Five-year-old off-the-track Thoroughbred Bandon (Speightstown x Sansibar Jewel (Street Cry (IRE)) kept Jacquelyn Dickey of North Potomac company at the Thoroughbred Makeover in Kentucky this weekend and, in the process, the pair won the Championship Freestyle division.

Bandon has been keeping Dickey company through a particularly bleak year. Jackie’s son Austin Dickey died at the age of 30 earlier this year. In July, published a tribute to him called The Dash. Yesterday she dedicated her win to Austin, riding to the music “Why” by Rascal Flatts.

“I’m proud that [Bandon] can give suicide prevention a voice, as well as my son Austin. I’m very fortunate that the RRP was there for me, and that [Bandon] was able to get me through my grief. I’m hoping this brings awareness for suicide prevention and the need for it. [Bandon] has a wonderful temperament and he just tries so hard, and he knew I was struggling and he still gave me everything he had. He wanted to be a winner. He wanted to spread the message; he knew that this was important to me. He wanted to be there for me.”

Jackie was born to a father who bred and trained Morgan horses, and she has been showing horses since she was 2. She married a Coast Guard officer and moved around the country, trying her hand at different disciplines along the way. She rode in the hunters and jumpers with Sally Hinkle and Roberta Boylan at the Mystic Valley Hunt Club in Connecticut. Her husband was transferred to Maryland and she discovered Dressage with Sharon Brandes Myers in Anne Arundel County. Then it was off to California where she found her passion — Three Day Eventing. Back in Maryland, Jackie served as the District Commissioner for the Seneca Valley Pony for many years, and she is active in the local dressage scene.

Dickey has started other off-the-track Thoroughbred into second careers. One of her more recent OTTB partners was Mac and Breeze (pictured below courtesy of FADS), whom she rode to a win in the Training class at the Loch Moy Dressage Spring Fling in 2023. She also rode Tea Biscuit (JC Swingin’ Tea) in the Training division at Loch Moy’s summer dressage show in 2015.

Congratulations are most certainly due to Jackie and Bandon!

And thank you for once again proving that horses are the best therapists.

Jaquelyn Dickey and Tea Biscuit (JC Swingin’ Tea): PC FADS.