Rusty’s reputation goes before her! Outspoken; to the point; no messing! It was therefore with some trepidation that I met her for the first time. She, of anyone would sniff out pretty quickly that my background about racehorses and racing was limited. Would this knowledgeable person who is steeped in racing tolerate having yet another body cluttering up the very busy office at Wynbury?
A nod of her head acknowledged me and a steely expression ensued whilst I talked to other staff members, hardly auspicious beginnings. However, over the weeks when I visited the yard there were points when the office was empty and we began to talk. Yes, there are strong opinions, but sound reasons for them; yet there is almost a shyness and certainly a reticence to get her talking about herself. That I sense is based upon having strict boundaries around her private life. As with all the members of staff I have talked to at Wynbury I felt privileged to be able to listen to her racing story and to write about it.
Rusty was born in Bellerby some 42 years ago. She states there was no one horsey in her family and ‘they broke the mould when they made her’! At a very young age she recalls reading a particular book with her mother where they would always have to return to the picture of the horse! And that was really the start of it. By four years old she had her first pony, a skewbald called Pinto, who was a veteran of about 19 years of age. Her uncle used to live for the hours he spent leading Rusty around on the pony. Everything in her life centred on the pony. But by 11 years of age she had outgrown him so he went on to be a schoolmaster to another child.
So into the unknown, with Queen Tammy, purchased at Leyburn Auction Mart. Rusty summed up this time in the words, “I knew nothing, she knew nothing”. It transpired that QT was only two years old but had been backed and mouthed. Threats from her father that, unless she learned to ride her, she would be sold worked wonders and within a short space of time they were winning prizes at the local shows. School was of little interest where the only subject she really warmed to was English. So, escape from school came with her going off hunting and begging her mother to write notes to explain her absence to the school! She applied to an advert for weekend work with horses, but it was some distance away. Another girl had applied too and it resulted in them meeting on their horses early in the morning; riding to share the work and then riding miles home again.
Rusty left school at 16. Her passion for horses led to finding work as a hunt groom down south, but her domestic situation changed and a chance meeting with Carol Weymes led to a job with Ernie Weymess at Ashgill. A man she says was a great horseman and brilliant with yearlings. They would have “mouths like silk”. At Ernie’s there were 40 horse to care for and Rusty was at the bottom of the food chain. Mucking out 15 or 16 horses and then running up the moor to see if you could be given the chance to ride one of the horses back from exercise. If you did not get up far enough you did not get a ride back! Everything had to be earned in the way that you had to prove your ability to do each stage of the work. The excitement at achieving joining the string to take a horse out for exercise was clearly remembered. Having hands rapped for not, on return from exercise, having black marks across the knuckles where the hands holding the reins should have been pressed into the horses neck.
6years on and she moved to George Moore’s yard with. 80 horses and 40 – 50 winners each year and approximately 15 staff. One of his owners Joan Jordan got Rusty into driving a 4 stall Mercedes box which led to work as travelling head lass for a trainer in Malton, Steve Muldoon – whose dad Pat owned Sea Pigeon.
Her time there sounded like a Marx Brothers film. She was driving a “knackered” box, devoid of oil, with no power steering and a limited number of gears; no co-pilot and a ramp that was so heavy that on one occasion, trapped her underneath it. Her main memory of the yard was the trainer with a torch in his hand asking her, to get her crash hat, in the yard in the dark to get on a horse that had just come from the sales. The head lad coming to enquire what was happening was told it was a means of getting the horse used to night racing! Well as her recollections would indicate things did not last and Muldoon disappeared into the night. Owners had to be contacted and horses moved.
Two of those horses met up with Rusty when she found work near home with Alan Harrison who had started training at Arundel House. One of them, High Flying was a first ever winner for Alan Harrison. A year later the offer of work as an assistant trainer for Joan Jordan was too good to miss. A success there was a horse called Marlingford who won the Tote Sport Trophy at Newbury. A £20,000 race by a horse which Rusty had picked out and had cost £4,000 at the sales. Rusty returned to George Moore’s to drive the box and rejoin High Flying who had come to his stables. There were many winners that she transported and took care of at the races such as High Altitude and yet again, High Flying who won the Northumberland Plate.
A change of direction happened when she was offered work with Deirdre Johnson’s eventers. A rare opportunity to have a job where she could advance her riding skills by having riding lessons paid for by the owner. But a day at the races, The Scottish National, made her realize she had to go back into racing in some way or another. Whilst working for Deirdre she met up again with Mark Beecroft who had come to assess some NVQ students. Rusty, initially rather skeptical about the NVQs, was told by Mark to, ‘ put your money where your mouth is’ and she did her NVQ 2 and was the first student to do the NVQ3 which led to her working for almost four years as an instructor at the Northern racing college in Doncaster.
Work at the school in the week and keeping up her riding skills by riding out at Ferdy Murphy’s at the weekend. Sale of horses from NRC led to a horse called Quick Ascent being purchased by the owners of High Flying purchasing him and then placed him at Ferdy’s. Rusty moved closer to Ferdy’s when offered work with Rosie Etherington the jewellery designer. She rode out in the mornings and acted as Rosie’s PA, attended trade shows until foot and mouth stopped the shows. At around the same time Ferdy was in need of a secretary so Rusty took up the challenge. Her wish to work for herself came true when 6 months later she took over from Paul Murphy, who had been doing transporting and was going to Australia and his client, David Barker had lost a wagon. Rusty’s father helped her to purchase her 1st two stall box in July 2003. Rusty took the job of taking a winner, Celtic Mill to Hamilton. Ferdy was short of an accounts clerk and this was work Rusty could fit in between driving work. So the girl who hated school took to this work like a duck to water and has been there ever since.
When I talked about her riding memories Rusty tells a lovely story of the owners of High Flying asking her to ride him in the Queen Mother Cup at York, before he retired and riding Good Team at Perth in a hurdle race. The instructions for the latter were ‘just sit and let him do it’. Into the third last and she was sat in second; her elation was short lived as her legs started to go to jelly and she was overtaken and arrived past the winning post exhausted! Now, Rusty is more than pretty fit so this just gives one some inkling of how fit jump jockeys really are.
Her memories of horses she has known are numerous and show a deep care and affection for them and a fear that others will see her being “too attached” to them and "soft". She recalled Radical Lady from George Moore's yard who ran in the National the year Party Politics won. She could hardly bear to watch only concerned that the horse came home safely which fortunately he did. She is visibly moved when she talks of the terrible day when French Holly was killed in a freak schooling accident. He is buried out in the fields at Wynbury. There were many commiserations from the public and she particularly remembered a man who rang to express sympathy and sent flowers. This emphasized to me the extreme heights and depths of emotion that come with most sports but with racing you have the added factor, the horse. Those beasts drawing tears from the hardest of men at such times as Rusty described.
Well, where does she see things in 5 years time? Now she has a man in her life. Ryan, full name Maska Pony by Celtic Swing out of Clotted Cream with Detroit City there in the background. He is a gorgeous grey who she dreams will be winning the Cheltenham Gold Cup. In partnership with Ferdy he is now in training so watch this space.