“Honestly, I thought it would be super fun to go Training or Prelim with her, but here we are seven years later and she’s doing really well,” commented Brooke.
Brooke Massie of Saint-Lazare, QC, has been making waves with Serendipity (“Scarlett”), an off-the-track Thoroughbred who fell into her hands seven years ago.
Photo Credit: Amy Dragoo for Shannon Brinkman Photo
Behind that modest statement hides years of struggle – whether financial or through balancing eventing with starting a professional career – plus sheer willpower and a truly admirable work ethic. The journey began with a simple exchange between neighbours: $400 for a small, off-the-track Thoroughbred.
“A neighbour around the corner is our ‘horse collector’, as we call her. She found Scarlett on the track and bought her because she has a pretty face,” recalled Brooke. “A week later she decided she’d had enough of Scarlett. She got in contact with one of my friends and said she had this really nice mare, but my friend couldn’t get another horse at the time so she encouraged me to go try her. I was not looking to buy a horse at all at this point – my parents had just lost their business and I was 16, so there was no way they were going to buy me a horse. But I went and saw her anyway. I didn’t tell my parents, and the same day she was in the trailer.”
Scarlett on Aug. 16, 2012: the date that she began her new life with Brooke as an event horse, just one week after coming off the track.
Photo Credit: Joanne Pech
And so, a teenage Brooke found herself the owner of her very own horse.
“It was hard, I was working at a restaurant on the weekends to pay for my board while I was going to school,” said Brooke. “I was lucky enough at the beginning, my parents were paying for my lessons, but board at 16 while going to school full-time is still enough. Thankfully, Scarlett wasn’t too expensive to buy initially, but all of her things were my responsibility, and then when I turned 18, all of it was my responsibility.”
While Scarlett couldn’t contribute to her own financial upkeep, she did her part to keep Brooke’s spirits raised – “She’s terrible around other horses, constantly making faces and trying to bite them, but she’s super sweet with people, she wants to cuddle. She’ll push you around and she’s super little so she thinks she can get away with whatever she wants. She’s a little bit rude on the ground, but you forgive her because she’s so cute.”
Scarlett is always there to cheer Brooke up through the ups and downs of pursuing a high performance eventing career.
Photo Credit: ©EC
In addition to her endearing personality, Scarlett proved to be the consummate work horse. “With a lot of Thoroughbreds, you want to give them some downtime, but this horse wants to work,” explained Brooke. “She loves it, and wants to be doing something every day. If I give her a vacation she’s absolutely miserable, so she’s really game.”
When Brooke initially purchased Scarlett, her aspirations topped out at the Novice level. But soon it was looking like they could go the distance. By then, high school had been replaced by Collège d’enseignement général et professionnel (Cégep), where Brooke was working on developing a future career as a police officer.
“At that point, my schedule was a little more flexible. I started working more shifts and was able to pay for more competitions,” said Brooke, who is coached by Canadian Olympian Colleen Loach. “I made it work, but there were definitely sacrifices. There was no going out with friends or any of that; it was spending hours at the barn, or working to pay for hours at the barn. You definitely have to sacrifice if you’re that young and don’t have the financial support. And it’s not because my parents didn’t want to, it just wasn’t there – I have three brothers and they were all playing hockey, too, so there wasn’t a whole lot of money to go around, unfortunately. But we made it work and stuck it out. Honestly, I would do it all again if I had to.”
Brooke and Scarlett, pictured competing in the Preliminary division in Chattahoochee Hills, GA, have worked their way past an initial goal of competing at the Novice level and made their FEI debut in 2017.
Photo Credit: Liz Crawley
Brooke’s sacrifices paid off beyond her wildest dreams, with her and Scarlett diligently working far beyond their initial goal and breaking through to the international level in 2017, competing at the CIC 1* and CCI 1* level in Unionville, PA and Lexington, VA.
Fast-forward to 2019, and after completing major American events at the CCI 3*-S and -L level early in the season, Brooke and Scarlett made the big move up to the CCI 4*-S level at the Bromont CCI Horse Trials, held Aug. 16-18 at the prestigious Bromont Olympic Equestrian Park.
Despite placing last in the dressage phase, the pair made a remarkable comeback as the only combination to make the time in the cross-country phase, and keeping it to just one rail in the show jumping phase. This gave Brooke and Scarlett the big win in their home province on a final score of 45.50 penalties.
Brooke and Scarlett were the only combination to make the time cross-country, resulting in their first FEI win their home province during the 2019 Bromont CCI Horse Trials.
Photo Credit: Cealy Tetley
“She’s not a super great dressage horse,” said Brooke with a laugh. “She doesn’t move well or want to move well – she wants to move fast and jump things – but she’s super awesome and game. She’s an awesome jumper and an absolute machine on cross-country. I never have to worry about her stopping, she’s going to say yes no matter what I ask her. She’ll never say no, that horse, and I love that about her.”
Dressage may not be Scarlett’s strongest suit, but she gives it everything she’s got for Brooke.
Photo Credit: Shannon Brinkman Photo
While the sacrifices and struggles have been real for Brooke, so have the payoffs and unexpected benefits of buying an inexpensive horse and developing her up the levels. Ruminating further on her connection with Scarlett, Brook explained, “Definitely being able to put all your time, effort and focus into one horse really brings out the best in them, instead of having 20 minutes to hop on each day, so I think it has been beneficial to her to be the one and only. The relationship is really what gets you to this level, and I think it’s really hard to buy a made horse and have the trust and confidence to go around cross-country. Scarlett taught me that because she’s really not built or made to do what she’s doing, but I think she does it because we have a really great relationship and she wants to make me happy. That’s probably been the best lesson she’s taught me.”
Over their seven years together, Brooke and Scarlett have developed a strong bond that carries them through the demands of eventing.
Photo Credit: Brant Gamma
At the end of the day, Scarlett has far surpassed the value of her initial price tag. Brooke is planning on taking their career as far as the little mare wants to go and, having blown past their original goal of Novice, the sky seems to be the limit for the talented combination. Brooke concluded, “It would be so cool to go to the Olympics. I don’t know if it’s realistic with her dressage but we’ll see, you never know!”