PrintNick Novak almost didn’t even go to try Malone. He was in the process of buying a house, and he didn’t really have the time. But there was something about the way trainer Renee Lenkart described Malone that piqued his interest. “She called me and said that she had a horse that was kind of neurotic, so she thought he'd be just my type!” Novak recalled.
And neurotic was an understatement. Malone, then a slightly built 6-year-old Thoroughbred fresh off the track, wasn’t all that promising on first impression. “He was totally out of control and pulled like a freight train, but he felt like he could jump big jumps so I bought him. I figured that if I could figure out his brain, he'd be a good horse,” said Novak, of Hastings, Minn.
That was 16 years ago, and today Novak and Malone are fast friends and consistent winners at Midwest grand prixs. “He's not a World Cup horse, but he's definitely my horse of a lifetime,” Novak said. “I'll never have another horse like him. I could have the best grand prix horse in the entire world, and they'll never be what he's been to me. He's my buddy.”
Just Crazy
Donald Cheska had bought Malone off the track in Kentucky, and while the bay gelding had an athletic look, his mind was fragile. “He was kind of frantic and spooky and just crazy,” Novak said. Malone hadn’t done much after coming off the track—just jumped a few jumps and bounced around to a few different trainers. Novak put him out in a field for a while to regroup, then picked up the reins again.
“I tried him in the first year green hunters, and he jumped higher than the standards. I figured 'This isn't going to work,' so I went ahead and put him in the jumper ring. I think he did eight horse shows, and then he went in an open welcome stake,” Novak said. “The higher I jumped him, the more relaxed he got. So, as a 7-year-old, I started him in the prixs, and he's done them ever since.”
As they got to know each other, Novak even overlooked a little bodily harm. “When he was younger, he bit the tip of my finger off, so he got the name 'Chopper.' I had to get my finger sewn back on,” he said.
Malone is lucky he found Novak, since his nervous ways made him difficult to work with. “I think basically, if he hadn’t come to me, he might have fallen through the cracks and had a very bad life. He was very tough,” Novak said.
Now 22, Malone has mellowed in his attitude, but that big jump is still there. He and Novak started 2012 by winning the $15,000 Grand Prix at Lake St. Louis Hunter Jumper I (Mo.) on Jan. 8, adding yet another accolade to their résumé. Malone and Novak found their niche in the $10,000 to $25,000 classes in the Midwest, showing mostly in Iowa, Minnesota and Missouri. “He certainly could jump around a huge track easily, but I just didn’t always get to go to those venues,” Novak said.
As an 8-year-old, Malone was third in a $50,000 grand prix in Colorado. “I think he would have won it, but I think I was so wowed by him in the middle of the jump-off that I forgot to make a turn!” Novak said.
