Please hold your Applause

Applause (AKA Rocket Launcher) April 27, 1976 to March 4, 2001

Applause did not win any great title. He did not win a high prized race. Applause was a vaulting horse with a heart big enough for a whole team.

Applause did not start out a vaulting horse. He was born in Maryland, with a brother that competed in the Korean Olympic games. He was expected to follow those hoof prints in the eventing world. At 4 he started training in dressage and in the years that followed, he had numerous owners and trainers and traveled all over the country. Then 13 years ago he became mine.

It was the first week in February, my junior year in high school, when I came home to find my mother talking with someone on the phone. She, my father, and my vaulting coach, Merry Cole, had arranged for me to go look at a horse. The owner, a friend of Merry's, could no longer keep the horse, and wanted to find him a good home. After school my mom and I drove to see him. I was swept away by this big bay gelding with warm, curious eyes and huge fuzzy ears. He was the most amazing animal I had ever seen. On Feb 13, I got the best Valentine's present of my life.

Applause was working at level four in dressage when I got him, and I had know idea what that meant. I got books on dressage and starting figuring out what cool things he could do. I soon gave up, and Applause and I stuck to racing along the ditch banks, leaping over bushes and having a fun time. It was during one of these adventurous rides that my friend Anna Schulte (who got me starting in vaulting) and I thought about trying to vault on Applause. At that time, I had never seen a thoroughbred used as a vaulting horse, but why not? He was big and lunged, and was unflappable to antics I would perform on his back. We had a clinic with Nina Wiger soon after, so we took Applause. He did really well, except he would always stop when someone tried to mount.

I continued to vault on Applause in my backyard for extra practice. My dad, who had never lunged before, became my lunger. After my senior year, I injured my knee and was out of vaulting. It was a couple of months before I could even ride again, but Applause and I were rampaging the countryside by fall. I tried jumping him for awhile that year, but neither of us really liked showing. It was then that I realized I could start my own vaulting team. Applause and I started the Acorn Vaulters with a couple of kids that I had coached years before.

Applause loved the kids and soon would canter even while they were mounting. He went to his first competition only one month after the team was started. He raced a bit, but loved it. He was energetic and seemed to reflect the crowd's enthusiasm. He would get into the beat of music and did not really need a lunger. Applause became the staple of the team; most of my vaulters just wanted to hang around with Applause. They would fight over who would get to walk him or groom him.

One season he was barefoot, and developed a stone bruise right before the regional competition. When I took him in the ring, he was sound, so my vaulters started to vault on him. He went great, until a vaulter he had never met tried to vault on him. He went lame the minute she tried to mount. Applause would do anything for his kids, even be sound on a sore foot. That was just how he was. Once he knew you, he would do anything for you. Over the next several years, Applause continued to love vaulting, especially the vaulters. He would bond with the kids, each one in a different way and would never let them down.

Applause did have a small evil streak. On my first date with my now-husband, Paul, we decided to go riding. Paul was not a rider, but since he is over 6 feet tall, I put him on sweet Applause, while I rode my shorter grey mare. Well, at the first chance Applause had, with ears perked forward, he took off at a full speed gallop. When I finally got close enough to them, I gave Applause the stop command and he obeyed, but not before displaying a perfect turn on his haunches and dumping poor Paul on the ground. Paul was fine, but this was not exactly his idea of John Wayne riding off into the sunset. I rode Applause home, and he pranced merrily the whole way. I think he wanted to show me who was the better man.

Applause was our only vaulting horse until, at 21, he pulled his flexure tendon. We gave him 6 months off and sadly started looking for a new horse. After the 6 months we starting using him from time to time, but he was not as young as he once was, and soon after I decided to retire him. Applause spent most of his days getting fat, living with my parents and being loved by Rachel, one of my older vaulters who lived near by. The team did not have much luck in finding a horse that was as good as Applause or even half as good, so Applause kept getting pulled out of retirement. He would do it. He would do whatever I asked without a second thought. Finally, last spring Applause competed in his last event. He carried 3 bronze vaulters, sound, happy, and enjoying every minute of it, but he was exhausted by the end. After that event, our new horse seemed ready to take over and Applause moved back to my parent's house for a true retirement.

That was less then a year ago. Applause died March 4 while walking with my dad. He was a horse that loved life and never lost the youngster within. I don't think anyone that knew him will ever forget him, especially his girls; his vaulters.