Maine native horse driver Giles still living his dream

By Maureen Milliken

RANGELEY — Maine native and Rangeley-area summer resident Bob Giles may be 71, but that won’t keep him from continuing to live his dream of competing in the Para-Driving World Championships.

Giles is part of three-member Team USA that will compete in the equestrian event in Kronenberg, The Netherlands. It began Aug. 27 and finishes Sept. 2. It’s the second time Giles has competed in the world championships, which is an equestrian event in which those with physical disabilities drive a horse while riding in a carriage and is governed by the International Federation of Equestrian Sports. Giles has a Gofundme page to help defray the costs of going to the competition.

While Giles, a three-time Vietnam War Purple Heart recipient, is a well-known driving clinician throughout the U.S. and internationally, as well as full-time competitor, it’s as a mentor for others getting into the sport, as well as rehabilitating horses, that he’s made his mark.
Chris Carswell, 19, who has the genetic condition Loeys-Dietz syndrome, says Giles is responsible for his success as a driver.
“I have suffered many medical challenges in my lifetime – including strokes and brain surgeries. I am physically disabled and legally blind, but this does not stop me from pursuing my dream of becoming an International para-driver for the USA,” Carswell said. His first full year driving in competitions was 2017-18. “The show season was a wonderful experience because of my coach, mentor and friend, Bob Giles,” he said.
He said Giles went “above and beyond to make sure my pony and I were ready to compete.”
That “above and beyond” included Giles taking care of and training Carswell’s pony at his Florida farm, so Carswell could stay home with his ill grandmother. When Carswell’s mother had to go out of state to take care of his grandmother’s estate after she died in November, Giles took Carswell, who can’t drive because of vision loss, into his home.
“Now I could train full-time and my Mom didn’t have to worry,” Carswell said.

Giles knows something about adversity. His injuries in Vietnam took 90 percent of his hearing, he has pins in both legs and his back, plates in his back and head, nerve damage in his left elbow and partial use of his right hand because his right elbow was shattered into 17 pieces and had to be fused, according to a 2014 article in the Lewiston Sun-Journal.
The Lubec native was a ward of the state as a child, living in 13 foster homes.
“As a state kid, I had no say in my life,” he told the Sun-Journal. “I didn’t say where I was going to live, I didn’t say what I was going to wear, I didn’t say what school I was going to go to.”
He said his experience made him want to be an inspiration. “Even though it took me 68 years to get this done, that you never let go of your dreams.”
When he worked with a horse, it was the first time he had someone to do his bidding. “Whatever I asked them, the horse would do. So for me, to pay the horse back for helping me get through my childhood, the best thing I can do is become a clinician and a judge, because what I say, people will take as gospel.”
Besides being a clinician and trainer, Giles is a full-time competitor in both combined driving and pleasure showing. His selection to the USEF Para-Equestrian Driving Team in 2014 was a dream come true for him, he said. He won a silver medal that year.
His relationship with driving began as a draft-hitch driver when he was a teenager in Maine, doing farm work and logging. Later, he owned and operated a driving horse training center in Maine, Gentle Brook Farm, for 14 years.
He and his wife, Brenda, now own 15-acre Winter Hill Driving Center in Morriston, Fla., where he spends winters.

Giles has been involved in educational programs for novice drivers for several years, and has garnered a reputation for starting horses and people in horse driving.
Carswell said he learned a lot from Giles when he lived with him last winter.
“Not only did I learn more about driving, ponies, horses, training, care, rules and regulations than money could have ever purchased, but I learned about ‘heart’ and ‘true passion.’…I watched as Bob fielded every phone call and visit — he helped everyone_ _that asked for his help. If the person could not come to him he went to them.
“He took on the horses and ponies that had hurt or scared their owners and transformed them into confident driving horses and ponies. He gave the owners back their sense of safety and confidence in their animal. He gave others ‘joy.'”
Carswell said one thing he will always remember is that every time they drove home from a show, Giles would say, “How lucky are we?”
Carswell said, “Those words are forever etched in my soul because living this life and enjoying something we are passionate about.”