OCALA, Fla. -- Denise Boudrot Hopkins was born with the longing.

"The first thing I remember is wanting to ride a horse," the former jockey said. When she was 12 years old, her parents bought her a horse she named Sachem.

And then, "Right out of high school, one of my neighbor's fathers had a racehorse in Rhode Island," and Boudrot Hopkins traveled to Rhode Island's Lincoln Downs racetrack from her home in Burlington, Mass., to help care for the animal. She was 18.

Fast-forward 30-plus years. After a satisfying career as one of the premier women jockeys in the sport of horse racing, Boudrot Hopkins has returned from retirement to fulfill another calling -- that of a trick rider. She and her equine companion, Cleve Kadiddlehopper, will perform Saturday, March 15, at the Aiken Trials.

Boudrot Hopkins began her career helping respected horse trainer/owner M.J. "Junie" Bresnahan of Holly Hill break 2-year-old Thoroughbreds during the winter season in South Carolina in 1970, giving her some much-needed experience with the animals.

At 20 years old, Boudrot Hopkins received her jockey's license, and on Aug. 8. 1972 -- exactly two years to the day after her first visit to Lincoln Downs -- she rode in her very first race, finishing last out of a field of six.

"He wanted me to ride 30 or 40 races before winning to get some experience," Boudrot Hopkins said of Bresnahan, her contract holder at the time.

And all that riding made her realize just how much she loved racing.

"It was thrilling going that fast, being in between so many horses," she said.

In 1973, Boudrot Hopkins purchased 30 acres of land in Elloree and dubbed the spread Longshot Lady Farm, after the nickname she earned for herself in racing circles -- Longshot Lady. Her mom died there in 1974, and her dad lived on the farm until his death in 1980. Boudrot Hopkins sold the land to a neighboring horse farm and training center following her father's death.

For 13 years, Boudrot Hopkins followed a grueling schedule, surviving many spills on her horses and suffering quite a few injuries -- a fractured ankle, cracked ribs, several concussions, a broken leg and a severe back injury -- but said none of them have ever made her want to quit riding.

"I'm kind of crazy," she said, laughing. "I'm one of those people who loves roller coasters, loves skydiving and loves speed.

"You have to show that you're fearless. You just go and do it and try to put it out of your mind," she said, adding that if you act like you're shaken or afraid, no one's going to want you to ride their horses."

Those 13 years were also filled with great moments, like when Boudrot Hopkins became the lead rider at Suffolk Downs in Boston in 1974, becoming the first woman to hold a leading title at a major racetrack. That same year, she won a pair of a match races against fellow jockey Mike Lapensee in an event that was dubbed a "Battle of the Sexes." Those are just two of the highlights of Boudrot Hopkins' racing career, which also included 1,000 race wins.

The "jockette" gave it all up in 1985 and married Thoroughbred owner and publisher Roland Hopkins the following year. While she says she was never bored in her role as a homemaker, the horse itch returned eight years ago, and she began collecting quarter horses and joined the show circuit. Boudrot Hopkins won all sorts of ribbons, but she said something was still missing.

"I wanted to do something more," she said. "So I got in touch with Carole Fletcher and sent her a horse to train."

Fletcher is the owner of Trick Horse Training at Singin' Saddles Ranch in Reddick, Fla., and has worked with Boudrot Hopkins for the last four years. She created the special routine, "The Reluctant Racehorse," that Boudrot Hopkins uses.

"It's a comedy routine, and it's really cute," she said. In "The Reluctant Racehorse," Cleve does everything but, well, run the race.

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Boudrot Hopkins said Cleve loves it because he trains with treats.

"There's no cruelty to it, and he doesn't work too hard," she added.

Fletcher said Cleve spent seven months with her training for the routine. The former English teacher started training horses 35 years ago, following an accident.

Fletcher met Boudrot Hopkins when she brought Fletcher a tall Thoroughbred she wanted taught to lie down so that she could easily get on him while trail riding.

"Now, I've got the fourth horse that I'm training" for Boudrot Hopkins, Fletcher said.

"I had a lot of time on my hands and started fooling around with a horse," she said of her start in the rare field of training trick horses. "Really, I was just playing and experimenting and having fun."

But before she knew it, Fletcher had taught her own horses to shake their heads "yes" and "no," to sit and other tricks she now passes on to her "students."

Since beginning his trick training, Cleve, a quarter horse, has learned to perform two different bows, say "yes" and "no" by shaking his head, count by pawing, lie down on command, sit on a beanbag like a dog, buck on command, cross his legs and spin, jump on a pedestal, and even play a game of tug-of-war over a blanket with Boudrot Hopkins.

Fletcher said training trick horses is tough, because you have to gain the horse's trust.

"That's what a lot of trick training is about," she said. "It takes a lot of patience ... and you have to gain the horse's trust, because you are putting them in vulnerable positions. It takes building of trust for a horse to trust his handler and know he's going to be all right."

Having the right horse -- and the right rider -- is essential, Fletcher said, for success in the field. And she said the Boudrot Hopkins-Cleve team is a great combination because of their experience.

"For one thing, this is Denise's first horse she has gone out and performed with," she said. "He was already a seasoned show horse, so he was already exposed to all the distractions. I think that made him a good candidate for her."

"For Denise, she, of course, is an experienced jockey, so she had no fear of horses. For her, it was having to learn a whole new set of cues" for her horse and following a script, Fletcher said.

She said "The Reluctant Racehorse" was a perfect concept to complement Boudrot Hopkins' background.

"I wanted to do a comedy routine that would be suitable to Denise," she said. "Showmanship is a lot of it. (Trick horse riding) is so different than race riding ... yet she was used to being out in the public, and that was in her favor.

"I find horses are easier to train than people. People are more complicated. Horses are pretty straightforward creatures."

Fletcher, who has also penned a book about training trick horses called "Trickonometry: The Secrets of Teaching Your Horse Tricks," said not all of her students and their riders go on to perform in arenas.

"Some want to go out and have fun in their barn with friends and family," she said. "A lot of them do it to create a close bond with their horses."

The enjoyment of her job comes from seeing the metaphorical light bulb turn on in the horses' heads.

"I have so much fun," Fletcher said. "You're hamming it up, and although it's serious horse training, you're still having fun.

"The challenge (is) making them understand what it is I want them to do ... it's a challenge in that not many people do what I do. All horses are individuals, so they all learn a little bit differently. It's like a teacher in a classroom -- you know each child is different. You have to figure out the personality of each horse."

Boudrot Hopkins said before the late 1960s, women weren't prominent in horse racing, but today, the field is probably split 50-50, although only about 10 percent of jockeys are women.

"There's a lot of women trainers, exercise riders," she said.

However, Boudrot Hopkins isn't about sugar-coating the life of a horse racer.

"It's a tough life. People tried to talk me out of it," she said. "Follow your dreams, but just know it's a tough life, a tough business.

"The more they said I couldn't, the more I said, 'Watch me.'"

Because her parents raised her in a household where her mother and father shared chores and responsibilities and there was no separation of the sexes, Boudrot Hopkins said it was a surprise to face challenges because she was a woman.

Other challenges of the sport, however, weren't as easy for her to overcome.

"The worst was weather, because I would ride quite a few winters in New England," she said. Also, "I had a lot of free mud packs and facials. ... You get hit with rocks, mud -- everything."

And Boudrot Hopkins said she had to keep moving, never staying in one location for more than a few months.

"You're living in and out of boxes," she said. "But it was my career, and I was able to help support my parents."

What's probably to best reason to look back on her career with satisfaction?

"I met my husband there," Boudrot Hopkins said of the track. "I won about 50 races for him before we started dating." She and her husband of 22 years spend their summers in Grafton, Vt., and winter in Ocala, Fla.

In addition to riding horses, Boudrot Hopkins said she enjoys sewing, quilting, gardening and cooking.

"So I'm not all tomboy," she said with a small laugh.

Boudrot Hopkins has been performing with Cleve for two years and said there's no comparison between racing and trick horsing.

"It's so totally different," she said. "I would get a real adrenaline rush from winning a race, ... but I'm not a singer or anything like that, so now I see why actors get hooked.

"When you can get people to laugh, it's really fun."

For more information about Boudrot Hopkins and her horse, Cleve, or trick horse training, visit www.equinetrickster.com or www.trickhorse.com.

T&D Features Editor Wendy Jeffcoat Crider can be reached by e-mail at wjeffcoat@timesanddemocrat.com or by telephone at 803-533-5546. Discuss this and other stories online at TheTandD.com.

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