Ramon Dominguez The Iron Man

By Steve Buffery

Exercise rider Romon Dominguez pulls up beside barn No. 30 in the Woodbine backstretch one recent morning - dapper in a white cowboy hat, blue shirt and jeans - climbs out of his truck and immediately starts lugging equipment out of the back.

Asked how he’s feeling, Dominguez replied. “Good, I’ve already galloped 10 horses this morning.”

Which, in itself, is no big deal. Ramon is one of the top exercise riders at Woodbine and is a busy man. But what’s truly remarkable is that the native of Chihuahua, Mexico manages to put in a full day’s work despite suffering from, since 2011, Parkinson’s - a neurodegenerative disease of the central nervous system that can result in tremors, rigidity and trouble maintaining balance. Indeed, stopping for a while to chat, Dominguez struggles to maintain his balance and sways as he shares his story with a reporter and his ex-wife Sandra. He’s also 65-year-old, which is not exactly young for an exercise rider.

“He’s unsteady on his feet walking, but put him on a horse and he’s … well … you wouldn’t want anybody else on a horse,” said veteran Woodbine trainer Dave Cotey. “He’s awesome.”

Awesome is a good word to describe Ramon Dominguez, who met Sandra Russo at an Arizona racetrack in 1983. They got married a short time afterwards.

“My dad Joe Russo (a trainer at Assiniboia Downs in Winnipeg) smuggled him across the (Canadian) border,” Sandra said, with a laugh.

Though they’re no longer married, Roman and Sandra still work together and are friends. Indeed, they have two sons together, Javier and Ramon Jr.  Sandra is an assistant trainer for Cotey.

Ramon Dominguez started galloping horses in Winnipeg and the couple later relocated to Ontario, where Ramon began riding quarter horses before eventually becoming a thoroughbred exercise rider at Woodbine in 1991. In 2011, during a quarter horse race at Ajax Downs, Dominguez was forced off the horse and hit his head. Initially, he thought he was okay. But that wasn’t the case.

“I kept riding, but the next morning I came home and I could hardly move my left arm and left leg,” Dominguez said. “I thought I had a stroke. I was barely walking, I was having problems getting dressed, speaking, and everything else.”

It wasn’t until he consulted doctors back home in Mexico when Ramon was diagnosed with Parkinson’s. And while every day is a struggle physically, Dominguez decided early on after his diagnosis that he was going to push forward and keep doing his job no matter what.

“I thought about stopping, but I love it too much,” he said. “I fall down 2-3 times a day, just walking. And I’m unable to walk some days. But when I’m on a horse, I’m fine. I don’t get tired.

“It’s weird,” said Sandra, when asked how her ex manages to ride and breeze horses while he struggles to walk some days. “He has trouble walking, but he flies on a horse. And he can run. That’s the weirdest thing. Once he gets going, he can run like nothing.

“Research (into the disease) says the more you do, the better it is. If you can still do what you’re doing (after being diagnosed), then keep doing it. But if you stop, (the symptoms are going to) progress faster,” she added. “He was diagnosed 15 years ago, but he’s still riding, because he’s active, he’s physical and keeps on going. If he had given up back then ...”

“I was born on a horse,” Ramon added with a smile. “I’ve been on horses all my life.”

From the looks of things, it appears as though Ramon is going to be riding horses for some time yet. Sandra says not only does he have a busy schedule galloping every day, Ramon also helps her in the morning around Cotey’s barn. When it comes to getting a horse to cooperate, Ramon seems to have an uncanny touch. Sandra said some consider him - for lack of a better term - a horse whisperer.

“I do, and I think a lot of people do,” she said. “A lot of people get angry on horses, but he laughs (when they act up). And everybody else would be scared.  But the horses can’t miss with him for some reason. When he gets on a horse, he’s not scared and the horses feel comfortable. He’s confident. He’s never broken a bone and he’s been getting on a lot of bad horses in his life.”

“I’ve never found a bad horse yet. I’ve found a lot of bad people,” Ramon added with a laugh. “But never a bad horse.”

A couple of times a year, Ramon drives back to Mexico where he keeps some horses, cows and works his apple orchard. As for the future, Sandra said her ex is waiting to consult a specialist in Toronto and to see if surgery might be an option to help him with his symptoms.

“But it’s an eight-month wait,” she said. “There’s nothing more that they can do for him as far as medications, so now he’s got to take the next step.”

And that might include surgery.

Asked if he ever gets discouraged, Ramon paused for a second and said: “Some days I do. When I have trouble walking. It can be pretty frustrating.

“But I haven’t given up yet, and I’m not going to either,” he added.