In this Inside Maryland show Diarm chats to Tamie Smith about her journey with the wonder horse Mai Baum, exploring the highs and lows of their competitive career together.
Tamie shares insights into the challenges faced, the pressure of major competitions, and the emotional weight of winning. The show reflects on the significance of Mai Baum in the eventing world and the bittersweet nature of their final five-star event together.
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The Inside Maryland Podcast Series on the Equatines Abending Podcast is brought to you by De Barrie of Island listeners. De Barrie of Island, who are nearly 100 years old, they were founded back in 1937 and they have been working with the event themselves and they've actually got a good number of very very exciting initiatives at Maryland this year. So if you're visiting Maryland, put their trade stand on your list of must visits because you will not be disappointed. There is something for everybody and they will also be supporting the horse inspections for both the three-star and of course the feature class, the five-star. One of my favorite parts of any event I have to say has to be that first horse inspection on the Wednesday when the excitement is there, the horses and the riders on their toes. There's just a real buzz and a real kind of sense of anticipation and there is also the fashion element which De Barrie will be supporting with some very cool prizes as well. They have been involved in the eventing industry and been supportive of the eventing industry for a good number of years now. They've been title-sponsored of the De Barrie Burley Young Adventure Series for I think since 2012 but they've been massively influential in partnering with other events and their partnership with Maryland is a really really exciting one for both the brand and the event as well. So look, go and check them out. They have so many different products that I am sure will take your fancy. I think I bought my first pair of De Barrie Burkes probably 15, 18 years ago and I absolutely love them. I've been a firm fan of the brand ever since. They have some incredible clothing options as well so go and take a look at that. De Barrie.com for more information but we're very excited to have them on the Inside Maryland show for the next few weeks and it is going to be quite the journey because we have got everything for you on the show listeners from rider insight from behind the scenes and the build-up, the preview, the review. Everything you need to know, keep it locked in. De Barrie.com, go and check them out if you're at Maryland, go and visit the stand as well. Let's crack on with the show. Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, welcome back. It is the Mars Maryland five-star podcast Inside Maryland presented by Brown Advisory and this podcast is in association with De Barrie, a Maryland who have facilitated and made possible all of this Inside Maryland series so we're very grateful to them. Check them out. If you're lucky enough to be on site at Maryland or if you're listening online and not and you're there watching live streams then you know that you can find De Barrie of Ireland of course online. Now I am excited. This is one of those moments for me. I'm lucky I get to speak to her every so often but it's not that often I get to ask whatever I like and before I tell you who it is I went, I brought myself back while I was researching this back to a young, dear mid-burn, getting into the sport back in 2014, 2015 and every so often I thought you find a horse and you find a record and you think oh my god who is this? Tammy Smith and my bomb was a name that kept coming up on the records so Tammy bring me back to 2015 Tammy 2015 by bomb all the way through and we're going to have a chance to talk about wonderful horse and a wonderful career as we head towards a final five-star outing. Yeah I mean started off basically like a fairy tale honestly. I got a call from the girl that owns him still Alex Ahern who was currently riding him and winning herself. She had a very good record with him already and I think on the west coast everybody who saw the horse was you know they would drop their jaw so it was quite it was quite exciting to get a you know a phone call from her and say hey you know I want to take you to dinner and talk to you about taking over the ride on my bomb and kind of you know we we've had our bumpy roads but our first year together I think you know it was like what we touched turned to gold a little bit like he won every single event that I entered and in hindsight you know I was a very hot you know topic obviously and probably one of the potential you know favorites to go to Rio like that was kind of my my thought process that you know I would finally get to go to the Olympic Games on this amazing horse and we had an injury after Fairhill and then it you know we had a spout of three or so years of basically you know kind of one bad thing happening after another so but he came back on the scene and kind of better than ever and I feel like you know we've I was I was more mature more knowledgeable understood you know that the horsemanship side of you know you don't just run horses like motorcycles and you know have have learned a great deal thanks to my bomb on my horse management and you know when to run and when to not and when to go fast and how to prep for a big event and that horse has taught me so much so I've been able to you know thinking that I would do a five-star a five-star Kentucky I never knew that I'd be able to do multiple multiple five stars um you know he's just I I say to people like my bomb has transformed eventing you know that's that's the horse when when you look at when you're looking for a championship horse that's the horse that you probably would say that's the horse that I I need to win a medal and so although it's um it's a bit disappointing to have never been able to actually compete at the Olympic Games and now he is 18 so that will not happen but um but he's he certainly taught me so much and I think been a really exciting horse for the fans and for the United States and just I for his owners who have been unbelievably supportive in my career so it's bit it's really exciting better sweet to think that he's going to do his last five-star here at Maryland but we're at what better way to to end his five-star career than where it began so I'm I'm it's it's uh it's going to be an emotional weekend this this weekend so uh but he feels better than ever and as much as I wanted him to be in Paris uh you know stuff happens I I have no clue why yeah the powers that be in the universe definitely um you know we're we're just there puppet and I just I go with the flow now I am never surprised by what is supposed to happen but um but we're here and he's feeling very ready and and feeling strong and I'm actually really excited for everybody to see him because I I suspect that um most won't believe how well he's going there's so much in my bomb story and I promised you before that what I wanted this podcast to be was a chance to talk about the story of my bomb but within the story of my bomb there's so many highs and lows as you say it's a horse that for people that love eventing it's impossible not to love the story but it's a story full of ups and downs full of resilience every time that there's an up you go to that run of all those international victories back to back 2015 you go to the hardship of you know kind of small niggly recurring injuries like and weird ones I remember talking to Eric Markel about it and wasn't there a wasn't there a there was an unusual one in there like around oh there was several yeah several unusuals he he originally you know did a tendon and then he came back from that and then he ended up falling in um my best friend called him home nobody ever hauled this horse except for me and um he always hauled in a trailer perfectly and this time he decided he was gonna freak out and he ended up carrying his fat lock like really far down um almost to where we were like oh my god this could be career ending so he was in a in a cast because the everything was exposed that was like he was in the hospital for that um he had a guttural pouch infection so he was in the hospital for that for a couple months um they never really quite figured out what was wrong with him um but it was systemic somehow we we weren't really sure why or what um then he injured his other leg I mean it was just it's just been like a constant you know but but there was always so much there in that there was almost so much positive there was all the highs were so high if that makes sense that yeah it always felt like you wanted to or like we I mean I'm speaking as a fan rather than as the person who was living all of the highs and lows but you know if you were to take all of the moments and I mean we'll get to 2024 but everything in a microcosm you're able to say the highs and lows were always alongside induated life is you know the highs and lows were always so close like for me I remember before the big excitement of kentucky 23 there was the uh kentucky 20 20 was it uh was a kentucky 21 it was a twenty twenty one because it was when did you go back was Bobby no no yeah yeah it's 21 yeah you went to 21 between didn't you yeah so you had a badminton in 22 yeah so in 21 you produced that big dressage test I remember you saw from marlin little were duking it out at the top with the dressage leaderboard and then was it a pin later on like maybe one from home he was super yeah it was like three from home three yeah I mean I had like maybe three tables left but everything was about this is the moment like back then we were waiting for phillip uh phillips you know 2008 kentucky win to come to an end we'd seen this amazing first phase and then right in that moment my bum had a pin you know every all of the joy followed by all of the hardship and then we had 2022 and pratoni and it felt like there is a common force in the u.s and I think you know a crowning moment certainly publicly was of course the big five star win was this or what did it feel like you know I think we've talked to you before and I know you've spoken so many times now about about different elements of it but didn't feel as calm and as together and as ready or were you or you know where was your headspace out going into that as a kind of representative of the west coast as a representative above the us I mean I was I was under a tremendous amount of pressure um you know I as being a representative of the west coast I've been you know an advocate as well and um we were kind of going through a little bit of a situation within our federation um just trying to say hey remember don't forget about us um and I kind of spearheaded that uh and we were kind of all joking like okay you're gonna send this letter to the USF and that means you better win kentucky and I'm like ah you know like you guys are funny like um I'm gonna I'm gonna definitely try to be in the top five you know like um I just it and so then then you know nobody really sees from the inside of all of that but you know knowing that you could be I really wanted to be winning after the dressage and I was quite angry that I wasn't um and so then I just figured you know with Yaz and Tom there was no chance that we'd we'd all be ending on our dressage scores and I would be getting third um and so there was there was a level of disappointment actually after the dressage that you know I would I would be getting third which in the grand scheme of things being third at a five star it's it's pretty awesome so um to to think that you're disappointed for you know getting third but I I knew I knew that we had a chance I knew that you know there was this lingering desire from everyone that we wanted an American five star winner again um I knew that you know I was representing everybody from the west coast and the thought processes and and support that we were trying to gain from our federation um because we are all the way out west and it's it's a little bit easy to to forget or maybe difficult to have equal opportunity because we are so far away and we have less numbers and so um it there was that win never felt I guess during the competition it never felt like I knew I was gonna win um and I never even had that in my mind I I just went you know it I I need to end on my dressage score and how it how it ends up is how it ends up and um then I was for you know obviously it was such a shocking um upset like I was kind of hoping Tom would have to pull on the reins a bit and I could get ahead of him but yeah as I never thought in a million years that she'd be having a run out I thought that worth would zip around because that year in Kentucky I would say that it wasn't and maybe because I'd been at badminton the year before it didn't seem like a massive huge Kentucky but it did seem like the time would be very influential yeah and my horse is not a blood horse so I knew I had to be really smart and um technical about how I executed the course and every half second was gonna matter um you know so there was strategy on trying to end on my dressage score and then the show jumping to tell you the truth was the I mean so nerve-wracking because I just had two down at Petoni the year before and I mean I think prior to Petoni I hadn't had a rail in that horse in years let alone you know two so uh you know that doesn't give you a warm fuzzy feeling going into the show jumping and then half team to you know ride but I I really uh I have to commend my show jumping coach because he's he's been so great at not only preparing me for you know the riding piece of it but also the mental piece of it and I think the first thing he said when he saw me after cross-country was like so you're ready to be a rider's winner or a spectator's winner and I'm like looked at him like what will he goes because if you go in and you choke and you don't have a rail then you're just a spectator's winner and so um I was like thanks Scott thanks buddy um and I mean I I think that made me realize you know what I have to go in and I have to ride well and where it ends up is where it ends up and um and so yeah I was oddly extremely calm and um Lexus felt better than ever and we just it felt like magic honestly it meant so much to so many people it's not something that you can it's not something that you can really think about in the moment although I know as you talk about it like there's you're carrying so much pressure there's so much personal pressure there as well but it must have felt like a release after or did it feel like a release after you know I remember Pippa talking about the post Rolex ground slam whatever it was 20 plus years ago and waking up the next day and you know not necessarily feeling as elated as people may have expected or two because that challenge had been passed like what what was it was it what did it feel like it's so funny even to this day like it never it doesn't feel like my bomb and I won Kentucky it it feels like somebody I knew that I was close to one and I feel almost I feel almost like um I won for so many reasons like for so many people and um you know for for all of all of the people that can relate to you know and maybe not having conservative start to your career in any in any kind of aspect not just riding or you know not coming from a privileged you know financial supportive you know like my my family you know we weren't we weren't poor but and I was able to ride but I did not have the financial backing to do a career like what I'm doing now um for those people who you know or even being a single mom you know so young like that's what it felt like I won those are the people I felt like I won for and um the you know the um the sport the sport is uh in the grand scheme of things we are very privileged and you could even almost say an elite elitist in a in a way and you don't even know eventing is you know in the trenches and um and we work super hard and you would never you would never say that if if any of anybody met us at a barn but you know we do have a very privileged life and so I I have been able to travel all over the world and go see things that I would never have been able to do before and meet amazing people and um and I mean royalty for that matter um I I feel like being able to be at the pinnacle and win something like that it just it just really felt like it was for so many other people and I can't even tell you that it feels like I like I won a five star I mean it it it doesn't it's it's I don't I don't know how to explain it it's yeah it's not what you expect you know it's not you don't wake up the next morning and feel like the sky you know the clouds have parted and the sun is shining down and you're you're now some champion you just I mean I I I almost you almost feel like a low in it because the lead up to it or the the journey to get there you just want it so bad but you you try to get you try to have it and when you try to make it happen it never happens and then you finally just almost give up but you keep fighting and then all of a sudden it's there and so um so it's it's just such a mental uh exhausting process um that you know I think maybe in another maybe after I retire I'll appreciate it I don't know you know it's tough though because when we talk about the highs and the highest of highs and still in the moment where they can feel unreal the lows don't necessarily feel as unreal or as or as different and like to go briefly to March March April 2024 early April we spoke and I remember saying to you you know this is this is it now it's it's my bomb London 52 and Fisher Chipmunk and yeah you know there's really no one else that's going to challenge them in the first phase and with this format of competition it's going to be that's going to be your first you know your first phase from three and we talked and you laughed at me and I was saying to Sam last night on the Maryland preview show do you remember do you remember talking about my bomb and he said yeah I remember what she said and we were laughing because I said like do you think you could do a 20 tell me and you said no it'll it'll be better than 20 like this horse is better than ever and yeah um everything again we go to the microcosm of the my bomb moments but everything was so high until it wasn't that Kentucky and you had that first bit of news and then I know it was a kind of a longer more drawn out process that eventually leads to the decision not to be available for power selection but yeah that must have been a again a really challenging part of the my bomb story those particular those particular few months yeah it I mean obviously because I knew you know there's there's always this this place in the back of my head where I never thought that he would be ready for or still going for Paris I thought Tokyo was his chance and Tokyo should have been his time and then to have him feeling as well and and going as well as he was I thought okay like the universe isn't so cruel after all like I'm gonna be able to you know to do this and then to have I mean you can't even make this stuff up like you just you just one second he's fine the next second he has a fat ankle and you I mean I literally honestly that one point thought he's done he'll never come back um and after a couple weeks um I remember being on the east coast of my vet calling me and going I actually think we're okay I don't think you know we we ended up having to do advanced imaging and whatnot but he's like I this isn't this isn't bad and um and then to to then think okay like I okay yeah I I can get ready I can be ready for Paris but then the logistics of you know the the whole selection process um just there's there would be no chance that you know we we as our country could you know could basically allow me to prepare my horse and be ready for Paris because in hindsight um he that's about when he felt you know like he was ready to to fire like you know right right around the beginning of July and so I needed an extra month and I just didn't have it unfortunately so um yeah I I still feel like that I mean I practiced my dressage test with Ian Stark the other day and um I just I was like god he feels he feels amazing so um I I'm really I'm really excited about the weekend um at least you know I know the universe has it has its plans yeah and uh but as far as the everything that's going on I feel very very prepared and I have a great team and he's feeling not 18 and so it's it's exciting I think everything the way you have handled winning and losing and all of the ups and downs associated with it uh in 2024 the the hard times and the big positive moments it's a real reflection on you and again we spoke about it what you what you not hear with us but we spoke about that west coast representative that us representative that mom and woman representative in the sport like the amount of battles you've chosen to fight and for so many people I think it's it's with a huge backing of everybody that you head into my mom's final five star and equally knowing that there's so much more talent in the pipeline it's such uh you know and such a prize as well in LA 28 still ahead of us um yeah you know there's a lot there's a lot more chapters to write beyond this one do you remember me at Aukin crying my eyes out after the show? Yeah I do and you're going you're just on the brink you're ready to you're ready to you're ready to fire it's just it's just a matter of time and I'm and I was balling I was literally like couldn't stop the tears coming down my face thinking this is never going to happen but you were right it's quite unhelpful sometimes in those moments to meet a data person I remember I remember Tammy and I remember to another girl who was crying coming out of a dressage test once and since they said you know can't believe it it's a 33 out of the European championship I said oh that's your that's your average that's too you know I learned that was very early I learned but I learned over time but the truth was within the data you could see you know if you keep putting yourself into 22s 21s like you're not you're not going to keep having a pin three-time hold up in tubby um but it's been a magic story Tammy and there's as I say there's a lot more stories in the Tammy chapter and we're very proud of you but I think from my bomb point of view I don't I can't I can't bring it to the data because the data points to every all roads lead to my bomb you're obviously going to take on my bomb is the top rated us horse on our record so going back to 2008 you're going to take the top rated British horse in Baltimore class I know you're going to take on it I actually said that to Ollie when I won Kentucky he congratulated me when I saw him the next time and I said thanks for not coming yeah when he's coming he's here I saw it so I think it makes it it makes it it makes it all the more as a battle you know it go up against go up against the best that Britain has going up against we know world number one um number four world number one and ten price are you know very much still around that area now with Falco go up against the open comment superstars and uh will be up then go against the only other five star winner the marlin winner with Boyd and and all of the history of sets are like like it feels right for my bomb to go up against the ball it's one of the ones feels in a long time but um this feels like the right place for my bomb to go and show off yeah well he's he's excited and um he's been he he knows he's he knows what's up so it's going to be fun I'm excited for a exciting week thank you for taking the time I know it's busy week of preparation so thanks for taking the time time we'd be appreciative I am thanks for having me and good luck good luck okay thanks y'all thanks Sammy
