You may remember a story we published in summer 2022 about D'Vinicris, whose pastern radiographs set Twitter buzzing. Less than a year after he suffered two seriously displaced fractures of P1, the bone that runs between the pastern and the top of the hoof, he's ready to make headlines in a new way.
You can read our coverage of his injury and recovery here.
The David Donk trainee was pulled up in April 2022 with an injury and underwent successful surgery with Dr. Patty Hogan to insert six screws to close the fracture lines. Despite the severity of the injury, Hogan said the son of Giant Surprise would have no future performance limitations. In fact, he returned to race training but after seeing him gallop, his connections felt he probably wouldn't return to the same level of competition and opted to retire him.
D'Vinicris made his way to North Country Horses in Gansevoort, N.Y., where he became part of New Vocations' adoption network. Amanda Vance, owner/trainer at North Country, oversees retraining and adoption of 20 to 24 off-track Thoroughbreds (OTTBs) and Standardbreds for New Vocations within her barn of 60 horses. She remembers D'Vinicris as an instant barn favorite upon his arrival to the facility earlier this winter.
“He's a super personable horse and he's very easy to ride,” she said. “He's super game to do anything we've asked. We only have a few rides on him; we've been letting him enjoy letdown and turnout.”
Vance has a multi-talented team of riders at North Country, each with a different horse sport background. The barn offers lessons, boarding, and summer camps, and is the home of Interscholastic Equestrian Association teams in hunt seat, dressage, and Western. For the New Vocations horses, that means horses have the chance to dabble in a variety of sports on their route to finding their next job.
She also has a close relationship with Donk, as she was Donk's choice for a retirement home for popular track pony Willie. Willie lived with Vance until the age of 26, participating in children's summer camps with frequent visits from Donk and his wife Fay.
Vance knew when D'Vinicris, now known as “Vinny,” came in that he was going to prove challenging to match with an adopter, thanks to his hardware. It's a common misconception among equestrians that horses with screws or plates to repair old fractures are at risk of suffering from complications or lameness as a result of those surgeries. In most cases, that simply isn't true, said Vance and Hogan. Some severe cases may encounter arthritis in the affected joint later in life, but many do not and it's often difficult to separate the impact of old screws from the impact of a show or riding career in the intervening years.
“I've found that with hardware, people tend to shy away,” Vance said.
While Vinny became acclimated to life in her barn, Vance found herself chatting with other trainers in the New Vocations network. They had been kicking around the idea of forming a New Vocations team of horses and riders to compete in next year's Thoroughbred Makeover, and Vance had an idea.
“We thought it would be great to cheer each other on and keep each other motivated all season,” said Vance. “We had also talked about adopting the less typical horse, maybe the horse somebody might be a little hesitant to take a risk on because of an injury or a behavior or something of that nature.”
Vinny fit the bill perfectly.
“People will probably take one look at those radiographs and say I'm not sure he's going to be able to do the job,” she said. “In reality, he should be able to do any job.”
Vinny has only had a few rides under his belt but his uphill build would suggest dressage could be a good outlet for him. He has also hopped over one small fence in one of his early rides without any concern. For now, Vance said his future is wide open.
“He gets to tell us [what he wants] and then we'll shift our focus to what he wants to do,” she said.
Whether he makes it to the Makeover or not, Vinny will remain with Vance afterward. She already knows she'll be too attached to him, and is confident that no matter what he wants to do under saddle, there will be a place in her program for him.
The post After Harrowing Pastern Fracture, New Vocations Trainer Letting ‘Vinny’ Choose His Path appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.
