In this occasional series, Momi Black recalls the many gifts shared with her by a special horse.

If competing at a four-star were your goal, you might be advised to walk away from a 10-year-old ex-race horse who’d just failed a pre-purchase exam. But if Momi Black had done so when trying her partner Chort in 1994, her life would be quite different today.

In 1994, Black (nee Akeley) was living in California, training with Dayna Lynd Pugh. She’d just gotten to the preliminary level when her horse went lame, and she was hunting for a new one when Pugh spotted Chort at the Ram Tap Horse Trials.

“He was little, and I kind of liked him,” said the petite Black of the 15.3-hand Thoroughbred.

So despite failing the veterinary exam, Chort went to live with Black, and she competed him at the preliminary level while leasing him. They were soon earning ribbons together, and he never had a soundness issue, so Black decided to buy him. At the time, she never anticipated just how far he’d take her–through years of four-star competition and ultimately to Bluemont, Va., where she lives today with her husband, international eventer Stuart Black, and their 3-year-old daughter, Kayleigh.

Momi had a little bit of a rocky start in her first three-day with Chort, at Ram Tap in November of 1995. “I fell off on steeplechase, and then he ran back to the barn,” she recalled with a laugh. “Then Dayna wouldn’t let me go cross-country because I didn’t have enough of a bit for him.”

In fact, Chort was quite hot in his younger days. “I would have to jump and circle, jump and circle,” said Momi. “He was a little crazy, but I just didn’t know better. He’d run around with me [on course], and [it worked because] I didn’t get in his face too much.”

In 1996, the pair completed the Essex CCI** (N.J.) and the Chase Creek CCI** (B.C.), and in 1997, they finished sixth at the Radnor Hunt CCI** (Pa.). With that under their belts, they started training for the Rolex Kentucky CCI*** the next spring.

“He was so bold and so game, so I’d do more,” said Momi, who’d never really aimed to compete at the advanced level. “It was never enough of a challenge for Chort. He ate it up and drug me to the advanced level.”

When she walked the three-star course at Kentucky, Momi said she had no idea whether her horse could jump those fences. “That was when they had that huge footbridge as the fifth fence, and we met it wrong, and he stopped,” she said. “So I started riding him more forward, and he finished. That’s when I thought, ‘He can really do this.’ “

At the Fair Hill CCI*** (Md.) that fall, Momi had a run-out, which would happen sometimes when she couldn’t quite slow him down and get the control she needed. But they still made the time over a course that rarely allows rounds inside the time.

“He was fast and bold, and I was probably a little stupid,” she said with a laugh. “He was that clever and good. I probably left too much up to him, but we always kind of got along.”


No Top-Level Expectations
At the time that she bought Chort, with dreams of competing at the intermediate level, Momi was working at a venture capital firm and going through a divorce. But by the time she was preparing for her first four-star, in the spring of 1999, she’d made the decision, with Pugh’s recommendation, to move to Virginia to pursue her career with Chort, under the training of Jimmy Wofford.

“This horse changed my life,” Momi said. “I came [east] to do Radnor and Fair Hill and train with Jimmy, and I decided I’d move out here. Because of Chort, I met Stuart, because that was the one year I spent the winter [training] in Florida [where they met]. And of course, I was riding at this level while I was going through a [major life change], and he filled in my life for a while.”

Not everyone believed in the little horse with an amateur rider, but those who knew the pair best thought they’d be just fine. “The first year she ran him at Rolex her record didn’t support her,” said Wofford. “I got some secret criticism, but I said, ‘I think she’ll be fine,’ because he whinnies when she comes into the stable. I saw what a good jumper he was, and I knew that he would take care of her. He’s unusually intelligent.”

For Momi, one of her favorite memories of Ken-tucky is the horse inspection. “He’d walk up so proud and stand there while the vets looked at him and get this faraway look,” she recalled.

While competing at Ken-tucky would be a milestone for any rider, it had special meaning to Momi to get there with Chort. “It’s fun to be there with this horse that feels like your best friend,” she added. “Every time I came to his stall, he’d have his head out, nickering. He ate it up, and that’s what made it fun for me.”

“I never had to push Chort; he dragged me to Rolex and wanted to do it so badly,” she continued. “It was never work for him. I don’t know if I’d do it at that level if he hadn’t started me because it’s hard, and you really have to push most horses.”

In 2001, the final year that Momi com-peted Chort at Kentucky, she said that Peter Gray approached her about a client looking to buy a four-star packer. “[The course] just felt easy that year for us,” she said. “Peter said [Chort] looked so broke, like it was a training course. Of course, Chort was older and his dressage was never great. I knew they wouldn’t really want to buy him, and there’s no way I’d ever sell him anyway.”

One of the lasting benefits of Black’s years with Chort has been the confidence with which he taught her to ride cross-country. “I remember walking cross-country at Kentucky, and Jimmy would say, ‘You gallop around the corner, and the horses who know what they’re doing, like Chort, will prick their ears, then you can put your leg on and go.’ He’d just gallop along, and then he knew when I sat back–he’d balance himself, assess the fence, and then attack it. Lots of times I would think I just have to sit up and kick and not fall off. If there was a narrow, I knew I just had to get my eye on it, and he’d jump it.”

Black competed Chort at Kentucky four times and took him to the Burghley CCI**** (England) in 2000, where Momi, recovering from a concussion incurred while schooling, wasn’t on her best form and fell and retired. “But he tried to keep going,” she said with a laugh.

Running out of steam was never a problem with Chort. “He was the ultimate long-format event horse,” said Momi. “He ate up the conditioning work, and when he finished a four-star, he’d cool out in 15 minutes and prance back to the barn. And after four four-stars, he’d never had a joint injected. His hocks had fused, and he was super tough and an adrenaline junkie. He’d jog back after finishing a course and be so high on himself.”


A Lasting Influence
In the summer of 2001, Chort injured a suspensory at Over The Walls (Mass.). Although Black brought him back into work after that and rode him in a few intermediate events the next fall, she never took him advanced again.

“He didn’t come back great, and I thought it was time to slow down,” she said. But even today, Black can’t get her favorite horse out of her mind. In October of 2006, she competed Fleeceworks Mullingar at Morven Park’s (Va.) fall advanced horse trials. “I had a dream about Chort the night before I ran cross-country,” she said. “I just remembered doing the course on him. He made it so much fun; nothing was scary. I’d walk an advanced course and think, ‘I can’t wait to jump this on Chort.’ “

Any photo of Chort in his heyday shows a bright expression, always with ears up, looking for the next challenge. “It wasn’t even what I was looking for, but he gave me this gift of experiencing the top level of an amazing sport,” said Momi. ” I wasn’t really a good enough rider, or experienced enough to be doing what we where doing, but when you have a great partnership with an amazing horse, it’s unbelievable what you can do.”

That feeling has kept Momi, who still competes as an amateur, coming back to the top levels with other horses, even after Chort has finished his career. “That’s the part of this sport that I still love. It’s all about the friendship, the partnership, the trust and understanding between my horse and me,” she said. “And when the two of us go out to attack an advanced cross-country course, it forms this bond and this respect between us. You find out what your horse is really made of out there. I admire Chort so much for his heart, his enthusiasm, his courage, and his physical brilliance. He took care of me every time out there and was truly, breathtakingly, spectacular.”

But Black’s best memories of Chort extend beyond the events. “It was wonderful, just showing up to the barn every day for a horse who’s so game to do something,” she said. “He always wanted to do more; he loved the sport. He’s a completely amazing horse, and I had no idea how amazing until I had other horses.”

Chort now lives about 20 minutes away from Black’s farm, where he is a kindly Pony Club mount for the children of friends. “I will always have that horse,” said Black. “Their older daughter [Brooke Robinson] rode him, and now their younger daughter [Julia Robinson] is riding him. He comes here to school cross-country, and I go to watch him go baby novice. He will have a place with me forever.”


More About Chort
Birthday: Valentine’s Day (usually celebrated with cake).
Meaning Of Name: Russian for “little devil” or “imp.”
Personality In Barn: “He is keen about feeding–he makes the most noise. He’s very verbal and will nicker and chortle and talk.”
Tricks: Eats sugar cubes out of Momi’s lips.
Prefers To Live: Outside.
Traveling: No problem–he eats and drinks, and Momi always accompanied him on flights.
Formerly Owned/Ridden By: Danielle Popiel and Sarah Broussard. “Andrew [Popiel, Danielle’s husband], called him ‘son’ and loved that horse,” said Momi. “I’d always send him a letter after every four-star and tell him how he jumped each fence.”
Blemishes: Pinfired. “He used to have horrible scars up and down his legs. I couldn’t even put boots on him the first year I had him because his skin was so horrible. He had a rough life.”


Beth Rasin