Weekly Photo: Kangaroo Kid and his Russian
As a young girl growing up in Moscow, where male athletes were favored far more than the females, Maria Bogdanova-Peifer had to fight and claw her way into the saddle. Told no more times than she could count, the persistent 12-year-old finally found a coach who softened when she pleaded: “All I want is a chance.” Though the class of male riders all laughed when she was palmed off on an old, stiff Thoroughbred nobody wanted to ride, she was thrilled at the chance. And though there were times she could barely hold on as she bounced “all over the […]
