One of the great things about horse racing is that regardless of your background, of where you grew up, or heck, your family’s opinion of the sport, you can find your place among the many jobs necessary to make it all happen. In Bethany Baumgardner’s case, the money her parents scraped together to give their horse-crazy daughter a chance to ride has yielded much more.

As one of the trainers for Glen Hill Farm, Baumgardner has parlayed her time in the saddle into a burgeoning career as a conditioner, taking the resilience she built competing on the racetrack into this next phase.

The horse bug bit this trainer early.

“I grew up about 30 minutes from Pimlico, in Harford County. My family was not involved in horses. I just loved horses,” she shared. “And luckily, my parents (who own Alonso’s in Baltimore) found a way to pay for a lesson once a week on Friday nights to go riding.”

At age 10, she got her first pony and then moved on to eventing. When the costs of that discipline became an issue, she turned to galloping racehorses for trainers like Hall of Famer Tom Voss to pay for her eventing horse, an off-track Thoroughbred. That turned into riding in jump races and later on the flat.

Her time in the saddle also included a chance to ride in the international Fegentri program. Short for International Federation of Gentlemen and Lady Riders, this group of amateur male and female riders compete in championship days around the world. Baumgardner was able to participate in multiple competitions in 13 countries, including a victory in Mauritius, off the coast of eastern Africa.

“When they asked me to ride in Mauritius, I won’t lie, I said, ‘Yes, where is that?’  So, I didn’t even know where Mauritius was then. And now I was fortunate to get to go twice,” she said. “I got to ride on the flat in many different countries. And I rode here at Pimlico, one at Delaware, had some fun rides here as well, but lots of traveling and meeting people with Fegentri riding on the flat with them.”

She made the transition away from riding when her own jump racer Mavourneen retired. Baumgardner first worked as an assistant with Tom Proctor for six years, a connection she made through her ties to the steeplechase world. A longtime trainer for Glen Hill Farm, he trained 1994 Breeders’ Cup Distaff winner One Dreamer, and graded stakes winners Marketing Mix and Keertana. First galloping for Voss and then assisting Proctor, she learned the skills she would need to go out on her own.

“I came up with some very good horsemen. My first galloping job was with Tom Voss, who’s in the Hall of Fame. And I spent over a decade in his barn, and riders had to do everything,” she remembered. “We rubbed horses, we cleaned stalls, we bandaged, we took care of the layup. So, I learned a lot in his program.”

Proctor won over 1,400 races and won Grade 1 events with five different horses.

“And then obviously working as an assistant for Tom, for years, I got to see how they ran their program and how they liked doing things,” Baumgardner said. “Then when Tom and [Glen Hill CEO Craig Bernick] offered me the position at Glen Hill, I was thrilled for the opportunity. And then if they had confidence in me, then I was more than happy to take on the spot.”

Now training exclusively for Glen Hill in Florida, this rider-turned-conditioner has 12 horses in her charge, including Grade 3 winner Ocean Club, who gave Baumgardner her first victory as a trainer in last May’s Monroe Stakes at Gulfstream and finished third in the Gallorette (G3) at Pimlico May 17; and her half-brother Chicago Theatre, who won on debut at Tampa Bay Downs in January. When horses leave Florida for other circuits, they also typically move to others training for Glen Hill; that’s by design.

As a hands-on trainer still early in her training career, Baumgardner likes to get on her horses to get more insight into their conditioning.

“I think I get a better gauge on how their bodies are moving and how they’re feeling. A rider can come back and maybe give you input that they’re doing really well or that they’re good, but something doesn’t feel great,” she observed. “It’s really helpful for me to be able to get on them and either say, ‘Oh, I think they are moving great,’ or ‘Yeah, maybe we have something to work on a bit.’ I think that’s a huge help, engaging where they are.”

From here, this 34-year-old former jockey “would like to try some other circuits. My husband is in Florida with Grand Prix show jumpers. So, Wellington and South Florida have to be incorporated there. But, yeah, I think it would be great to get to see a bit more of Kentucky for sure. I’d like to spend some more time out there and see where it takes us.”

As she prepares to send her string up to Saratoga for the summer, Baumgardner is keeping her goals for her career simple: “Keep training really good horses.” With Glen Hill in her corner and a mare like Ocean Club in her barn, we may be seeing more of Bethany Baumgardner in the winner’s circle soon.