Bay gelding, 2004, Rawafed–Mexican Flag, by Georgeff (NY), 8-1-0-1, $17,248
BIOGRAPHY: Flag is Flying, also known in the barn as Grover, had eight career starts, beginning at Finger Lakes, followed by Aqueduct, and onto Belmont where he had his first and only win in the mud.
After retirement, Grover remained a stallion until he was 10 years old, at which time Second Chance Thoroughbreds (SCT) came upon him within the auction chain and provided him with a soft landing. Grover was gelded and adopted from SCT in 2015, going to a lesson and boarding barn, Hunter Landing Equestrian, in Blossvale, New York.
Grover has excelled in his second career, and teaches all kinds of riders the ropes, from cross rails through the 1.0-meter jumpers and everything in between.
WHY FLAG IS FLYING DESERVES YOUR VOTE: If you thought unicorns don’t exist, Grover will prove you wrong. This plain bay, 16-hand senior, with an automatic lead change and a little white star, is the confidence booster, the babysitter, the hunter pacer, the IEA Horse of the Day, the jumper, the teacher, and the could-have-been best barrel racer had he not ended up at a hunter barn first. In fact, nobody falls off Grover unless he turns “too well.” He has spooked fewer times than we count on one hand, we have never seen him buck or rear, and he gets you to the other side of a jump, no.matter.what.
Other fun Grover things…once when an IEA rider forgot her last jump, Grover took her to it anyway; he has done things like following 400 runners and the Color Guard for a Memorial Run & Walk without a blink; for Halloween, the lesson kids dressed him up as a version of Superman, or Super Grover, because that’s what this horse is; he uses his neck to put riders back in the saddle; he babysits the young horses, too, and is a strong but fair ruler. If those horses grow up to be half the solid citizen that Grover is, we’ve won.
As a cribber, he has virtually no front teeth, but not all the gold in the world would take this horse off the farm that is his home at Hunter Landing Equestrian. He is loved by all his fans, and there are many. He also owes nobody a darn thing.
