Jill Swain's Return to the Ring

Like many amateur riders, Jill Swain, 51, of Ardoise, Hants Co., NS, stepped away from competition when her family was young, and again when she lost her longtime mount, Limerick. A busy medical secretary for over two decades and with her two sons now enrolled in university, Jill is back in the show ring and better than ever.

Jill’s first taste of winning came aboard a Morgan-cross pony, Miss Muffett. A formidable combination in the jumper ring, the team was hard to beat. After outgrowing the pony she had some “hand-me-down horses,” but nothing that really clicked until a shopping trip to New York State found her face-to-face with a five-year-old appendix Quarter Horse named Limerick. “There was just something special I felt with this horse and knew immediately he was the one,” she remembers. “He and I were such a team.” Jill and Limerick won up and down the Maritimes and Quebec, taking home numerous championships and placing top-12 twice in the $100,000 du Maurier World Cup in Halifax between 1988-92.

Limerick jumped in the big classes until he was retired at 21. “My relationship with Limerick was a special one,” Jill explains. “He was known as “the little black horse from Nova Scotia.” He was very scopey and so fast. He gave his all every time he was in the show ring. I was never nervous riding him in those big classes; I knew he would try his heart out for me. Many times I got offers to buy him, but I would never have been able to part with him.”

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Jill took some time out of the saddle after Limerick retired, focusing her attention on raising her two boys. It wasn’t until she was offered the ride on a stallion, Oxford, that she again entered the show ring at the 1.35m level. “My confidence level wasn’t what it had been, and I was more aware of getting hurt and thinking about things that could go wrong,” she remembers. “I was a mother and knew I couldn’t afford to get injured. I also think I was harder on myself when I made mistakes. The courses were more technical and the jumps seemed bigger and wider! I started second-guessing my riding ability and wanted to control the situation at all times, instead of letting my natural instincts take over.”

Jill made the difficult decision to say goodbye to Limerick when, at the age of 27, her old friend was living in constant pain. She found herself in no hurry to get back to the ring after such a loss, and didn’t ride at all for the next year and a half. “I just didn’t feel the same about riding and competing anymore,” she explains. “Losing such a partner and knowing that the odds were good that I wouldn’t be able to replace him was hard for me.”

Although Jill eventually got back to competing at small local shows with an off-the-track thoroughbred, it wasn’t until her brother Larry approached her six years ago about buying another horse that she considered the possibility. On a trip to Germany they found her current partners, the 11-year-old Hanoverian gelding Fiamo, and Cosmonauta, an eight-year-old Hanoverian mare. With exciting new prospects, Jill was ready to step back into the show ring. She and Fiamo have an impressive list of accomplishments in 2014, including winning grand prix classes at the Coveside Classic and Maritime Fall Fair.

Jill credits the support of her husband and her trainer for getting back to form. “Without my coach, Jen Hamilton, I would have never gotten back into jumping the big jumps,” she says. “Jen pushed me far beyond my comfort level and gave me the confidence to compete in the 1.45-metre. It is hard for me to get the time off from work to show, and the cost and the time away from my family are challenging, but I am lucky to have a supportive husband of 23 years and a boss who allows me to do this. I am so grateful to have good horses to compete with, and being able to compete at the higher levels again at my age has definitely renewed my passion.”