After winning the MD Barns Silver Spur award, most winners just go back to their jobs.
They continue helping people, making a difference and just being horses.
Two Steppin Oreo is one of those Silver Spur winners, and he kept on doing his job this week at the Bayer Select World Championship Show.
Mary Bess Woodruff of Inverness, Mississippi, shows “J.R.” in trail, and she was happy to exhibit him in the preliminaries this week in her first year of eligibility along with enjoying the parties and camaraderie that come along with the Bayer Select World.
Although Mary Bess shows J.R. and his papers indicate he belongs to her husband, Garry, J.R. really belongs to Swayze Woodruff, their daughter who died in 1999 at age 16.
Mary Bess says getting on J.R. and showing him has been a freeing experience, but it has also helped her feel closer to her daughter.
“When she was on J.R., she was a normal child,” Mary Bess said. “She was free. She was able to get out there in horsemanship or trail or whatever it might be. She was not different. When I ride him, I feel like she’s helping me and guiding me.”
J.R. and Mary Bess have continued to develop as a team, perhaps intensified by J.R.’s bout with illness.
“He had an ulcer (in his eye) about two years ago,” Mary Bess said. “It ended up being really bad, and he had surgery on it. I had to stay off him for four months, and then, when I started back showing him, he was scared to death when I walked him down the alleyway and across all these poles.
“But after about the fifth or sixth horse show, he started getting better and better. I don’t even notice that he has a vision problem now. They said he lost 30 percent to 50 percent vision in that eye. I guess he had to learn to trust me,” she said.
Mary Bess’ partnership with J.R. means so much to her that she recently wrote it out in the form of a story by J.R.
She gave the Journal permission to print it here.
BY TWO STEPPIN OREO AS TOLD TO MARY BESS WOODRUFF
As we entered the show pen, all was silent except for a vendor’s radio playing “Holes in the Floor of Heaven.” Maybe that was a coincidence, but I feel like it was Swayze’s way of saying, “I’m with you. You can do this.”
The best friend I ever had left my life April 15, 1999, due to cancer. She groomed me and helped me to perform my best. We were a team. We worked hard together and did fun stuff, too. I would even bow if she would give me a piece of peppermint.
Swayze was special, and I knew that sometimes I had to be careful with her. She was sick and sometimes very weak, but she never complained about her pain. At one point, her doctors said she shouldn’t ride, but Swayze needed me. When she was in the saddle, she was perfect. She was invincible.
After I lost Swayze, my life changed, too. I would call for her, but she never would come. Mary Bess and Garry, Swayze’s parents, tried to comfort me. Mary Bess started riding me. At first, it was hard for each of us to adjust, but then I realized I had a real important job. I was going to have to take charge and help Mary Bess.
Two months after I lost Swayze, I went back to the show pen but with a different rider – Swayze’s mama. At first, she mostly just sat up there and cried. I did most of the guiding. That was OK, because that helped me, too. Some of the things Swayze taught me I now had to teach Mary Bess in my own way.
I slowly began to realize that Mary Bess was my connection to Swayze and I was Mary Bess’ connection to her, too. Mary Bess and I had to really learn to trust each other. As months passed, her skills got better, and it made my job easier. Swayze’s mam and I were good for each other. Somehow, we gained strength from each other’s weaknesses.
As a show horse, it is important to perform your best in the show pen. But I have learned a new meaning to the word “winner.” Swayze’s mama was a winner the first time she showed me because it took such courage for her to saddle up. Life isn’t about winning first, but about living and all the lives you touch along the way.
In the year 2000, Mary Bess showed me throughout the South and even in Ohio. People would come up to her that she didn’t even know and tell her how much they admired her courage for showing her daughter’s horse.
In fall 2000, I won the MD Barns Silver Spur award. This award was created by AQHA and MD Barns to honor an American Quarter Horse who has made a significant impact on the lives of others. It was an overwhelming experience in Oklahoma City the night I won. I don’t think there was a dry eye in the coliseum that night. To me, this award is about courage, determination and all the lives you touch. I feel that I am still a show horse, but since I lost Swayze, I feel more like an ambassador for what life is all about.
Swayze’s parents met so many neat people who wanted to help, including Patti Colbert, who at that time worked for the American Quarter Horse Foundation. It was Patti who encouraged Garry and Mary Bess to secure Swayze’s memory with a scholarship through the Foundation. It was the perfect way for us to keep Swayze’s memory alive. With a scholarship, we would be able to help so many other kids achieve their dreams.
As a horse, I want to leave my life knowing that I have taught someone how to love and how to live. But most of all, I want people to know that with the help of horses like me, they can carry on.
To make a contribution to the Swayze Woodruff Scholarship or to any of the scholarships funded through the Foundation, contact Veronica Almanza at (806) 378-5036 or at valmanza@aqha.org.
