At age 62, Debra Tomajko juggles working as a nurse, caring for her horses and volunteering in several capacities for the Eastern States Dressage and Combined Training Association.
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Debra Tomajko of Branchburg balances competing in dressage on Story Time and working as a nurse with her duties as an Eastern States Dressage and Combined Training Association volunteer. Debra Tomajko readily admits she was always getting lost driving around northern New Jersey while attending what was then William Paterson College, never knowing where she and her car might end up. But one fateful day, it was at the Springbrook Riding School in Montville, as she stopped to ask directions.
What she got actually turned out to be a new direction, when the owner talked her into taking riding lessons. It didn't require much convincing.
"I loved horses from the time I was a kid, but I grew up in the city (Passiac) and we were poor," she said, explaining how she finally fulfilled her ambition. That was the start of a lifetime interest for Tomajko, 62, a nurse whose other life involves competing in dressage, taking care of three horses at her 8-acre Meadow Wind Farm in Branchburg and volunteering for the Eastern States Dressage and Combined Training Association.
Tomajko has been a member of ESDCTA since 1976, when it was just the Eastern States Dressage Association.
She is a powerhouse for the organization, not only as a member of the executive board, but also arranging the annual awards luncheon, securing the awards and serving as the committee chair for grants.
Tomajko runs a silent auction at the luncheon, with money raised going to help send both dressage and eventing riders to clinics and championships. Some could not afford to go if it were not for the ESDCTA stipend.
"We try to push for as much education as we can for the members," noted Tomajko.
"She's fantastic," said ESDCTA Vice President Heidi Lemack of Allentown.
"She did our awards in record time, getting out the results this year. She's always willing to step up to the plate and always follows through. She's authentic, she's a real horseperson, she takes super care of her horses; she trains hard and helps other people."
Soon after Tomajko started taking riding lessons, she wound up with a horse. Alexa was an off-the-track thoroughbred who turned out to be a handful.
"People used to watch me get thrown," Tomajko cheerily recounted. Initially, she was involved in the hunter/jumper ranks, but a chance to watch Hilda Gurney and Keen--members of the U.S. 1976 Olympic bronze medal dressage squad and the 1984 Olympic sixth-place squad--changed her direction once again when she saw them at Dressage at Devon.
"I fell in love with dressage," Tomajko said. By the time she was in her 50s, she borrowed against her retirement savings to buy a mount that could raise the level of her performance.
That was Story Time, a Welsh/thoroughbred cross registered as an American Warmblood. Known as Page, the mare is also a senior citizen now, age 21.
"She gives new meaning to `woman with an attitude,' because she can be tough, but it works for me," said Tomajko. "She forgives my inadequacies and I forgive hers, so we're a good team."
The 4-foot, 11-inch rider and her 15.1-hand horse have won numerous awards, including the ESDCTA's Fourth Level championship and master's recognition title (for riders over 50) in 2014.
They were U.S. Dressage Federation reserve champions for 2015 in the American Warmblood Society category at Fourth Level/adult amateur and finished 16th at Fourth Level in the USDF's Vintage Awards for riders over 50 in that section nationally. For ESDCTA this year, she earned the master's at Prix St. Georges, where she also was sixth.
Next year, she plans to compete more at that level, always enjoying being pushed beyond her comfort zone to take on new challenges.
"She works hard, she is extremely dedicated to her horse and the sport, with the biggest love of animals of anybody I've ever met," said her trainer, Sara Schmitt of Centerline Farm in Califon.
Tomajko does not get discouraged, even with the odds against her. She recalled one of her first dressage tests on Alexa, where the judge's comments included the devastating remark, "beautiful-moving horse destroyed by rider."
How did she handle that?
"I kept going," she replied. "I came back and rode better the next time."
ON THE RAIL -- Austin H. Kiplinger, chairman emeritus of the Washington International Horse Show, died of cancer Nov. 20 at age 97.
The publisher, civic leader and philanthropist guided the show in its early days and stayed on the board of directors for 48 years, serving as president and chairman. But he also went beyond those duties. During the 1976 bicentennial, for instance, he dressed up as George Washington and rode into the ring to lead the parade of breeds.
Kiplinger welcomed many leaders of the country to the show, including President and Mrs. Dwight David Eisenhower and President and Mrs. John F. Kennedy, as well as Gen. William Westmoreland.
ACTIVITIES SCHEDULE
Today: Thanksgiving National Horse Show, Centenary College Equestrian Center, 12-56 Califon Road, Long Valley.
Saturday: Garden State Appaloosa Show, Gloucester County Dream Park, 400 Route 130 South, Logan Township (through Dec. 6); Lord Stirling StableWinter Holiday Festival, 256 S. Maple Ave., Basking Ridge (through Dec. 6); Baymar Farms Show, 38 Harbor Road, Morganville; Duncraven Winter Circuit Show, 1300 Trenton Harbourton Road, Titusville (through Dec. 6); Palermo Winter Series, 1555A Burnt Mills Road, Bedminster (through Dec. 6).
Dec. 6: CJL Show, Baymar Farms, 38 Harbor Road, Morganville; Barrel Racing, Horse Park of New Jersey, Route 524, Allentown.
Nancy Jaffer: nancyjaffer@comcast.net.