Abby Olsen named MHRI Caretaker of the Year

ABBY OLSEN has been selected as this year’s MHRI Caretaker of the Year award winner, an honor that is presented annually to the best of the best of caretakers/grooms based on work ethic, acquired skills and dedication during the Minnesota harness racing season.

Abby has worked as a groom for Roland Racing Stable at Running Aces for the past five years. She started in 2020 after reaching out and looking for an opportunity to learn and work with the horses. She wound up getting connected with Jessica Johnson and Nick Roland and began working as a helper in the barn. She had little experience but was very eager to learn and she had a great passion and love for horses.

Despite all of the distractions and abnormalities of the ‘covid season’ in 2020, she worked hard and learned a lot that first summer and became enamored with the Standardbreds and the sport. That fall she also enrolled in college, majoring in equine studies.

Abby has returned to the Roland stable every summer since and has continued to learn and expand her horizons. She has become a highly trusted member of the team
and has mastered not only general horse care, but also jogging horses, paddocking, putting horses away, managing the farm horses and much more.

With all that she has learned and added to her skill set she does not shy away from the basic things like cleaning stalls. In fact, when she has completed her work in the Roland stable she often picks up extra stall work in other barns and grabs catch paddocks if the Roland stable has only one or two racing on a given night.

In 2023 one of the Roland stable star horses (former Minnesota Horse of the Year) Giggle Monster retired from racing. Abby asked if he could “go to college” with her, and so he did. He helped students learn how to train a horse accustomed to other disciplines to be “re-trained” to become a riding horse. Abby also became Giggle Monster’s new “forever person” in the process. And Abby graduated from UM Crookston in May of 2024.

Jessica shared the following sentiments about Abby and her work ethic:

“Aside from working for us, Abby continues to seek out opportunities to continue to learn and become an even more well-rounded horse-woman. This August, Abby accepted a coveted internship position at Diamond Creek Farms for yearling prep. She was in charge of preparing several yearlings to be sold at both the Kentucky and the Harrisburg sales.

Currently, Abby is in southern California working as a Veterinary assistant at a prominent show facility. She is a person who strives to continue to learn, grow, and mold herself into a well-rounded individual, and she is also an independent thinker when it comes to horses and horsemanship, and has tremendous ability to work in a team environment”.

She also shared: “Abby is the type of caretaker everyone wants to have looking after their horses. She is kind, attentive, and shows up with the same enthusiastic and studious attitude each day, but with even more drive to hustle and learn more”.

The Caretaker of the Year Award will be presented at the MHRI Annual meeting and Awards Banquet at Running Aces on Saturday (Feb 22).

by Darin Gagne, for Minnesota Harness Racing, Inc.