Carl Cote

Carl Cote —

Carl Cote’s project profiles Andrew Harrington, a horse trainer, driver, and skilled blacksmith. Along with their three children, the Harrington family cares for 26 harness racing horses at the track and another 17 at their home ranch each day.

Andrew Harrington files down The Next Big Thing’s hoof after fitting and attaching a new shoe for the horse Aug. 19. In addition to being a horse trainer and driver, Harrington is also a skilled blacksmith, a skill he’s picked up over the years for his own horses and local clients who need the service.
Sara Harrington aaplies rubbing alcohol to a horses legs before it leaves for a training session Aug. 22. The Harrington’s racing horses are looked after and pampered just like professional athletes receiving ointments, wraps, and different medications to help them stay in racing form.
A horse looks toward the race track from the turnout behind the stable Aug. 20. A few different horses are selected to be “turned out” every day, where they’re given the option to run freely in a large enclosure while the others train on the track.
Another trainer rides by on a training run on Windsor Fair Track Aug. 21. As the horses exercise, their trainers often chat with one another as they make laps around the track in the morning.
Andrew Harrington walks buckets of feed out of the garage of the family home to feed horses Aug. 20. In addition to their three children, the Harringtons care for 26 harness racing horses at their stables at the track and 17 horses at their home ranch every day.
Drink a Beer was hosed down after his training session in WIndsor Aug 22. Stadardbred horses recover from their training quickly, but moving 1000 pounds around the track is hard work, making their veins bulge out of their skin for thirty minutes to an hour as they catch their breath.
Sara Harrington leans on the stable’s training schedule as she made feed buckets for the horses Aug. 21. All 43 horses the Harringtons care for are fed twice daily between feed, hay, and sometimes a pop tart or twizzler for a lucky horse.
Sara harrington attached wraps used for compression and stability, to Rockoholic, one of the family’s larger horses, at the Windsor Fair Aug 20. Race horses are very cooperative with the services and training the staff provides because they’ve been going through the same training process every day since they were 2-year-olds.
Drink a Beer bucked in the turnout behind the stable at the end of a day at Gibbs Racing in Windsor, Maine Aug. 22.
Andrew Harrington trains a horse around Windsor Fairgrounds in the morning on Aug. 18. Every morning trainers prepare horses in the stables to train for 15 minutes on the track for their daily exercise in prepartation for racing.
Andrew Harrington lets out a long breath as he walks Gideon’s Fairytale out of the stable to be trained at the end of the day Aug. 20. Taking time-off off is nearly impossible for racing teams. In order to achieve peak performance, every horse must be trained and examined, a process that lasts at least 5 hours every day, by the Harringtons and their staff. This was the first time their youngest racing horse wore hobbles, straps that help match up the stride and gait of the horse, impressing the family with his first performance in the foreign, to him, equipment.
14-year-old stable hand Lily Finley makes a pair of ear muffs fit snug on a horse as it is prepared for a training run Aug. 19. Horses tend to be easily distractable and skittish, so for their own safety and the riders’, ear muffs and blinders are equipped to help them stay calm on the track.
Sara Harrington kisses her horse Drink a Beer at Gibbs Racing stables in Windsor, Aug. 21. Gibbs racing, Sara’s family’s racing team, cares for and trains horses owned by family members and other owners and the about half of their horses. “Andy gets more attached than I do,” said Harrington as she laughed. “We might die broke because we’re horse poor.”
Horses are tended to as a day wraps up at Sara Harrington’s show horse camp Aug. 18. Sara has been teaching her horse camp since 2011 and regularly keeps students in the family after they age out by offering them jobs at the racing stables.
The Harrington’s children June and Bowen fed Rockaholic a Twizzler during evening feeding Aug. 22. Rockaholic is one of a handful of horses at the stable with a sweet tooth, eagerly devouring pop tarts and twizzlers on a lucky day.

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