Finishing second in the $35,000 Grand Prix at Menlo Park (Calif.) would be a season highlight for many up-and-coming riders, but for Erin Duffy, it was an almost unbelievable accomplishment.

Just two months earlier, at the Oaks Blenheim (Calif.), a jumper she was riding slipped on a turn and crushed her foot, breaking it in two places.

“I was on crutches straight up until Menlo; that was the first week I was allowed to ride,” said Duffy, who also won an open jumper class and a hunter stake at Menlo.

Then, the week after Menlo, she and Kir Royale finished second in the $30,000 Ford Motor Company U.S. Jumping Derby at Showpark (Calif.), just .01 seconds behind veteran Richard Spooner.

“I was dreaming about it and wanting to do it so much,” she said of her return to the ring. “I think sometimes things are meant to be.”

As a rider for CeCe Durante Bloum’s Newmarket, Duffy, 36, is living her childhood dream. With 90 horses at the facility, she and Jill Cornnagia ride non-stop. On the first day of a major show like Indio (Calif.), she typically exhibits 18 to 20 horses, and she also coaches at shows.

“It feels like it’s all coming together right now. I have a lot of horses to ride, which I’ve always wanted,” said Duffy, of La Jolla, Calif. “I’ve shown a lot, but I’ve always been a preparer for someone else. Now with Kir Royale, I have a horse that can show through the week, for me. That’s why you’re now seeing my name in the results.”

In addition to grand prix ribbons with Kir Royale in 2004, Duffy earned reserve championships in the first year green division at the Capital Challenge (Md.) and the Pennsylvania National aboard ‘Round Midnight, who finished sixth in the nation. She’s also earned top honors over the years on hunters like Ipsylon, Small Town and Robinhood.

It’s an unlikely career path for a girl who was born in Los Angeles, to non-horsy parents who’d never lived outside the city.

Loved Going Fast

“I was one of those crazy kids who loved horses,” said Duffy, who convinced her parents to move from Los Angeles to Palos Verdes when she was 7, so they could have ponies in the back yard.

When she was 13, Duffy started riding with Judy Martin at Sea Horse Riding Club, and she competed in equitation and jumpers, winning the 1985 L.A. County Finals and CPHA Finals and finishing second in the USET Final to Meredith Michaels.

The speed of the jumpers drew Duffy as a junior. “I loved going fast,” she said. “And it wasn’t judged; it’s just based on what you do. It’s not subject to one person’s opinion.”

Duffy’s interest in jumpers and equitation was also practical, since her family couldn’t afford to purchase hunters. “The jumpers were all given to me to ride, but I really, truly loved it,” she said.

A horse called Norman, who had a reputation as a stopper and wouldn’t sell, gave Duffy her first major jumper experience.

“I was able to jump him around, and I helped around the barn to keep him,” said Duffy, who competed him in the junior jumper division and in her first two grand prix classes. “He just needed a strong ride, and then he would jump.”

She then bought a Thoroughbred called Indoctrinator, for $1,000, and competed him in the junior, open and futures classes.

“He was cuckoo,” she said with a laugh. “You couldn’t flat him; you’d have to just longe him and go. He was really wild. He would leap around and throw his head. He was very bouncy and would do his best to do one stride in a two-stride. But I loved him. He was really brave and would never stop.”

Duffy has no regrets about her unconventional junior mounts. “I thought it was challenging,” she said with a shrug.

After high school, Duffy attended Mary-mount University (Calif.) for one semester before promptly returning to the horses. “[My parents] wanted me to go to college, but they were comfortable that I tried and it didn’t work out,” she said. “Ever since I was a kid, I’ve been saying [horses] were going to be my profession, so I don’t think they were surprised.”

Duffy began working for Mary Tyng at the Los Angeles Equestrian Center, riding lots of young horses and preparing hunters for their amateur owners. After 51