TDN Weekend December 2016 Issue 9
Issue link: http://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/816510
More importantly, how many newcom- ers that have experienced such a run of success would be able to carry them- selves with the dignified charm and re- spectful humility of Susan Chu, whose genuine enthusiasm and reverential awe bubble to the surface each time she speaks about how horses have helped to shape her family for the better? "Horses aren't just a business for us. They are really so much more," Chu said quietly but emphatically during a two- hour interview over cups of steaming, exotically fragrant Taiwanese tea in the tidy, welcoming office of her equine management firm 30 miles north of Bos- ton. "The joys that our horses bring us today, we will have for life." Since immersing herself in the world of Thoroughbreds five years ago, Chu, 51, is both geographically and culturally far removed from her homeland and up- bringing. Not only is there no organized horse racing in Taiwan, but Chu had nev- er even come within touching distance of a live horse until after she married Charles, now 52, and had her first two children, Vicky, 25, and Leo, 23. Three decades ago, Charles made his mark in Asia as a self-driven entrepre- neur with a knack for transforming his engineering and design expertise into highly marketable global-positioning satellite technologies. The income he earned from those products afforded their young children an opportunity to experience some special, out-of-the-or- dinary Taiwanese activities, like horse- back riding. It was quite a trek, Chu recounted, to drive up into the misty mountainous region of the island just to get to where the few horse farms were, but her kids enjoyed riding so much once they tried it that soon they were going every weekend. "I was so impressed the first time I saw a horse in person," Chu marveled, her expressive features giving way to an easy smile at the recollection. "I had done nothing related to horses—never in my life! I never even thought I could touch a horse. But then I would always touch the horses, pet them—I just loved it." In those early years, Chu remained "just the driver," content to act as a motherly chauffeur for Vicky and Leo and as an occasional treat-feeder to the docile mixed Taiwanese breeds known locally as "parent-child" horses. But even though the Chus enjoyed a "very good life" and had big families on both sides, Charles wanted to do better. He had a vi- sion for expanding his company to Amer- The joys that our horses bring us today, we will have for life.