Off the Streets – A Chance Encounter Leads to an Unlikely Friendship

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146 – January/February, 2018

By Alison Foster

Horse shows bring people together from every corner of the country and from across all walks of life. Stroll down a single alleyway and you might meet a seasoned horse trainer from Michigan, a bright-eyed walk-trotter from Florida, a braider from Ohio, and an amateur from California. This diversity is one of the greatest strengths of the horse show industry; it creates lifelong friends and colleagues among those whose paths might never cross otherwise.

A perfect example of the way that horse shows can create the most unlikely partnerships took place at the 2017 APHA World Show when jack-of-all-trades Joe Fithian, who had been living on the streets since his luck took a turn for the worse, asked horse trainers Tim and Shannon Gillespie if they needed any extra help around the barn. The Gillespies arrived at the APHA World Show with a truck and trailer full of horses, tack, equipment, and everything else they might need for the whirlwind two weeks of competition. The show is always one of the busiest of the year for the Gillespie barn. Unfortunately, a few days in, things went from busy to downright frenzied when their barn help suddenly quit. “The first day we get to the show, we normally hire a guy to help unload and clean stalls,” Tim Gillespie says. “This year, about five days into the show, we suddenly lost our help. We were desperate to find someone to help us feed horses, clean stalls, and keep things running. Half-joking, we said that we should just say a prayer that someone would come by. Literally twenty minutes later Joe walked up to our stalls and asked if we needed a hand. I thought to myself, ‘This is exactly what we asked for.’ We need to try it!” Joe arrived at the Will Rogers Fairgrounds via a borrowed bike looking for work. Figuring it was worth a chance, he walked up to the first group of people he saw and asked if they needed help. “I met this guy at the bus station in Ft. Worth, and he had just left the horse show. He said there was work there for people who needed it,” Joe says. “I borrowed a bike and made my way up there. I just walked into the barn, and I asked the first people I saw. It was Tim and Shannon Gillespie, and they were just like, ‘Yep, we do.’ That was that. I started working for them right then.”

Click here to read the complete article
146 – January/February, 2018