Call Him Troy or Whatever, but He’s Still a Riddle
by Mark Deane
The life story of Christopher Riddle, a racehorse turned riding horse, continued to take more twists and turns.
As recounted previously in Middleburg Life, Christopher was raised and raced by my family, until an injury forced his retirement from the racetrack. Middleburg horse trainer Tim Daly retrained Christopher for a new career as a riding horse, and then sold him to a horse broker, Jesse Austin, who in turn sold him to a local professional, Colleen Marshall.
Marshall loved Christopher, who had a rather quirky character. Marshall seemed to understand Christopher; their personalities clicked and they were a good match for each other. But, her focus changed after the birth of her first child, and in the process of downsizing her horse opera- tion, she made the difficult decision to sell Christopher.
Enter the next owner in Christopher’s life: Melinda Cardell. Melinda and her trainer, Susan Skolnick-Lozano, were horse-shopping at Colleen’s Little Pond Farm when Christopher caught their eyes. Cardell and Skolnick-Lozano decided to take a chance on him, striking a deal with Marshall to take him to their barn for a month on a trial arrangement.
Cardell was searching for a horse to trail ride and hunt, and she hoped that Christopher would be that perfect partner.
“Christopher was the right size for my 5-foot-8 frame,” Cardell said. “I had just sold my former riding horse, a Percheron/Thoroughbred cross, and Christopher was much less bulky.”
During that month, it seemed Christopher and Cardell were going to form a great partnership. On his best behavior, Christopher worked out so well for Cardell that she not only kept him after the trial had ended, but also trusted him enough to allow other students at Skolnick-Lozano’s stable to ride him.
Christopher Riddle was re-named “Troy” by his new owner. When my family owned Christopher and the time came to give him an official Jockey Club registration name, I dreamed up Christopher Riddle by combining the names of my nephew, Christopher, and part of the name of the horse’s dam, Princess Riddle.
When we shipped Christopher to Tim Daly, we did not send his official Jockey Club papers with his registered name. In his travels, Christopher got a new name from each new owner. Colleen Marshall had called him “News Flash,” but the word “Flash” made Melinda Cardell think Christopher was going “to take off in a flash.” The blockbuster movie “Troy” had just premiered, so she decided to name him “Troy.”
All went well with the partnership of Cardell and Troy for about a year. Then, his offbeat personality began to surface. As Cardell recalled, “He would dump me for the least little thing. I thought I was decent rider, but I could not get him to settle down. Since I was single and on my own, I could not chance getting hurt.” And so, once again, Christopher went back on the sales market in the spring of 2010.
In an effort to overcome Christopher’s spookiness, Cardell hired a college-aged girl, Melinda Critzer, to ride him. Critzer was heading to Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania and Cardell agreed to allow the young woman to take the horse with her to college where she was planning to join the riding team. The two women thought that the experience Christopher would gain from being in the school’s equestrian program and might even make him more likely to sell.
“Troy was a sweet horse, but spookiness was just a part of his makeup,” Critzer recalled, adding that the experience of being part of the college program did not have the desired positive effect. “I understood Troy pretty well by that time desired and knew all of his quirks. But the horse had to follow the coach’s schedule at school, and Troy never really adjusted to that.”
With the college experience proving expensive for owner Cardell, who paid Christopher’s board and vet bills, she directed the barn instructor to offer Christopher for sale. Again, there were no takers.
Cardell then turned to her trainer, Skolnick-Lozano, who was able to broker a deal with the Farmington Hunt Club in Charlottesville to take Christopher. Since the club was a non-profit organization, Cardell was able to claim a minor tax deduction, some small compensation for the expenses she had incurred.
When the deal was finalized, Skolnick-Lozano informed the two Melindas of the news: One Melinda (Cardell) was relieved; the other Melinda (Critzer) was a bit disappointed. As Critzer recalled, “I received the call about mid-spring semester that Troy (Christopher) was leaving. I was a little disappointed, but my main focus was to help find him a good home.”
Christopher Riddle had affected the lives of the two women in very different ways. On one hand, Cardell, never rode again. Critzer remembers Christopher/ Troy quite fondly, as a lovable character with personality issues, some of them cute, like his penchant from drinking from a water hose.