It’s been years since Paul Harvey and Tracy Bartko-Magness claimed amateur-owner jumper tricolors at nearly every major show in the country. Now, at the age of 24, he spends his days in the pasture at the Bartkos’ Lake View Farm in Hughesville, Md.

But Bartko-Magness insists that the quirky horse still has an impact on her life–and probably always will.

” ‘Harvey’ probably changed the course of my life,” she said. “I’m sure I’d still be involved with horses, but maybe not so much so.”

Already a successful junior rider aboard Pensato, Bartko-Magness was hoping to expand her horizons when she bought Paul Harvey. But she never anticipated winning every major title available to them, including three American Horse Shows Association national championships, tricolors at all of the fall indoor shows and circuit championships at WEF (Fla.) and Ocala (Fla.), along with being named the Chronicle’s 1996 Show Jumping Horse of the Year.

“Life might have gone in a different direction without him,” said Bartko-Magness, who became a professional at the end of Harvey’s career. “He’s made me more successful; without him, I wouldn’t have all the nice horses I have now.”

Bartko-Magness, then a student at West Virginia University, found Harvey under the oaks at Upperville (Va.) 13 years ago. Todd Minikus was showing him to help owner Martha Hall sell him, and Bartko-Magness knew immediately that he was the horse for whom she’d been searching for more than a year.
“I just liked him,” she said simply. “After a year of looking, it took just two days.”

The petite, 16.1-hand Thor-oughbred (Upper Case–Newlywed, Carry Black) had raced, under the name of Stand By For News, but won no money. And his reputation at the track preceded him, as Bartko-Magness would soon find out.

In fact, her work was just beginning. “He was always a winner, but he was hard–he’d stop,” she said. “He didn’t like water or liverpools, and I fell off a lot. He would be champion, but I’d also fall off. We immediately had some sort of a connection, but it wasn’t always easy.”

Harvey just wouldn’t participate if Bartko-Magness didn’t ride well. “He had a lot of tricks,” she said. “He was a bit of a chicken, and if I didn’t ride perfectly, he’d stop or go by the jumps.”

At the time, Bartko-Magness was just starting to train with Katie and Henri Prudent. “Katie was very motivating,” said Bartko-Magness. “She said, ‘You two are going to be great.’ And even when he was naughty, he always gave me some kind of hope.”

An Uncommon Allegiance
Bartko-Magness doesn’t regret the challenges of those early days. “He’s one of the smartest horses I’ve ever had,” she said. “He made me a good rider, and he made me tough. Those were the years I learned everything I know.”

But it took more than good riding to get Harvey to give his best. “Paul Harvey was a horse of a lifetime for Tracy, but he might not have been for a lot of riders,” said Katie Prudent. “He had a real strong character and was a very hot horse. He had a lot of antics–flying sideways and not loving water. He was always up and jiggy and wanting to go. But nothing he did bothered her.”

Harvey was just as unpleasant on the ground as he was in the warm-up area at shows, where Bartko-Magness could never even ride him on the flat.
“He was a mean horse; he would bite and kick and didn’t want people grooming him,” she recalled. “But he liked me. I could go into his stall to pet and groom and kiss him.

“He was always a grumpy old man and very grouchy. He doesn’t like to be messed with, and he used to bite my dad all the time,” she added with a laugh.
“He was a funny horse, and he had an allegiance to one person,” said Tracy’s mother, Barbara Bartko. “She was the only one who could love him–no one else could even get close to him.”

That attitude ensured that Harvey would always remain in the Bartkos’ barn. After their first year together, in 1994, the pair won the championship at the Washington (D.C.) International. Bartko-Magness’ parents thought they might sell him and buy Tracy a grand prix horse. They even arranged for someone to try him at Washington, while Bartko-Magness ran off in tears.

“I was really upset,” she said. “But when I came back and asked how it went, they said he was absolutely crazy. The girl got off before she even cantered. I was so happy, and we never tried to sell him again. He was so quirky, it would have been hard to sell him. But it was so lucky, looking back, that we didn’t sell him.”

So Harvey’s ringside antics continued, and Bartko-Magness just smiled through them.

“He was crazy in the warm-up and on his way back to the barn,” she said. “He was nuts, like he’d just run a race. In the warm-up, I had to start jumping right away. If you gave him something to focus on, he was a little better. He was just happy and excited at shows.”

Winning Streak
Harvey won at the National Horse Show three times in a row–first at the Meadowlands (N.J.) in 1995, and then twice in the famous Madison Square Garden in 1996 and 1997. To Bartko-Magness, who had never even been to New York before her first trip to the National in 1994 (when she was reserve champion), those wins were especially meaningful.

“The third time, I thought, ‘There’s no way he could be champion again.’ It was awesome,” she said.

“He was a very fast horse, but it takes a fast rider too,” said Prudent. “She knew how to speed him around and hold him off the jumps. Paul Harvey loved to win, and Tracy loved to win. You couldn’t make them go slow, either one of them.”

“When he was named the Chronicle’s Horse of the Year, that was the biggest surprise,” Bartko-Magness added. “There are so many great horses–to be picked was amazing.”

They also added titles from events like Devon (Pa.), the American Gold Cup (Pa.), and the WEF. “We did everything together,” she said. “It was my first time doing really well. I’d only just gotten ribbons at those places before.”

“He gave her his everything,” said Barbara Bartko. “It was a true bond, and there’s maybe only one of those ever that you have that is that close.”

In hindsight, Bartko-Magness said that learning to adapt to Harvey made all those victories even more special.

“He wasn’t one to let me get by with average riding–he taught me to be tough and not give up, and that was very rewarding,” she said. “If he had come to me and we had won everything right off the block, I wouldn’t have felt like it was him and me together.”

And the partnership left Bartko-Magness with so much more than her ribbons. “He’s the horse I love, not from winning, but from day 1,” she said. “With some horses you just have a special connection, and he, by far, is one I felt something special with.”

Looking back, Bartko-Magness can’t believe she wasn’t fazed by the falls she had at her first few shows with Harvey. “Now if I fell off at the first shows with a horse, I would say get rid of him,” she said with a laugh.

“But I always had confidence in him and a special feeling.”

She realizes now just how special Harvey’s consistency is. “He was so careful–I don’t know many horses who could go as many double-clears as him, and I didn’t expect that,” said Bartko-Magness.

Kim Prince, who was an assistant trainer for the Prudents at the time, constantly told Bartko-Magness how lucky she was. “She would say, ‘He’s a freak; no horse goes clear all the time.’ Now I realize she was right–none of them do,” said Bartko-Magness.

Irreplaceable
At age 24, Paul Harvey still has the best legs on the farm, said Tracy Bartko-Magness. “There’s not one windpuff–nothing,” she said.

Harvey’s career started to slow as he grew older, and then he developed stones in his bladder. He had surgery to remove them, and Bartko-Magness decided to scale back his work after that. Her sister, Wendy Libert, took over competing him in the adult jumpers.

“She only did six or seven shows a year,” said Bartko-Magness. “He was still in work, but with a light show schedule.”

The transition helped Bartko-Magness ease into his retirement. “I never said, ‘OK, this is the last class I’m going to do on him,’ ” she said. “I was still the one riding him at home.”

But once he stopped attending the shows, Bartko-Magness quickly felt her loss. “I still haven’t found the next Paul Harvey,” she said with a smile. “I’m still looking.

“I wish I could get it back, what I had with him,” she added. “I thought I could win every class. It was a certain, perfect match, and I had so much confidence in him. I thought we could win everything, and if we didn’t, something was wrong. I guess that’s why he’s the horse of a lifetime–you don’t feel that way very often. There’s probably only one or two horses who can ever make you feel that way.”