On Centre: Bald Eagle Area

Milesburg teen rides to state title

Chris Rosenblum

She has Down syndrome. He's blind in one eye.

Together, they're state grand champions. Brooke Fisher, 17, of Milesburg, rode her horse, Sammy, to first place in the Obstacle Trail-Minimum Assistance event in the recent Pennsylvania State 4-H Horse Show in Harrisburg.

They also placed fourth in a trotting event.

“They’re just made for each other,” Brooke’s mother, Margie Fisher, said. “There’s real chemistry between those two.”

A promise proved to be the catalyst.

Brooke’s father, Glenn, pledged a peanut butter sundae, one of her favorites, if she won. That’s all she needed to hear. At the Farm Show Complex and Expo Center the day before her event, she memorized the course pattern and practiced figure eights in Sammy’s stall.

In her hotel room, she prepared some more, pacing back and forth and talking to herself.

Bright and early the next morning, she and Sammy hit the arena floor.

The event’s guidelines allowed one walker, her riding instructor, Phil McAfee, from Lincoln’s Painted Stable in Unionville. He couldn’t have been prouder.

Two years before, Brooke had to be lifted into the saddle. But here she was, smoothly negotiating Sammy through the course, walking over logs and around poles, zig-zagging, trotting and turning in a tight circle.

In her younger days, she had ridden a little before soccer and basketball occupied her. When they grew too competitive, her mother brought her to the Galloping Gold 4-H Club in Unionville.

Brooke’s new friends urged her to resume riding. From there, McAfee took over.

“He’s just an amazing instructor,” Margie Fisher said. “He could teach anybody to ride.”

Her heart pounded sometimes watching Brooke bounce so high off the ground, but she believed in McAfee because he believed in his student.

“He would say, ‘I know she can do this,’ ” Fisher said.

And she could — just like she acts in high school plays, sings the national anthem before games and gives PowerPoint presentations about her life.

Naturally competitive, she had tasted defeat for the first time this summer, losing a local event as the defending champion. Learn and try harder the next time, her mother said. She listened and dried her eyes.

Two months later, she was crying again.

Her name boomed through the arena, and she rode over to her mother and held up her ribbon. Today, as is her nature, she ignores it inside the shadow box next to her plaque and trophy.

But for one glorious moment, she exulted, looking forward to the real prize.

“I did it Mom, I did it,” she said. “Now I get my peanut butter sundae.”

Chris Rosenblum writes a weekly column about happenings in the Bald Eagle area. Send him news at crosenbl@centredaily.com or call 231-4620.