by Chris Lomon

Hope, Mollie McGeoch discovered, can be a truly extraordinary thing.

As she got closer to the stall, a range of emotions flowed through the young woman in the wheelchair.

“I thought I was done with horses,” McGeoch said. “I honestly believed that.”

And then something most unexpected happened when the bay mare known as Dont U Wanna Stay locked eyes with her.

“The first time I went to the barn to see her, I was still in the chair and wearing a big brace,” McGeoch said. “She put her head in my lap, and I just held her and patted her all over. I knew right then and there I wasn’t done with horses.”

Not by a longshot.

A few months earlier, McGeoch, born in Saint Georges, DE, and now calls Church Hill, MD, home, never would have entertained the thought.

In fact, she would have bristled at the very idea.

And for good reason.

“I was in a serious accident with my riding horse in March,” she said. “It was a 3-year-old who I just bought. I had taken her for a trail ride when I went to get her, and she was fine.

“I found out later on that she had come from a very bad situation. She was okay at first and then just flipped a switch. A week later, she was completely different. She was terrified of everything in an empty arena. The next thing I know, one day, she reared up and backwards.”

The aftermath left McGeoch literally broken.

“I shattered pretty much everything from my knee down on my leg,” she said. “I had two surgeries, and I was in shock trauma going on a little more than two weeks. My surgeons weren’t 100 per cent sure how my procedures were going to pan out. As of right now, I am not planning on having any more surgeries.”

She knows the outcome could have been far worse.

“I find it very surreal because there was a point where I thought I was never going to walk again,” she said. “It kind of flashes back. One wrong move and it could have killed me. She landed right on top of me and if it were a couple of inches difference, it could have ended way differently.”

The horse community, including many from Ocean Downs, and others outside of the harness racing world, reached out to McGeoch as soon as news of the accident made its way through the backstretch.

She is grateful for the outpouring of support.

“I have a great support system, who have been with me through everything,” she said. “I would not have been able to do it without them. It has been hard, but things are getting better.”

Finding her way back to horses has been a complicated journey.

The accident prompted McGeoch to contemplate her future with them.

“I started riding when I was 2 and it grew from there,” she said. “I rode a horse once and I knew what I wanted to do. That comes through my mom, who rode horses her whole life. She got me my first horse.

“This accident made me rethink everything. I had fallen a lot before, but never to this extent. I was a little wary of horses after it happened.”

But then, in her words, a miracle happened.

It started through someone in her inner circle.

“When I started working as a groom for trainer Eddie Dennis three years ago, I met [trainer/owner] John Dixon, who became my adopted grandfather,” McGeoch said. “We have become very close. He bought a horse for us, something for the two of us to look forward to.”

Dixon found the horse, Dont U Wanna Stay, through onGait, the first online selling and auction website dedicated to the standardbred industry.

The price was right, but most importantly for Dixon, it was a way to help his “granddaughter” heal.

“She had never been on a half-mile track before, so we didn’t know what to expect,” McGeoch said. “Between the time of my surgery and this horse — I call her ‘Hope’ because that is what she gives me every single day — I was very down and didn’t have much to look forward to. But now I did.”

Two weeks after a May 14 qualifier at Rosecroft Raceway, the 4-year-old daughter of Stay Hungry went postward at Ocean Downs in the 11th race, a dash that had drawn eight hopefuls.

Sent on her way at 5-1, fourth choice on the tote board, Dont U Wanna Stay, with Russell Foster in the race bike, won by a length in 1:57.1.

One week later, again at Ocean Downs, the Hanover Shoe Farms-bred miss was back in the winner’s circle after a six-length romp in a career-best 1:56.

“She treated us so well with so many great races over the summer,” McGeoch said. “Everybody will tell me that she did it for me.”

McGeoch did something because of Don’t U Wanna Stay.

“I am working towards my trainer’s license — I passed the written test and will take the practical part of the trainer’s license soon — because of her,” McGeoch said. “I thought being a groom would be enough for me. When this life-changing situation happened, I realized I wanted to step up and do more.

“In the short term, I want to get my full trainer’s license, keep racing Hope and get another horse. Down the line, I would love to have a small stable for myself and do what I love every day.”

In between her studies, McGeoch does physical therapy twice a week.

The setbacks she faced early on in her road to recovery have lessened over time.

Her love for horses has grown exponentially since the accident.

“I am working hard to get back,” she said. “I have tried not to let it get to me as it once did. I still have bad days, but I realize there is a light at the end of the tunnel.”

The brightest being Dont U Wanna Stay.

“If it wasn’t for my horse or my support group, I would still be lying in bed, and not wanting to get better,” she said.

McGeoch doesn’t have to worry about either going away any time soon.

It is one of several thoughts that occupy her mind when she is at the racetrack each morning.

Not as a spectator, but as a horsewoman.

“I can jog Hope now,” McGeoch said. “She takes care of me, and I take care of her. She is the best racehorse I ever could have. Six months ago, I never could have been here. I am very lucky that I am feeling the way I am.

“I have learned not to take anything for granted after what happened. It was very traumatic. I never thought I would be able to walk around the barn, let alone get behind a horse in a jog cart.”

The tears she once cried have been replaced by a smile she felt at times would never return.

McGeoch, who also endured the heartbreak of losing her childhood horse this January, often finds herself thinking about the first time she met Dont U Wanna Stay.

“I thought I was done with horses,” McGeoch said. “When I saw this horse, I knew she was the one. We were the first and only bidder on her. It started from there. It’s been a miracle.”

Accompanied by determination, resolve, and, of course, a lot of hope.

“It has been a very rough year, but it’s turning out to be one of my favorite ones,” she said.