Becoming Casie

She is Canada’s pre-eminent horsewoman -- a two-time winner of the O’Brien Award as top trainer in the country, who has developed a solid stable of horses in both Ontario and New Jersey.

But to truly appreciate what brought Casie Coleman to this point in her life, you have to dig deeper. You have to go back to her roots in British Columbia -- a place where she developed a love for horses and the well-known competitiveness that is so evident today.

You might even say the 28-year-old was born into the business.

Her parents, Phil and Linda, trained and raced horses at Fraser Downs in the Vancouver suburb of Surrey. Her father, who relocated the family operation to Flamboro Downs in 2000, was born near the now-defunct Patterson Park in Ladner, B.C., and it was here that he found his interest in the sport.

While Casie’s brother Kyle (who is two years older), had no interest in the business, Casie demonstrated an early equine love. Her passion, in fact, can be traced to the ripe age of five years old. At the time, the Colemans trained a horse named Commando Jove. He measured a massive 17 hands high and absolutely dwarfed the young girl, who began a friendship with him and was known to place teddy bears in his stall.

“She’d walk this horse all over the track and everybody would look at her and laugh. They just couldn’t believe it,” recalls Linda Coleman. “We had him for a couple years and he won a lot of races and she walked him everywhere. I think that was the first horse she took a liking to.”

Casie has no recollection of the horse (though she admits she has heard the story quite a few times from her parents), nor of the fact he was claimed and what she did afterward.

“She took the teddy bears to the man who claimed him,” laughs Linda, “and said (the horse) had to have them in his stall. It was really cute.”

The young equine enthusiast developed other interests early on as well, including cooking. Her father has memories of his daughter as an eight-year-old preparing a spaghetti dinner for the family and delivering it with the same proficiency and professionalism as a pro -- even arranging a fancy table setting.

“And then at the end she gave us a bill,” Phil Coleman recalls. “She always knew how to make money.”

He has other memories of his daughter, including her playing competitive fast pitch. One tournament in particular stands out in his mind; crouched behind home plate, covered in mud, in the pouring rain, Casie starred as her team’s catcher -- making some three consecutive tags at home plate to preserve their lead.

“I knew right there that whatever she did, she was going to be good at it,” says Phil. “I didn’t even think it was going to be horses.”

But his daughter always displayed a determination that became part of her character. “We’d go fishing,” he recalls. “I’d throw the line out maybe once or twice. But that was it, and then she wanted me to leave her alone, let her do it on her own. Whatever she did she wanted to be the best at it. She played ringette and was good at that, too. It ­didn’t matter what it was – she wanted to be good.”

Horses, however, became her primary interest. She simply could not get enough of being around the barn.

“I’d get up 5:30 or six in the morning, train horses before school, go to school, be finished school and go back and put away the horses and feed the horses,” says Casie ­matter-of-factly. “I never hung out with anybody at school because I was always at the barn. There’d be a few friends at the track, but all I wanted to do was work, ever since I was friggin’ six, seven, eight years old. Even when all the work was done, my parents would go home and I’d stay at the barn. I’d be cleaning trunks out, washing stalls, cleaning gear. I’ve always been obsessed with it. I love working. I was never the kind of kid that was playing a video game, watching TV, whatever. That was never me. I was working.

“I never did have many friends because they obviously didn’t want to hang out with the horses and just work all the time. Some people would think it’s cool sometimes and come down and see your horses and then want to go down to the mall or the movies.”

She trained her first horse, an older mare called Sal She B Good, at the age of 14. The mare was given to her for free by an owner, Jerry Blanchet, who had been a prominent client of the Colemans and was looking to upgrade his stock. “She was a $2,500 claimer that only won about one race a year,” Casie recalls. “I did everything with her – trained her, jogged her, took care of her and raced her. I even raced her in races that girls were allowed to go in at Fraser Downs.

“With her I just learned how to get a horse’s attitude right, I guess. I spent all day on her, working on her, rubbing on her, walking her, playing with her. I even rode her. I did everything with her – just learned how to spoil her and take care of her. She was a very lame horse, so that taught me a lot too, about how to keep horses sound. I got to experiment with lots of different things on her – like different leg rubs -- and I learned how to poultice and sweat and blister and all that kind of stuff.”

But you won’t find any record of Casie as the trainer of Sal She B Good. She was too young to have a trainer’s license, so her father became the trainer of record. And it was her father who imprinted on her the importance of paying attention to detail in whatever she did.

“I don’t know any other way to do it and be good at it,” he shrugs. “You’ve got to do all the little things and we stressed that from when she was young.”

There are those who will tell you it’s Casie’s attention to detail that’s one of her greatest strengths -- the trainer can rattle off information about any and all of her horses with little difficulty. “I’m lucky. I’ve got a very good memory,” she says. “I don’t know how, but I can remember absolutely everything about every one of my horses. It’s something I was born with.”

Despite a great skill for remembering things, traditional schooling just wasn’t the right fit for Casie. Her love of horses interfered with her schoolwork, which led to run-ins with one particular teacher who grew weary of her tardiness and missing classes.

“She lost her mind on me and said that I’ve got to start attending my classes and get an education or I’ll just be a bum like all the other horse trainers,” Casie recalls. “She literally told me this. I missed a lot of classes because I wanted to be training my horses. I went to Lord Tweedsmuir Secondary School and that school is literally up on the hill of Fraser Downs Racetrack. I could look out my class window and watch the horses train, so all the time I was skipping classes and training my horses. I always wanted to be in the barn.”

A guidance counsellor feared Casie might not pass the semester and suggested she be moved to the alternate program for students who needed some extra patience. “I kind of got to make my own schedule,” she says. “I had no problem with the school work. It was just the fact of going there -- I just wanted to graduate. I knew what the horse business was like. I did quit a few times and my dad said ‘you must go back to school and graduate or you’re grounded from working at the barn.’”

“That was my grounding,” she laughs. “I couldn’t work at the barn. I had to hang out at home and do nothing!”

Before long, one of her teachers became a mentor of sorts, understanding the life she wanted to pursue. The two maintained a relationship long after she graduated. That teacher -- Bill Buchan, was a racing fan -- so it was a perfect fit.

“She was just a good kid, very dedicated,” Buchan recalls. “Some of the kids had some serious educational issues and serious social issues, but Casie had none of those. She was a dedicated worker, a dedicated family person. She wasn’t mixed up in strange things.”

And it was quickly apparent to him that Casie’s life was all about horses. During English classes, he remembers, Casie would have her book open with a copy of the racing form tucked inside.

But Buchan had such an affinity for horse racing and for Casie that when she drove the winner of the Powder Puff Derby for young horsewomen, he obtained a copy of the video of the race and had it played throughout the school on the in-house televisions in each class.

“This guy was awesome,” Casie grins. “I said to him: ‘I’d love to friggin’ show (the other teacher) what I’ve done so far -- print her my stats. She knew my parents were horse trainers and she basically told me I was going to be a bum the rest of my life and be broke if I kept doing that.

“I knew I would not be able to go through the school to be a veterinarian or something like that,” she adds. “But my parents did not want me to be a trainer or a driver. They knew how hard it was. They tried their best and made sure I stayed in school. But they couldn’t keep my away from the barn.”

“It was a little bit of a chore at first because all she wanted to do was (be around) horses,” her mother smiles. “We didn’t actually want her to do horses because we knew what a hard life it was. Especially for a woman – a girl – it could be really hard. In the horse business, you have ups and downs and I just didn’t think it was for her. I tried to discourage her big-time, but there was no way.”

Phil admits he grew up with a definite dislike for horsewomen. “I didn’t think they should be cleaning stalls and stuff,” he says. “I didn’t think they should be driving or doing any of that. It’s kind of ironic.”

Thanks to a program catered to her chaotic schedule, his daughter graduated high school with honours. She was offered a $10,000 grant to pursue a career as a chef, but turned it down. Casie had her heart set on working full-time with horses. “My dad thought I was absolutely retarded, but that’s what I wanted,” she says. “I absolutely love cooking. I can cook anything. But that wasn’t what I wanted to do. I’ve never had a real job -- I’ve had horses from day one. That’s all I’ve ever done.”

“She wanted to do horses and I was really upset with her,” Linda recalls. “I said: ‘no, no, no -- don’t do that!’ because it was a hard life. But it worked out for her.”

“She was always pretty focused on what she was going to do,” Phil agrees. “But we never thought this racing thing was going to take off. I don’t know how the hell that happened. It just sort of did.”

Casie readily admits that to this day, horse racing is her whole world.

“I never read the newspaper. I never watch the news. I have no idea what’s going on in the real world,” she smiles. “I’m just all horses.”