Wilmington, Ohio – This week’s Wilmington Sunday Spotlight shines on Claire Mullally of Kalamazoo, Michigan. The hard-working junior rider trains out of Team Rakowsky year-round, and meets up with the team at Just A Folly Farm to show at World Equestrian Center – Wilmington (WEC) seasonally. When she is not behind-the-scenes doing the barn work, Mullally can be found in both the hunter and jumper ring with her top three mounts, Family Affaire, Counselor, and Gio W-Z. We caught up with Mullally to learn more about her journey in the sport, her horses and her experience at WEC – Wilmington.
WEC: How did you get started riding?
My mom has ridden since she was in middle school and she has had project horses forever. So, when I was growing up, she always had a bunch of new horses that were coming in. They were usually green. Fancy, but green. We rode with a local trainer at home in Michigan for a lot of years and I got my first small pony with her. We still have him and he is leased out in Michigan.
We moved to Seattle when I was 11 and that was when I became more serious in the sport. That was when I started traveling during the winter. It has really grown from there. Our horses lived in our backyard in Seattle, so we’re very used to doing a lot of managing in the barn. I enjoy it. I definitely enjoy competing, but I think I like the animals more. You have to like both. If you’re only doing it because you want to win, at least for someone like me, it’s not going to last very long!
We train with Jacob Pope primarily, and then we keep our horses at a smaller boutique facility in Michigan. Jacob is so accommodating, and the horses ship to Florida in December. We are there with him all winter and then in the summer we will come home. We meet up with Melissa Donnelly of Just A Folly Farm whenever we want to come and enjoy WEC for everything that it is, and she is so great and accommodating!
WEC: Tell us about your top three horses.
Henry, aka Family Affaire, is coming nine this year. We call him chicken nugget in the barn. He did the 3’3 all of last year. We bought him a year ago and he did the seven-year-old’s all of the previous year as a jumper. So, he moved up to the 3’6 in December here and has been doing that ever since.
Counselor, aka Froyo in the barn, we have had for six years. He’s kind of a family pet! He is my mom’s number one child. As long as nothing happens or Froyo, everything will be fine! He’s wonderful. He did international derbies for a couple years with our trainer in Seattle. My mom did him in the 3’ and everyone always jokes like when she’s riding him and asks me if I am getting my horse back. We share him! He has a forever home with us. He’s perfect.
Gio is Gio W-Z. He has done everything. He did the 1.60m for a while and jumped to the six bar at Spruce Meadows for a couple years. There’s a lot of cool videos on ClipMyHorse that’s for sure! I got him after Junior Hunter finals this past summer. So I will have had him a year in July. We do the Low Junior Jumpers right now. He won the classic the last week at WEF while we were there, which was great. He’s amazing. He has some spice!
WEC: Tell us about your experience at WEC – Wilmington.
I think the biggest thing I appreciate about WEC is that everyone’s very accommodating. And I love Padraic. He does a great job, trying to manage everything at the hunter ring. I appreciate how clear the schedule is. The prize money is amazing. If you’re consistent and you do well, you can pay your bill which for a lot of people, especially a young professional is a huge deal. I don’t feel like people talk about that enough. I don’t plan on going professional, but if I did, this is where I would do it because you can support yourself here. It’s a big deal.
The facilities are beautiful. I love vendor village. There are amazing vendors, and the rings are beautiful, and the jumps are beautiful. There’s always something new to look at. My horses actually look at the jumps. I love showing at other places, but by the end of the circuits my horses are having rails because nothing has changed. So, I really appreciate the changes of scenery here.
WEC: What is your favorite riding accomplishment?
Froyo was third in the 3’3 youngers at Junior Hunter Finals last year. I had not shown him all winter for various reasons, and then I did one weekend and the 3’3 prior to Junior Hunter Finals. I was so nervous on the way to the first jump, not because of him, he’s the most angelic creature in the entire world. But, it was definitely intimidating. Having ridden him one week before a couple of times, I was nervous.
WEC: What are your main riding goals for 2024?
I would like to do I want to take all three of them indoors this year, if plausible, obviously. So, I’m hoping that I can do the 1.30s in the summer and then keep doing the low classes for points. Mainly, I am aiming for consistency. It’s easy to feel behind if you’re moving up to the 3’6 late. So, I think consistency is my biggest goal especially with a green horse like Henry who hasn’t jumped that big, and Froyo hasn’t shown consistently in 3’6.
WEC: Tell us about managing all of your own barn work and your school schedule.
I do in person school, which I think adds a bit of a complexity. It is easier in the summer when I am home, but we send my school a preliminary schedule before the winter. I meet with all of my teachers individually to go through our work and any questions or concerns. In the effort to ride on an NCAA Division I team, we worked through the support that I needed and it all works out well!
I definitely have more help when I’m in Florida, but honestly, I grew up doing it myself. I really enjoy coming back to the barn. I feel like it’s easier to know your horses and be more in tune with them. It’s hard to teach people how to do all of the care correctly and it’s a dying art. You learn so much more from doing the barn work than you do from anything else.
Thank you, Claire, for taking the time to speak with us! We wish you continued success with your horses!