Exonian Profiles
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The photograph at right captures the form any experienced jumper would admire. The horse’s legs are close together and parallel, and horsewoman Priscilla “Polly” MacMullen ’76; ’46 (Hon.) is positioned correctly, leaning far forward to guide the horse over the hurdle. Pictured are 12-year-old “Rudy,” short for Rootie Kazootie, and MacMullen, who is Rudy’s groom, trainer, owner and rider. Rudy is a “home-grown” project, MacMullen explains, a thoroughbred with a Kentucky pedigree, an ex-racehorse who never made the big time. When he could do no better than run at Suffolk Downs, he was retrained for shows. Last winter, after eight years of retooling and numerous competitions, MacMullen took Rudy (and her five-year-old Appaloosa, Cowboy Up) to Ocala, FL, for five weeks of competition. At a venue that draws 1,200 horses a week from east of the Mississippi to south of Toronto, the pair ribboned in half their events. For MacMullen, the training and day-to-day care of her horses is often as satisfying as testing herself in competitions. “Imagine being the first person to sit on a horse, and then to bring that horse along,” she says of the progress she is making with Cowboy. Now jumping 21/2-foot high barriers, the horse could one day move up to 31/2-foot fences. A passion for shaping young minds and bodies runs in MacMullen’s own bloodline: her parents, father Ramsay ’46 and mother Edith, were both professors at Yale University, and brothers Sandy ’74 and Willy are also educators. A teacher at PEA since 1984, MacMullen especially enjoys teaching first-year French and coaching JV lacrosse because she “likes working with young people at the beginning of their careers.” Having been a novice herself in a different setting has proven tremendously useful to her as a teacher. “Because of my riding, I can understand students’ frustration and discouragement, but I can also tell them that it doesn’t take away from the quality of their effort if they don’t have immediate success.” MacMullen’s involvement with horses was gradual, begun at the urging of friend and colleague Kathy Nekton, the Vira I. Heinz Professor and physical education instructor. “A year and a half after coming back to PEA, I was teaching full time, living in Wheelwright Hall and coaching JV lacrosse. Kathy told me I needed to ‘get a life’.” The partnership that developed with the Nektons, Kathy and husband Roger (the Academy’s longtime water polo and swimming and diving coach), is leaps beyond the trail competitions she did as a girl in Connecticut. In two barns on adjacent properties in Brentwood, NH, they keep two horses, five ponies, assorted dogs and cats. Kathy Nekton and MacMullen both compete in the hunter-jumper class, adult amateur division. During a recent sabbatical, they pony trekked through Provence, France. “The combination of speaking French while on a horse was just about the perfect experience,” MacMullen says. Last winter’s Ocala trip puts into context the role her horses play in her life today. The project, conceived following her first surgery for breast cancer, ended up being a celebration of surviving a second go-round. “Ocala was an extravagance, a once-in-a-lifetime chance to live my hobby 100 percent of the time,” she says. “I used the horses as a spur to get back as quickly as I could from cancer. Whether a garden, a family wedding or an upcoming competition, goals are instrumental in my life. Competing last summer, bandana and all, was my way of getting through.” —Janice Reiter |
