March 18, 2024

To the finish line

Wishons find success with racing horses

It all started on a trip to Mexico.

“We had horses when I was a kid, so I loved them, you know, but never had them later,” said Glenda Wishon. “We went to Mexico and rode horses on the beach. And, it brought it all back.”

Once Glenda and Larry Wishon of Osceola came back home, they bought a horse. The horse had a good pedigree, and they decided to breed her.

“So, we did,” Glenda said. “And, that’s how it started.”

The Wishons now have 12 horses.

Glenda wears her love for her horses literally on her sleeve. During the interview, she had on a T-shirt that said, “My therapist lives in a barn.”

Racing

Working with horses has led the Wishons to racing them at Prairie Meadows Racetrack and Casino.

They have been racing for five years, and their name is “LG Racing.”

They have also raced in Oklahoma and Texas.

Saint Greeley, the two-year-old “baby,” raced at Prairie Meadows June 1 and won by 8 1/4-lengths.

“Which is quite a ways,” Glenda said.

The next day, the Wishons got a phone call from a person in New York who wanted to buy their horse, even though they’d never seen it in person.

Even though a lot of money was offered for the horse, the Wishons decided to not sell Saint Greeley.

Recently, Glenda had a conversation with someone who had seen Saint Greeley race earlier this month.

“He said, ‘I don’t know that much about horses, but my god, that horse has got something. He just went off and left everybody.’”

Getting noticed

There are goals and aspirations for Saint Greeley, including someday getting the horse into the Kentucky Derby.

Saint Greeley has also been featured in the specialty publication “Blood-Horse.”

“To get into that magazine is something else,” Glenda said, “because that’s just the big studs, the big winners like California Chrome, all that stuff.”

Many of the Wishons’ horses are boarded in Clarke County. Glenda said they are also partners with Rockin River Ranch in Winterset.

In the winter, the racehorses will go south to continue their exercising and stay in shape.

“They hardly ever stop,” Glenda said. “They have to stay in shape.”

Racing horses is a lot of work, considering it’s time consuming and costly, but Glenda said she loves it.

“I just like it all, well I don’t like the cost part,” Glenda said with a laugh. “But, I love taking care of them.”