For Harris Tracy, Galloping is What He Does

For Harris Tracy, Galloping is What He Does

Photo © by Vicky Moon

By Leonard Shapiro

They have worked together on and off for forty years. One is a native of suburban Chicago and trained horses in the Middleburg area with great success since 1980. The other grew up attending segregated black schools in Loudoun County in the 1950s and ‘60s and became a fearless rider who still breaks and gallops Thoroughbreds well into his 70s.

Trainer Chris Kolb and his long-time friend and colleague, exercise rider Harris Tracy, meet up just about every very early morning about 5:30 a.m. in Barn 7 at the Middleburg Training Center to do what they’ve loved since childhood. That’s when each first got on a horse and knew virtually right from the start their life’s work would revolve around these elegant animals.

“I liked it right away,” Tracy said, “and I’ve been riding those horses ever since.”Many of those horses.

There have been times, he said, when he would exercise as many as 40 horses in a single day, doing whatever it took to get them ready to race, or hunt, or anything else they might encounter in the equine world.

He’s been employed by some big-time local outfits, as well, including Centennial Farms in Middleburg owned by Don Little, Newstead Farm in Upperville owned by the late Bert Firestone and his wife, Diana, and Gordonsdale in The Plains owned by Lewis Wiley. Tracy and Kolb first began to work together at Gordonsdale.

These days, Tracy is not quite as busy, though he rode 15-18 horses a day at the training center over the winter and now handles about a dozen or so daily. Kolb said Tracy still rides with the skill and panache of a much younger man.

“He’s one of the best I’ve ever seen,” Kolb said. “He’s got a way with breaking and riding horses that you don’t see very often. He’s one of those guys who can get on a horse and it’s like there’s a feather up there. He’s old school. If he sees something in the barn that needs to be done, he jumps right in. You need a hand holding your horse, or washing them down, he’s right there.”

Tracy has never been seriously injured, and this septuagenarian who weighs about 150 pounds on a rock-solid frame, said he has no intention of slowing down any time soon.

“I feel good, and I still enjoy what I’m doing,” he said. “Why stop now?”