you get into racing?
My parents raced so we’ve always had racehorses since I was born. We also have a produce stand and a Christmas tree farm. We do everything to keep the farm running. My mom went to blacksmith school when she was younger. She’s showed me how to do it, but I’m not as good as she is.

Are you working as a trainer full time?
Yes. There’s no time for anything but this.

What’s a typical day at work for you?
I wake up and feed the horses somewhere between 5:30 and 6. While they’re eating, I clean the stalls. And then I usually start with their exercise routines for the day. After that, I put them up, put bandages on their legs if they need it. Usually by that time I might have to leave to race at night if I’m not racing that day. I might mow or tidy up or clean or drag the track. There’s always something to be done on the farm. By then it’s time to feed them again. That’s pretty much my day. I have about 10 training horses and some boarders. That’s a lot for one person.

What’s it like having non-human teammates in the mix?
It makes it a little bit harder. A trainer’s kind of like a coach. You’re choosing what they’re doing every day for their practice, but the only difference is they can’t tell you how they’re feeling verbally. Your girls could tell you, “My legs are super sore” or “My left ankle hurts.” As a trainer, you have to stay aware and use visual cues and know that’s not normal for the horse. You know if a horse isn’t right. If something isn’t the norm, you have to decide what might be causing it.

Is there anything you learned from lacrosse that you can apply to racing?
Discipline. Being self-employed, there’s no one tell me I have to get up, have to clean the stalls, have to do anything. In college, any meeting you were late to for lacrosse, there was a consequence. It’s the same with the horses.