Rich Fisher

Trenton, NJ — Megan Foster loves her horse, loves her driver and loves her profession.

It’s the kind of love that can help a woman overcome the misconception that watching a Standardbred being jogged is akin to being a tourist in Pennsylvania Dutch Country.

In 2010, Foster (then with the maiden name Price) was involved with show horses when her mom helped get her a job working for trainer Arty Foster Sr. All she knew is that it involved racehorses and the 19-year-old assumed it was Thoroughbreds with jockeys.

“I had no idea about the sulky end of it or anything like that,” Foster said. “I’m not even joking. I talked to my mom on the phone, I said ‘Mom, what is this? Is this Amish?’ She said, ‘Oh God, you need to get out more.’ She totally threw me out there and I had no idea what it was going to be like.”

Once Megan realized she had not been transported to Lancaster, Pa., her numerous love affairs began.

Megan Foster scored her first training win when husband Russell drove Hi Sir to victory at Rosecroft Raceway in Maryland. Photo courtesy of Megan Foster.

She started by helping Foster Sr. around the barn, doing whatever jobs were necessary. During that time, she became friendly with driver Russell Foster — Arty’s grandson. Upon her arrival, Megan and Russell were each dating other people but those relationships fell by the wayside. The two had already become friends and, once they were both free agents, they began dating in 2011 and got married in October 2014.

“Russell actually is the one who taught me everything about harness racing,” Megan said. “He took me to the track and I started off as a groom. If he drove the horse I would paddock the horse. So it started off as a friendship.”

In 2013, Russell claimed a 5-year-old pacer named Hi Sir. Megan immediately began working with him and suddenly she was in love with Russell and Hi Sir, and would soon love becoming a trainer after she got her license earlier this year.

Those three special things combined for the perfect storm on March 31. Just 21 days after her 28th birthday, Foster scored her first training win when Russell drove Hi Sir to victory at Rosecroft Raceway in Maryland. The horse led from gate to wire and won by four lengths.

“It sounds kind of corny but Hi Sir has always been my favorite horse, he’s like my pet, so that’s why it kind of means so much (to get her first win with him),” Megan said. “I’ve been working him since Russell got him. He’s a special horse.”

Why?

“I don’t really know, honestly,” she said. “He’s just a little gentleman at the barn. It’s mainly because he’s just a sweetheart. You can go and rub on him, he loves to be rubbed on and I’ve always said manners go a long way with me. And he’s done really well for me and Russell. He’s made us quite a bit of money.”

Hi Sir is her favorite among five horses owned by the couple. Four are currently racing and they are breaking a 2-year-old they hope to have on the track this summer.

It is a comfortable situation for the two, who reside in Cordova, Md., with 3-year-old son, Blake, and 1-year-old daughter, Mia. Megan trains all the horses and Russell drives them all, as well as some for other owners. While many married couples would consider working together a horror, the Fosters embrace it.

“All our friends always say ‘Oh my God how do you work together? I would kill my husband, or I would kill my wife if I had to see them all the time,’” Megan said. “I’m not trying to say we don’t have arguments. When we’re really busy that’s when we’ll have a confrontation, but both of us will knuckle down together and get it done. If we have a lot to train or it’s just a busy day or we have so much going on, you just get it done. We both seem to love it.

“Who else are you going to trust beside your spouse? He asks me to do something, I ask him to do something, you know it’s going to get done.”

Foster has been around horses most of her life. Growing up in East New Market, Md., Megan did some show jumping as a teenager. She went to college to become a physical therapist and in her freshman year began to grow weary of show horses.

“I kind of did the riding horse thing for fun,” she said. “I’m not saying I didn’t enjoy it, but it just seemed like a hobby more so than a lifestyle kind of thing.”

Thus, a friend of her mom’s connected her with Arty Foster. She literally had no idea what harness racing was, but quickly embraced working with Standardbreds. After a while she quit her waitress job in order to be at the barn more frequently but it still wasn’t enough.

One day, as she sat in class, Megan had an epiphany.

“I was so miserable because I just wanted to be on the farm,” she said. “I loved the horse racing so much.”

So, she quit school and never looked back.

“I don’t regret my decision at all,” Foster said. “I don’t think I would have been happy doing (physical therapy). Don’t get me wrong, I think it had a lot to do with wanting to be with my (future) husband a lot. I’m not denying that. But I think a lot of it had to do with being outside a lot. Mom had gotten me the job halfway through one of my semesters. I guess it ruined me for school because I just didn’t want to do it anymore.”

Once Blake and Mia came along, Megan could no longer get to the track to help her husband. With Russell getting an increasing amount of drives, he was unable to train as much. Since Megan was home, Russell figured why not take her to the next level.

“It was his idea for me to become a trainer,” she said. “I never expected to do the training thing at all. I just kind of helped Russell with whatever and whenever he needed my help at home. I was just kind of the back-up, I never thought I’d actually do it.

“He basically told me ‘With me being gone a lot you’re the one always there anyway so it would make more sense.’ I was nervous about taking the test, I’m not a very good test-taker. But he helped me kind of prepare for it. I had gotten the study guide book, Russell tried to prep me as much as he could.”

Megan nailed it on the first try and her training career was officially underway. She is still unable to go to the track much but says when Ocean Downs opens she can take the kids and “it’s warm down there so they can run around while I’m watching the races.”

Now that she is firmly entrenched in her profession, Foster has no grand plans as she is content with where she is at.

“I just mainly want to do the family thing with Russell,” she said. “Maybe we’ll get one or two more. It’s just basically me and him, we’re not looking to expand to 50-some horses or anything like that. If there was a friend that needed help, like ‘Hey could you take this horse for a little while for me?’ maybe I’d do that. But I can’t really see me actually training other people’s horses. I’m not saying never, but not now.”

For now, she has found a niche that she never saw coming nine years ago.

“When I came across Standardbred horses I was actually in college,” she said. “I had no idea that this is what I was going to do. I didn’t know I was going to marry my boss’s grandson. I had no idea, honestly. I went into it totally blind sided. But I believe this is it. We just love it; this is what we want to do as far as a career choice.”

And why not? Once she figured out the sulky was more than just a horse-drawn buggy, the rest was easy.