The Retired Racehorse Project Thoroughbred Makeover has always had a significant impact on my life, starting with the first time I announced the event during the first year it was held at the Kentucky Horse Park in 2015. I had only begun riding horses a few months earlier, and seeing the supportive and talented community that was brought together by a love for OTTBs inspired my passion for eventing and has changed my life.

Now, in 2021, the Thoroughbred Makeover took place right after we lost Uno (JC: The Gray Man; USEA: Rocketman) to colic on Oct. 10. My wife, Ashley Horowitz, and I flew to Kentucky that night for a week of producing stories about participants and broadcasting the event. We arrived with heavy hearts, trying to process the sudden death of a horse with whom I developed a truly special bond.

As unexpected as losing Uno was, having him come into my life and the moments we shared together were just as unexpected.

Uno was foaled on May 3, 2017, in Indiana, and he raced twice at Indiana Grand under the name The Gray Man. At eight days old, he lost his left eye, although I've never confirmed which of the two stories that I've been told about it was the cause — either from a pasture accident or his mother's stepping on him.

Uno's one eye gave him a special personality. For Halloween this year, I was planning to have him be a pirate, while I would ride him wearing a parrot costume. With one sense limited, another was heightened, and Uno relied on processing his surroundings through smell more than I've seen in other horses. He also relied on people to guide him when he was unsure, and you could tell from this trait that he was always treated well by the humans in his life.

The grey son of sire Unbridled Express and dam Majestic Isle made his racing debut in the eighth race at Indiana Grand on June 16, 2020, a maiden special weight for Indana-breds over five furlongs. He finished 12th of 12, beaten 44 lengths.

The Gray Man ran one more time on July 6, 2020, this time going one mile on turf in an Indiana-bred maiden, and finished eighth of 11 beaten 18 3/4 lengths.

With racing not in the stars for the lanky 16.3 hh gelding, The Gray Man began a new chapter of life with Brit Vegas' Royal Fox Stables in Milford, Nebraska. Vegas has built a great reputation rehoming Thoroughbreds from the racetrack, and through Vegas, The Gray Man would make his way to Colorado to Kim Wendel, an upper-level eventer who is also the wife of our veterinarian, Dr. Tom Wendel.

Jonathan's two horses come together in the final photo he would ever take of Uno

Kim Wendel bestowed the barn name of “Uno” on The Gray Man because of his one eye. She had plans to compete him at the 2021 Thoroughbred Makeover. Those plans changed when she imported the Irish Sport Horse MBF Gambler from Ireland and decided to focus her eventing goals on reaching the upper levels of the sport.

My wife responded to a Facebook post Kim made in December 2020 that Uno was for sale. I told Ashley that I did not want to buy another green OTTB after what had been a roller coaster year with the first horse I started retraining straight off the racetrack, the bay Illinois-bred filly Cubbie Girl North. However, I agreed to a test drive.

The Wendels trailered Uno over to our farm in Parker, Colo., on December 13, 2020. Uno was understandably jittery coming to a new place, as well as being in an indoor arena for the first time. He hadn't been ridden or turned out in a week.

However, Uno settled down and got over his initial nerves. I appreciated how eager he was to respond positively to human guidance and direction. I decided that night to buy him.

The themes of that first ride — Uno's eagerness to please, my desire to develop a partnership with a horse, and the serendipity of how we came together — defined our time together.

We competed in our first event at the Spring Gulch Horse Trials on Aug. 8 on a whim. Uno was sidelined for the month of June with a minor injury and illness but didn't miss a beat when we started training again in July. So, we replaced another horse and rider that couldn't compete at Spring Gulch during the week leading up to the show. Uno was unfazed in his first show environment, his first dressage test, and his first full cross country course.

From there, we competed at the Sunrise Equine Mini Trial six days later. That was originally supposed to be our first show, but with Spring Gulch under our belt, we moved up from the Intro-level height of 2-foot-3 jumps to the Beginner Novice height of 2-foot-7.

Uno was a joy to ride on cross country. He was also a joy to be around, as he spent the next couple hours walking the showgrounds with me, grazing, rolling in the dirt, eating a Pop-Tart, and being pet by others while Ashley's other students were competing.

Because of the experience at Sunrise, we entered our first USEA recognized event at Beginner Novice at The Event at Skyline in Utah on Sept. 17, 18, and 19. I also announced the show. We finished sixth of 12 in our division, and I announced the ribbon ceremony on horseback. He was unfazed as I held a microphone and papers of the results while a green ribbon attached to his bridle on his blind side blew in the wind. The Elton John song Rocketman, the inspiration for Uno's show name registered with USEA, just so happened to be playing in the background.

That one recognized event we got to do together would not have happened had we not taken advantage of the experiences from the previous two shows the month before.

I felt like Uno and I took advantage of every moment we could together. When the Retired Racehorse Project asked me to model a new jacket for their website, I took the pictures with Uno. When Ashley went out for New Year's Eve 2021 and I decided to stay home, I went into his paddock and hung out.

This was one of those special moments Uno and I shared together when I announced our ribbon at The Event at Skyline. I'm writing my next Horowitz on OTTBs column for @paulickreport about Uno but am frankly having a tough time putting on paper how significant he was to me. pic.twitter.com/VD77gRFF0E

— Jonathan Horowitz (@jjhorowitz) October 25, 2021

Uno was the first horse I truly bonded with. I owned my chestnut mare Sorority Girl (JC: Grand Moony) for three years prior to Uno and wrote about how their personalities have affected the experiences I've had with each. Even in writing this, I find it difficult to express the significance Uno had for me.

Going through my phone, the last picture I took of Uno was on September 30, and it's of a brief moment where my two horses crossed paths near our barn. As I was leading Uno back to his paddock, he stopped and put his head next to Sorority Girl's. They took a moment to get to know each other, and it was a significant few seconds for me, made all the more significant now by the fact that it was the final moment that I captured an image of him.

“I have never seen a horse and human so similar—truly kind souls who simply want to love and bond with all those around them,” Ashley wrote in a Facebook post, reflecting on Uno's life. “The connection between the two was undeniable. Everyone noticed and commented, and on top of that Jonathan truly deserved to understand that special connection that can happen between horse and human.”

However, just as unexpectedly as things came together for Uno and me is also how it ended. The love I experienced when he was here is matched by the grief now that he's gone.

Being around the inspiring horses and their trainers at this year's Mega Makeover helped Ashley and me get through that first week after losing Uno. We produced stories about a race trainer that now competes with her horse Town of Towns in show hunters, a Maryland-bred rivalry on the track between Talk Show Man and Phlash Phelps that now continues off it, and more. We announced the two finales with NBC Sports' Donna Brothers.

The work and the Makeover gave us a sense of purpose. However, it would still hit us at times, the hardest for me coming when I announced Forthegreatergood as the 2021 Thoroughbred Makeover Champion. Forthegreatergood reminded me of Uno, a young grey gelding full of talent and personality. His dam happens to be named No Peeking. Elton John's “Your Song” happened to be playing in the background.

The author and his heart horse share a moment at their first USEA recognized event together at The Event at Skyline in Utah on Sept. 17

The time I spent with Uno coincided with the time period trainers are allowed to work with their horses in new disciplines for the Thoroughbred Makeover—from the December of the year before to the October of the Makeover. Those 10 months are full of highs and lows, and that's what I got to experience with Uno.

“What short time Uno had with you was more than many get in a lifetime,” Kathy Smoke, the former president of the Arabian Jockey Club and my former boss, wrote in one of the many kind messages I received after Uno's passing.

Before I ever started riding six years ago, I spent 15 years announcing horse races and talking about thousands of horses in my race calls without ever really getting to know them. Going from broadcasting to riding to running a farm with Ashley has made me a more compassionate member of the Thoroughbred community.

I've learned so much from horses. But Uno was the horse that taught me about that special bond you can have with horses that I didn't know was a real thing. The experiences people have with their heart horses are inevitably extreme, and I feel like I got them all in just 10 months. Those extreme experiences are what ultimately bring the horse community together. We seek the highs and we keep coming back after the lows. I hope I can carry on the valuable lessons Uno has taught me as I continue my journey.

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How a horse matches up with its rider in an equestrian sport is very much like a director trying to cast the right actor or a chef trying to put the right ingredients between two pieces of bread.

I'm grateful for the talent both my OTTB eventers have, and they also could not be more different in terms of how I match with them.

Since she became my first horse in 2018, Sorority Girl (Jockey Club registered as Grand Moony; Barn Name: Moo) has always been the hotshot talent who knows she's good and questions whether I'm good enough to be her teammate. I could not think of a more perfect horse to make me a better rider when I was just starting to learn the sport of eventing.

My newest project, Rocketman (Jockey Club registered as The Gray Man; Barn Name: Uno), wants to get to know me, hang out with me, and be the best teammate he can be both under and out of saddle. I could not think of a more perfect horse to teach me about how special it can be to bond with a former racehorse.

I competed in events with Rocketman and Sorority Girl each of the first three weekends of August 2021, and the personalities that they brought to the show—really, the personalities they bring to all our rides—affected what I got out of and learned from showing them.

I took Rocketman to his first horse show at the Spring Gulch Horse Trials in Colorado on August 8. We went on a whim. After having a month off with a minor injury and illness in June, Uno returned like a champ in July, happy to work under saddle and eager to try the jumper courses I put him through. So, less than a week before the show, I made arrangements for Uno and me to replace another rider and horse who could no longer compete.

I flew back to Colorado the night before the show after announcing the collegiate box lacrosse national championships in California that weekend. I had no idea how my lovable 4-year-old grey gelding with one eye would handle his first show environment. He was a joy to be around. He warmed up calmly and went in the dressage ring for his first test — which also happened to be the first full dressage test we ever did — willing to do whatever was asked of him.

My goal was to make the show a positive experience for Rocketman, so that he wouldn't be “burning out his fuse up here alone.” After the 16.3 hh gelding still trying to figure out where his feet are tripped during one movement, I rebalanced Rocketman and gave him a pet on the neck. I pet him during other moments of the test as well, telling him he was being a good boy. After we halted, I pet him again…and then remembered that I was actually supposed to salute the judge first. The judge and scribe smiled.

We didn't score that well, with a lot of the reasons for my struggles with dressage falling on my riding shortcomings. However, we received the most flattering feedback from the judge, Cindy DePorter from South Carolina, “Going in the right direction! Tactfully ridden! Good start. Work on continuing the kind hands. Good luck. Have fun.” It also brought a smile to my face that the scribe had noted Uno's “one eye” and put a heart next to it under “Distinguishing Marks.”

Uno loves to jump, and we moved up the standings after stadium jumping and cross country to finish ninth in a field of 16 in the Intro-A division. We also earned The Jockey Club's Thoroughbred Incentive Program High Point Award for the Intro level.

The next week, Uno and I moved up from the 2'3 Intro level to the 2'7 Beginner Novice level at the relaxed mini trial schooling show at Sunrise Equine. Uno jumped clear to finish on his dressage score, placing third in a field of six in the BN-A division.

Not only do I love this video of Uno from our first BN XC at Sunrise because he was totally game, it also has hilarious commentary by the dad of Ashley's student. It ties in with my next “Horowitz on OTTBs” column in @paulickreport on OTTBs' personalities. https://t.co/xui8VCUPmG pic.twitter.com/TDKszozMJo

— Jonathan Horowitz (@jjhorowitz) August 25, 2021

More than just competing well, Uno relished the show environment. When we were done, but more students from our Super G Sporthorses barn still had to compete, I walked Uno around like a puppy dog, and he happily grazed, rolled in the dirt, and was doted on by others at the show.

This was all unlike what my first shows with Sorority Girl were like, when both she and I were new to the sport of eventing back in 2018. Yes, she had raw talent and I was fairly precocious to be competing in recognized events after less than three years of riding horses, but we struggled. I chronicled our early epic eliminations at shows from too many refusals to falls to dressage meltdowns earlier in this column in “Horowitz Learns That In Eventing, Winning Isn't Everything.”

Unlike Uno, Moo tests her rider. She has her own agenda and has strong opinions about her rider's agenda. As many special moments as we've had together, including her stealing the show during the wedding ceremony for Ashley and me, she lives life on her terms. So, unlike Uno, who wants to please his rider, Moo wants her rider to meet her expectations—stay balanced, set her up properly to jumps, ask her to work with purpose on the flat. Then, we make a great team.

The author with Moo on the cross country course

The personality Moo brought to our partnership when I was first learning to ride fit with what I needed. I wanted to be a legitimate rider and not just the novelty of the horse race announcer that decided to hop on a horse. Moo made me that rider.

So, at The Event at Archer in Wyoming from August 20 to 22, the hard work I've put in on Moo showed through. Yes, we still struggled with dressage, but that's because I struggled and not her. She did everything how I asked. I'm just having panicky brain freezes in the arena in front of a judge.

After that, we turned in double-clear cross country and stadium jumping rounds, making us one of only four in our ON-B division of 18 and one of only six across the whole Novice level of 34 to finish on our dressage score — albeit a dressage score I continue to work hard to improve.

Moo is a joy to ride on cross country. She gets amped in the start box during the 10-second countdown. She has her ears forward and is eager to jump. If she's ever looky, she's responsive to my cues and has catty reflexes. Here's our XC round at Archer.https://t.co/Y5o2rzPT69 pic.twitter.com/FxdwyMsSum

— Jonathan Horowitz (@jjhorowitz) August 25, 2021

Now, Uno has come along as the right horse for my goals because of his personality. I found a horse that wants to bond with and please his rider. It's actually taken some getting used to that I don't have to be on guard for mare-ish tantrums when I hop in the saddle.

Most Thoroughbreds, if they retire from racing relatively sound, can physically do whatever tasks an amateur rider like myself will ask of them in their second careers and beyond. When their personalities come out — a topic I'll explore more in a future column — that's what determines what the experience will be like. Like a director looking for the right actor to cast, a general manager looking for the right player to draft, or a hopeful romantic looking for the right partner in life, I wish that all the people that want to do good finding new homes for retired racehorses will find that magical match.

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Ashley's chestnut mare Tiny Dancer (JC: Emily's Pegasus) would respond, “Yes, I'd love to!” There is definitely an exclamation point on the end of Sussy's response to express her excitement about literally everything. That excitement sometimes results in overjumping a cross country fence by a foot, but she wants to do all the things.

My chestnut mare Sorority Girl (JC: Grand Moony) would respond, “I don't know, can I?” There is definitely sarcasm on the end of Moo's response. This is the response you've probably heard from a smartass child who may not want to do it and points out how the question only asks if she is able to do it, not that the person asking actually wants it done. Moo is opinionated and questions whether she has to do something.

My wife and I celebrated our one-year anniversary this month and are grateful to be living our dreams through our event horses. However, the path each of our top event horses has taken so that we can continue to chase those dreams has been very different. The lesson of this second part of the three-part mini series “Not Every Horse” that I'm exploring through this column is that horses, just like people, have very different personalities and learning styles. It's crucial to take those into account when training a retired racehorse for a new career.

That may seem obvious, but when the evaluations of horses are based on their physical performance, the effects of the horses' personalities on their learning styles may more prominently influence their physical progress than their actually physical ability.

A racehorse may have all the physical talent in the world, but without the desire to fight and go for a small opening on the rail, that horse's physical talent won't come out in its fullest. Most retired racehorses can physically do anything their riders will ever ask them to do. However, a trainer must bring it out in a way that matches a horse's personality and learning style. Otherwise, the retraining will stagnate or possibly decline if horse and rider can't get on the same page.

My wife and I have similar looking chestnut Thoroughbred mares with similar physical strengths. However, how we've each been able to bring them out has been different because not every horse responds to the same training techniques.

For Ashley, Emily's Pegasus retired from racing at Fonner Park in Nebraska as a 4-year-old on May 13, 2020. One week later, she arrived at our Super G Sporthorses farm in Parker, Colorado. One month and one day after her last race, Sussy competed at Intro at the Mile High Derby about 10 minutes from where we live and finished fourth in a field of 21 at Intro in the combined test featuring dressage and a challenging, winding cross country course of 21 obstacles, including water, a ditch, and a bank.

“She had no idea what she was doing,” Ashley said, looking back. “She was just excited to be doing it. I just had to point her at a jump, and she was like, 'Yes! I'll do that!'”

Sorority Girl and Jonathan Horowitz (top) take the same jump at Archer in Wyoming as Tiny Dancer and Ashley Horowitz, but their journeys to this point have been quite different because of their horses' personalities.

Ashley also rode Grand Moony during the mare's first year off the track as a 4-year-old. Like Sussy, Moo showed promise among big fields at the 2017 Thoroughbred Makeover, placing 11th of 83 in Show Jumping and 10th of 44 in Freestyle.

However, Moo was not excited about her retraining before the competition and would sometimes plant her feet and refuse to move. Ashley, although admittedly annoyed, never panicked. She recognized this was part of Moo's learning curve. She would ask me to stand nearby and gently pull Moo's bit when the mare stopped. It was a low-cost way to convince the chestnut mare to move forward without a fight.

I bought Moo and did my first recognized events with her in 2018. Because of Moo's personality as a horse that questions what is being asked of her and evaluates whether or not she wants to do it, we've had our share of setbacks. 

After completing our first recognized event at Beginner Novice at the 2018 Spring Gulch Horse Trials, our next three recognized events included an elimination for refusals at cross country jumps, a fall at a ditch on cross country, and an elimination on dressage after she planted her feet, refused to move, and backed out of the arena while kicking over the “A” block.

Because of these setbacks, she's been a tremendous horse to learn on and has forced me to step up and be a better rider. I'm proud that in six years of riding, I'm now competing at Novice on a horse I used to announce in races and at the Thoroughbred Makeover.

I've learned to appreciate the extreme highs and lows and life lessons that the sport of eventing offers. Arguably my favorite riding picture is from this year's Spring Gulch Horse Trials in May when Moo, unhappy due to the combination that we were doing dressage while other horses were jumping and that I still struggle with being balanced during dressage, decided she was done with our dressage test, made a scene, and planted her feet. Although the judge gave us plenty of time to recover, she eventually honked her horn to signal our elimination…on dressage. However, Moo still wouldn't move. I turned to the judge, smiled, and shrugged, and we both laughed at the scene my mare was making.

Moo is never dangerous and never bucks. She just sometimes acts like her show name of Sorority Girl. On the other hand, she loves to jump and is also an exhilarating ride.

As talented as Sussy is as well, she also has her challenges. She has made scenes in dressage, too, but those have come from overexcitement that manifest themselves differently than Moo's metaphorical eyerolls. Ashley has received comments that judges have written on her dressage tests of “buck leaps” and “I bet she loves to gallop” this year in her first full year of competition.

Yes, she does love to gallop, and Sussy is now turning in double clear cross country rounds at Training level as a 5-year-old. She and Ashley are headed to the upper levels, but Ashley also realizes that Sussy is still learning. 

Although I'm still waiting until my dressage is more consistent before I move up to Training, Sorority Girl and I have joined Tiny Dancer and Ashley in taking lessons and schooling Training cross country and stadium jumps. As much as I questioned whether Moo was the right horse for me during our early struggles, I appreciate that adapting to her personality and learning style is paying off.

Ashley restarted both of these mares, and if she insisted on a single route that both of them had to follow, neither of them would be as successful as they are today. Like OTTBs, no two snowflakes are alike. By adjusting to when a horse's personality starts to come out and they begin to express their opinions, there's a better chance of creating an effective partnership where horse and rider enjoy the ride and have fun and a few laughs in the process.

The post Horowitz On OTTBs, Presented By Excel Equine: Like OTTBs, No Two Snowflakes Are Alike appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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In the year and a half since I started sharing my adventures, the direction of my column has been full of many twists and turns, highs and lows, and rewarding and frustrating moments. It's been about what the character Ferris Bueller says in the 1986 classic Ferris Bueller's Day Off, “The question isn't what are we going to do. The question is what aren't we going to do.”

Putting “Thoroughbred Makeover” in my GPS has inspired a route that includes learning about the mind and body of the Thoroughbred sporthorse, learning about life lessons that OTTBs teach us, learning about the awesome and humbling responsibility we have to these special animals and how the racing and aftercare industries sometimes meet it and sometimes fall short, and learning that we're not in complete control of where the journey leads.

Because I've tried to follow Ferris Bueller's most famous advice from the movie, “Life moves pretty fast; if you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it,” I'm rebranding this column to reflect how the Thoroughbred Makeover represents so much more than the Thoroughbred Makeover.

Welcome to “Horowitz on OTTBs,” where I'll continue to explore the many roads of aftercare. To start, this will be the first in a three-part mini-series called “Not Every Horse.”

In Ferris Bueller's Day Off, the main characters' day that ultimately changes their lives includes going to a Chicago Cubs game. The journey I started retraining a retired racehorse was with an Illinois-bred named after the Cubs, the 2016 bay mare Cubbie Girl North.

My goal was to event with Cubbie at the Thoroughbred Makeover. There was never any doubt about her physical ability to do that. She jumped over the 4-foot vinyl fencing that lined our arena the first time we free-jumped her in January 2020, one month into our retraining. (See “Mind Over Matter.”)

I've documented that our challenges were mental. I wrote in “Riding An OTTB Isn't So Different From Playing Poker.”

The extreme highs and lows have come on top of each other, like when Cubbie busted my chin open and gave me seven stitches three days before we would go on to surpass Ashley's and my expectations by completing our first recognized event.

Cubbie has zero patience for gray areas when she's being ridden, but I'm still learning. I'm not a professional like Ashley and don't have the same tact and skill set for dealing with a horse that wants to become dangerous when things don't go her way. After a disagreement in dressage warm-up for our last event in October, my goal went from success to simply survival. We did survive dressage — with the second-worst score across all levels and all divisions at a show with 195 riders — and even managed to go double clear with no jumping or time faults in cross country and in stadium jumping. But our communication has broken down.

The last time I rode Cubbie was during our stadium jumping round at the Windermere Run Horse Trials in Missouri in October 2020. During our warmup, Cubbie got angry when I asked her pick up the right-lead canter. So, I was relieved knowing that the jumper course started to the left. Cubbie did switch to the right lead over the jumps when we changed directions. We had a clear round, but the good result was insignificant compared to the challenges we faced in our journey.

OTTB Cubbie has found a new partner in Nicole

I subsequently had our veterinarian do extensive evaluation on Cubbie to determine that the issue was anger and not injury. It was becoming clear that Cubbie and I were not an effective match. I decided to give Cubbie a chance with a young, up-and-coming eventing trainer, Nicole Dayberry, a senior at the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs majoring in business management with minors in marketing and psychology and hopes of starting her own equine business. I leased Cubbie to Nicole in January 2021.

Over the next few months, Nicole would send me updates about how she and Cubbie were doing, and I decided to visit them at MaeBree Ranch in Larkspur, Colo., on June 21.

There are differences between Nicole and me in the approaches we took to Cubbie. With the Thoroughbred Makeover as our intended destination 10 months after Cubbie and I started working together, I pushed Cubbie and myself to reach certain benchmarks at certain times. Nicole has not pushed it when it comes to working with Cubbie. She spent months adjusting Cubbie's diet and doing bodywork on the mare. She put Cubbie on a magnesium supplement and gave her chiropractic and MagnaWave treatments. She's bestowed on Cubbie a number of nicknames, like Miss Girl, North, and Ladybug.

“I like spoiling her as much as I can,” Nicole said.

Nicole said she had only jumped Cubbie “maybe twice” prior to working her at the walk, trot, and canter on the flat and then popping her over a jump during my visit.

“She's so quiet for me, and she's been so workable,” Nicole said. “She's happy and fun to work with, and everything comes as it comes.”

Nicole was happy. Cubbie was happy. And, as someone who truly loves Cubbie, I was happy.

The big lesson from my story with Cubbie is that the first home a retired racehorse has off the track may not be the best match. I wish that Cubbie and I could have continued our journey to the Thoroughbred Makeover and beyond, but that would be selfish to put myself and my horse in a position where we weren't able to effectively grow. I found another path for Cubbie with Nicole that is more suitable for her, and it put a smile on my face to see the mare I love find success off the track, even if it wasn't how I originally scripted it.

“I couldn't imagine my life without her,” Nicole told me when I asked if she'd be interested in buying Cubbie after the lease.

Not every horse thrives in every home right off the track. Yes, I wanted to be that home for Cubbie, but for people that truly love their horses, the focus should be on what's actually best for the horse. That may very well be a second home or a third home. We can make a difference by being part of a horse's journey, even if we're not the final destination.

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To the outside observer, or at least those unfamiliar in the nuances of dressage, the lessons I did on my OTTBs Grand Moony (barn name Moo, show name Sorority Girl) and The Gray Man (barn name Uno, show name Rocketman) would have looked like they were “about nothing.” All we did was walk and trot on the flat at a time in our evolution that I've been jumping bigger on each horse.

I can almost hear you saying, like the TV executive character Russell Dalrymple did on Seinfeld, “Nothing? What does that mean?”

George responds, “Nothing happens on the show. It's just like life. You eat. You go shopping. You read. You eat.”

George eventually walks out. “This is the show, and we're not going to change it,” he insists, although the TV executives don't actually care.

However, the joke is actually on the TV executives. In real life, the whole brilliant series of Seinfeld, one of the most influential in television history, is critically regarded as an entire sitcom about “nothing.”

It was April 14, and I started that Wednesday in a somewhat foul mood with a lot of work and distractions. At midday, I needed a break and decided to ride my horses.

Since the start of the year, I've embraced the importance of emphasizing a strong riding foundation by focusing on dressage and not just trying to up the jumps or the excitement. I've also learned to appreciate the moments whose significance I don't understand at the time and that “Rome wasn't built in a day, and neither are OTTBs.”

With that in mind, my wife and trainer Ashley guided me through walking and trotting on Moo and Uno. Optically, those gaits seem like the “nothing” part of riding. You don't even see them in two of the three phases in eventing, as riders canter, gallop, and jump on cross country and in stadium jumping, rarely ever breaking to the trot or walk.

Because the walk and trot also happen to be the hardest to master, Ashley was really using this opportunity to introduce a whole new theory to implement into my riding during these lessons.

Up until this point in my five-and-a-half-year journey going from broadcasting horses to riding them, I had evolved from “hold on” to “backseat driver.” By the former, I mean that I would sit on a lesson horse and get a feel for what it's like to ride a horse at the different gaits and then over my first jumps. By the latter, I mean that I would try to influence what the horse did.

However, in neither of these situations was I actually the one in control. It takes years just to develop balance on and adaptation to the variety of movements that a 1,000-pound animal with a mind of its own is capable of, especially a Thoroughbred.

Moo and the author in the midst of an exhilarating cross country round at Spring Gulch

Now that I've started to get the feel for riding horses and the ability to follow their movements, Ashley felt I was in position to begin to raise my game to being the “leader.”

“You want to be like a friendly dictator,” she said. “You influence and support every movement. Is the horse doing what you want in that moment? If they are, you don't just give it away but continue to tell them to maintain it.”

The first steps toward leading that Ashley insisted I maintain were establishing contact with the outside rein, then bringing the horse up to the contact through my legs and hips, then maintaining a frame and not letting them fall onto the contact.

It was a lot to manage, and that's why we worked the entire time at the walk and trot. It's kind of like how much genius went into the one of the greatest TV shows of all time that ultimately critics agree was about “nothing.”

The upshot of all this focus on the two gaits that I don't even use on cross country and in show jumping was that those phases got better.

Four days after these lessons, I went cross country schooling at the Spring Gulch Equestrian Area. At the end of last year, Moo and I moved up to the novice height of 2-feet-11, and she and I have appreciated the bigger jumps and faster pace. That Sunday at Spring Gulch, I started staring at some of the training level jumps that have a maximum height of 3-feet-3.

“You're going to do them,” Ashley said, sensing how intently I was studying them.

And we did. There's still room to improve my rhythm and form for me to be proficient at the higher level, but what I'm most proud of is that my focus on the basics is what actually made this opportunity to grow possible.

Then, one week later on April 24, Moo and I had an exhilarating cross country round during our first show of the year at the Spring Gulch Combined Test.

These are the parts of my XC at the Spring Gulch CT that my great Super G teammates filmed. I'm writing my next @RRP_TBMakeover article for @paulickreport about how my winter focusing on dressage helped with XC. The rub is my dressage needs more work, but dressage always does. pic.twitter.com/ocv82BtHh6

— Jonathan Horowitz (@jjhorowitz) April 25, 2021

We were competing at novice, and we blazed around the course with no issues. We even had to slow down fairly significantly at the end of the course to avoid incurring speed faults. There are still aspects of my form that I can improve, and those will come by going back to basics.

I also reaped the benefits from the focus on foundation when schooling Uno on cross country at Spring Gulch on April 26. He won't even be four years old until May 3, but he took a number of beginner novice jumps, the first United States Eventing Association recognized level at 2-feet-7, with eagerness. He felt proud of himself afterward. Before this, the times I jumped Uno were often marred by micromanagement on my part. This time, I was there to support and nurture his talent, and it showed through in spades. I did “nothing,” and that made all the difference.

This horse isn't going to be 4-years-old until May 3, but Uno is coming along so well. He loves to jump and was so proud of himself after our cross country schooling at Spring Gulch today. pic.twitter.com/OxGBLCHxt0

— Jonathan Horowitz (@jjhorowitz) April 27, 2021

Those moments are amazing and are why the hard work and heartaches that come with riding horses is worth it. But afterward, it's important to get back to real life. “You eat. You read. You go shopping.” No TV show did it better, and no approach to riding is better than the one that emphasizes how significant what seems like “nothing” can be.

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Whatever Thoroughbreds do is to the extreme. When the 4-year-old bay filly that I'm hoping to compete with at the 2020 Retired Racehorse Project Thoroughbred Makeover has been good, it's really good, like “the-chemistry-between-Ben-Affleck-and-Matt-Damon” good. But, when she's been bad during this one-year journey from racehorse to eventer, it's really bad, like “being-on-an-episode-of-Jerry-Springer” bad.

As opposite as the best and worst moments seem to be, they actually reveal the same thing. Cubbie tries her heart out. Below is a glimpse at one month of our journey from mid-May to mid-June, which also marks the one-year anniversary of when she finished a four-race career at Fairmount Park in Illinois.

How do I, an announcer that jumped in the deep end learning to ride horses by eventing on OTTBs, deal with it all?

“They key to riding a hot horse is to just ignore 90% of the weird things they're doing and carry on like everything is fine while having mild panic attacks inside the whole time,” wrote Leah Cothran in a frequently-shared Twitter post under the handle @justeqthings.

But, the “90% of the weird things” are so incredibly entertaining.  So, here they are…

Learning from an Olympian

Hawley Bennett has competed at the highest level of eventing, from the Land Rover Kentucky Three Day Event to the 2004 and 2012 Summer Olympics representing Canada. She came to Colorado to offer a two-day clinic on May 23 and 24, with one day of stadium jumping at Platinum Farms and one day of cross country at Mile High Horse Ranch near our farm.

Our first day started off eventfully. Before I even got on her back, Cubbie pulled away from the trailer while I was tacking her up and went for a gallop without her rider. Riding a horse through the cross country field at Platinum is exhilarating.  Chasing a horse on foot is not.

“Good, she's warmed up and so are you,” said my fiancée and trainer, Ashley Gubich of Super G Sporthorses, trying to add some levity to the moment.

What I was thinking, though: “Now I'm supposed to ride her. Let's try not to embarrass ourselves.”

Cubbie gets overwhelmed, like many other OTTBs do, being in a new environment. She gets overstimulated. However, what was amazing was that Cubbie found comfort when she was presented with something familiar. Her nerves settled when she started jumping.

Hawley Bennett put us through complex patterns combining multiple jumps. The jumps weren't high, and this reflected my previous “Thoroughbred Makeover Diaries” about how maneuvering between and approaching the jumps is more important, at least for an athletic Thoroughbred, than the jump itself.

“That's a million-dollar brain,” Hawley said about how locked in Cubbie became at whatever was presented to her. “For 4-years-old, that's pretty amazing. The jumps don't have to be big. But, teach her to do an angle. Teach her to do a skinny. All my 4-year-olds would do this. Don't put them off, but train her.”

During one grid, Cubbie knocked a rail on a jump whose height had just been raised. The next time through, she tucked her knees more and cleared it. Cubbie started looking to me for direction, and it made me feel like the countless rides and times we spent together were revealing our growing partnership. During another grid, I set her up well to take all the jumps but didn't plan for where we would turn afterward. Cubbie squirreled toward the end of the arena.

“Which way were you turning there?” Hawley asked. “You looked like a drunk driver. Don't do that. This [the jumps] couldn't have been any nicer.”

Every stride and communication mean something to horses.

The next day on cross country, Cubbie schooled water, ditches, and banks. When it comes to retraining horses off the track, where the routine is generally pretty standard from day to day, exposing them to many different environments and scenarios goes a long way. I was so proud of Cubbie. But…

“How do you think your next ride is going to go?” Ashley asked me after the clinic.

“She'll probably try to kill me,” I responded without hesitation.

Jonathan Horowitz and Cubbie Girl North receive instruction by Hawley Bennett on May 24.

Surviving a Near-Death Experience

As willing as Cubbie can be, she can also be just as equally unwilling, and that's what happened when we were walking past the construction site where an indoor arena is being built on our farm after a dressage lesson. Cubbie scooted to the left, her coping mechanism when uncomfortable, into a ditch where dirt had been removed to create a pad for where the arena would be built.

We squirmed our way out, but we'd have to revisit that scenario again so that Cubbie would learn what the correct way to handle it was. So, we went back in the arena for a few minutes. Now to walk again between the arena and the ditch.  I was ready for the scoot, but after stopping it, Cubbie was incensed that she didn't get to do what she wanted, regardless of whether it was for her own safety or not.

I turned her toward the arena to keep her pointing in the direction away from danger. But, Cubbie decided to back into the ditch. She continued to drift up a slope and positioned herself next to a pasture fence. I thought the best decision would be to get off, but there was no flat ground nearby. I was worried that she would flip down the slope in response to any weight imbalance. I attempted to grab onto the fence by the pasture, but I couldn't pull myself up enough.

So, we sat there and waited. Cubbie was trembling. I called out, but no one was around. After what seemed like an eternity, Cubbie got her senses back and jumped around the corner of the fence into our front yard. Back on flat ground, I hopped off, but I was shaken by the experience.

It's funny that the most dramatic moments we experience are either before or after lessons, but that's part of working with a baby horse. It can be scary, but that's the path I've chosen. So, I embrace it.

“[…] just ignore 90% of the weird things they're doing and carry on like everything is fine while having mild panic attacks inside the whole time.”

We put the moment behind us and headed to our first two eventing horse shows.

The Highs and Lows of Eventing

I learned some valuable lessons from the first two events in which Cubbie and I competed during the first two weekends of June.

One: It doesn't have to be pretty. At the Pendragon Beginner Event on June 6, we had zero jumping faults. I was annoyed that our jumping wasn't as smooth as I thought it should be. Cubbie would drift “to the left, to the left” before jumps or when going by the judges' stands. (“Yes, Cubbie, I get it. Those are the lyrics to a Beyoncé song, but we don't have to follow them literally for me to realize that you're 'Irreplacable.'”)  But, the more important perspective is that I embraced a tenacious attitude and got her over each jump.  We finished fifth of eight, our shortcoming being a nervous dressage test, which leads to lesson number two.

Two: Be present when your horse needs you. Cubbie is like other young horses that get overwhelmed by new environments or new tasks. We've spent enough time together that she looks to me for direction. Just like with the clinic with Hawley Bennett, it's up to me to provide the support and instructions she needs to be successful. I left her hanging during our dressage test at Pendragon. I got her relaxed before the test, but when we went in the ring, I didn't give her enough cues to signal her to give to the bit or move forward rhythmically. I was a passenger. We changed that mentality for a much-improved dressage test the next weekend at the Mile High Derby on June 14.

Cubbie and I complete our cross country round at last weekend's Mile High Derby, the culmination of a roller coaster month that I wrote about to be published soon in @paulickreport for “@RRP_TBMakeover Diaries.” Referencing Beyoncé, Damon, and Springer in the article sums it up! pic.twitter.com/EslOTpevPO

— Jonathan Horowitz (@jjhorowitz) June 18, 2020

Three: That's eventing. With a more active and effective dressage test at Mile High, we were ninth of 21 in a large Intro division as we warmed up for a challenging, winding cross country course of 21 obstacles, including water, a ditch, and a bank. Cubbie has really appreciated when I have a loose rein and direct her with my body rather than get in her way with my hands.

We had a phenomenal cross country round, except for when we got to the water. Cubbie was wary and came to a stop. We tried again. Stop. There was one more refusal before we trotted in. I could have been more assertive with my legs after the first refusal rather than circling her back around. Lesson learned. Unfortunately, with the way the combined test was scored, we were eliminated after the third refusal, although we were allowed to finish the course.

The rest of our cross country was the best ride we've had together. Because we had lost time at the water, I urged Cubbie to pick up her pace, and we cruised, taking many jumps at speed.

However, the one flub at the water eliminated us from the competition. Had we successfully gone through the water, we would have finished second of 21. Had we only had two refusals instead of three, we would have finished fifth. It was a tough pill to swallow. A basketball player that makes 20 of 21 shots but airballs one of them has one of the greatest games in history. An eventer with the same strike rate has a big “E” next to his name.

“Cubbie doesn't know that,” Ashley told me afterward. “She feels great about herself. She did every jump you asked her to do. The water isn't a jump as far as she's concerned. It's a scary death trap.”

That was an amazing takeaway. If my horse felt proud, I should, too. We're becoming a team, and we're actually developing a connection that is making this journey rewarding…and terrifying…and rewarding…and, well, let's see what next month brings.

Jonathan Horowitz has announced horse races at 29 tracks over the past 20 years. He is also involved in Thoroughbred aftercare as the president of CANTER USA and announcer of the Thoroughbred Makeover. He is the author of Paulick Report's Thoroughbred Makeover Diaries series about his adventures riding and retraining Cubbie Girl North for the 2020 Makeover.

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