Traveling The Globe With Moni Maker
plane, because it was what she really wanted to do."
When Moni Maker shipped to Europe, as opposed to the Scandinavian countries, her home base was at Guianna DeBorggia, a Standardbred training facility just a few kilometers outside of Florence, Italy.
"The farm was very centrally-located," Roman said. "It really allowed the mare to become relaxed, and the weather was pretty moderate. Plus, we were able to have a pretty easy ship to most of the places we were racing at, at the time."
When Moni Maker had to ship by horse van throughout Europe, Roman said he made sure she had all the comforts of home, including a double-wide box stall.
"I always shipped her at least two days prior to an event if it was a close ship, just to et her acclimatized to the track and to the surroundings there. If it was a longer ship, then I left at least a week early, to give her time to recover from the ship itself."
Moni Maker had the distinction of being just one of three Standardbreds to have ever grazed at the famed Chateau of Grobois, just outside of Paris, France.
"Prior to us arriving, only Une De Mai and Delmonica Hanover had ever eaten grass at the castle there," Roman said. "Whe I asked about grazing Moni Maker I was told there was no grazing areas, or paddocks. After a few days, however, an official came up to me and said that I could take her into a small garden in the back of the castle. So she was able to sample the royal grass of Grobois!"
Roman said traveling with Moni Maker taught him to be tough at times, especially when it came to the welfare of his horse.
"Besides breaking all of Peace Corps records at European tracks, she also broke her record for getting on the plane to come home," Roman recalled. "Peace Corp had taken an hour and fifteen minutes once, and returning, Moni Maker took an hour and 35 mintues. She just didn't want to get on a plane that day. She'd had enough of shipping by van and planes. The co-pilot of the plane kept coming down and each time he told me, 'If this horse isn't on the plane in five minutes we're leaving without her!' That only made Moni Maker more nervous. This guy kept coming out and coming down and if he had just left us along,
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