Dreda Braybrook of Virden, Manitoba, is July's featured photographer in the 2016 Heart of Harness Racing Calendar. Dreda captured this beautiful sunrise over a field of Standardbreds.
“My sunrise photo was just a lucky shot of a perfect subject on my way home from a night shift,” she explained.
Standardbreds have been in Braybrook’s family for generations, but not always as racehorses. “My grandmother got her first one in 1921, complete with buggy and cutter, because she refused to drive the new car. My first saddle horse (when I was three), was a descendant of that mare. My father was a mechanic and mother was a nurse, so horses were a hobby, until I met Gerald. Then we got into racing, and I worked up the ladder,” she recalls.
Braybrook got her trainer’s license and raced a stable of six standardbreds (a trailer-load!) on her own and most of them carried the family moniker of Brooks or GeeBees. She trained horses from 1992 through 2010 and scored 104 career victories and almost $150,000 in purse earnings.
She and her husband raised two boys, and her son, Clayton caught the bug early and is still having fun, training and driving on a part-time basis, when not teaching music lessons.
Dredra also met up with Leonard Hill and enjoyed a few years travelling and grooming horses, most notably with Scott Forbes, between Florida and Ontario.
Braybrook is now back in her home town working a "real" job for the first time, as a front desk hotel clerk. Her mother Merle (88) still has the farm she now calls the Last Resort Stable, as the residents range in age from 14 to 37, including her favourite Coles Cain.
"Queen Merle and her Court." Dreda (L), her mother Merle Coleman (second from R) with friends Linda Dunfield and Cheryl Heaman.
“Clayton brings his stock for the summers and supports the Manitoba circuit, so we get to help him. His step-grandson Jordan Lesyk, who is 13 years old, is now a licensed groom and likes to ride and drive, representing the sixth generation!”