Page 19 - January-February 2020 HER

19 JAN/FEB HER
HER Cover
Story by Grace Brown Photography by Richard Rasmussen
Welcome to the world of thor- oughbred horse racing. It is fast-paced, challenging, and sometimes even a little bit dangerous. It is everything Laura Moquett loves.
She found herself on the thorough- bred racing scene years ago after hap- pening upon the opportunity in her hometown in Iowa. Although she did not grow up around a track, the sport still found her on the family farm.
“(My sister and I) would train our horses, a paint and quarter horse cross of some sort. We would train every morning and we’d race every after- noon. We would really just get into it and I think it just stuck. It was so much fun to go fast. I just liked it,” she said.
As she grew, so did her love of hors- es and she found herself constantly visiting the stables. The idea of racing horses excited her and soon enough, she started dreaming of finding a way into the world of horse racing. Eventu- ally, that opportunity presented itself.
“It kind of found me. When I was young, there was an old man from my hometown came to the farm that I was riding horses at and asked if any- body wanted to ride racehorses. And of course, I did,” Moquett said.
“I did less of school and more of horses until I just decided that I wanted to do this the rest of my life,” she said.
Now the assistant trainer for Mo- quett Racing, she has made her way through the ranks of riding and helped train million-dollar winning thorough- breds.
Her racing career began on a track in Sioux City, Iowa, where she found no formal training and no other women. In one of the first barns she worked at, women were initially not allowed to help train horses.
“He didn’t want girl riders, but he changed his mind. I didn’t fall off and I didn’t let him run off,” Moquett said.
“I think there would be a lot of girls that would change his mind. I was just too hardheaded to leave. So then he responded, ‘Well, fine.’ and the rest was
HER MAGAZINE ¯ JAN/FEB 2020 19