Tag: Jonathan Horowitz

Horowitz On OTTBs, Presented By Excel Equine: Shifting Gears, For The Good Of The Horse

I began this column at the start of 2020. I had no idea where it would lead, nor did anyone have an idea how the entire year of 2020 would play out. The goal, which the title of the series, “Thoroughbred Makeover Diaries,” reflected, was that I would chronicle my journey to the 2020 Retired Racehorse Project Thoroughbred Makeover. This was to be an especially unique journey for me because I spent the previous five years “talking” about the Thoroughbred Makeover as the event's announcer, and now I would be “doing” it by retraining and competing with my first OTTB straight off the track.

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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Thoroughbred Makeover Diaries Presented By Excel Equine: The Next Generation Sees Aftercare As The Future, Not A Charity

Heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali, who was born and raised in Louisville, changed boxing, as well as society at large. Quarterback Johnny Unitas, who played college football at the University of Louisville, was the architect of the two-minute drill. German immigrant J. Frederick Hillerich pioneered the modern baseball bat and founded Louisville Slugger. In horse racing, there's the Kentucky Derby and Churchill Downs.

Two miles from Churchill Downs is the University of Louisville College of Business, and that's where horse racing can find some of the answers the sport desperately needs to keep it relevant and thriving in the 21st Century.

I was the guest speaker at the EQIN 304: Equine Marketing class that is part of the College of Business's Equine Industry Program on March 17. Although I was there to answer questions about the horse racing and aftercare industries, as well as about my broadcasting and riding, it was the students asking me the questions that I believe have the answers.

Before I even spoke to the class, I had a good feeling that I would learn as much from them as they would learn from me. University of Louisville offers the only undergraduate equine program in the world that is part of an Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) accredited business school.

Sarah Memmi, who teaches the equine marketing class and contacted me about being a guest speaker, has a sure-thing exacta box of qualifications as an assistant professor of marketing combined with a background working with horses.

During the week before I joined the class, Memmi sent me a list of questions that the students created as the basis for our discussion. The very first on the list: “How do you see the industry moving forward from outside pressures other than 'We love our horses'? How important would a national campaign be?” I could tell we were going to get right to it.

I enjoyed our discussion, but what I found even more valuable was learning about the semester projects the students were in the process of creating. Although she said she could have chosen other topics, Memmi chose aftercare as the focus of EQIN 304.

“Number one, aftercare is an important ethical issue in racing, and anyone that is going into this industry as a career needs, not only to be aware of it, but to understand it,” Memmi said. “It's also important to marketing the sport of racing.”

In the same way that the development of racehorses doesn't start when they arrive at a racetrack because breeding and raising yearlings is an integral part the sport, horse racing is starting to embrace that it also doesn't end when they leave the track.

“Aftercare is not charity; it is part of the life cycle process of a Thoroughbred,” said Jen Roytz, the executive director of the Retired Racehorse Project, who also spoke to EQIN 304. “They can't race forever, so they need to have a purpose after racing, and they need to have a value associated with that purpose, whether it's breeding, sporthorse, or recreational.”

That first question that I was presented with about moving the industry forward is something the students began to answer through their Marketing Plan Project Assignment.

Madison Jackson and Reagan Mestre thought of a “Trainer Aftercare Awareness Certification” that incorporates aftercare awareness into the licensing process for trainers at the state level.

“Many times, racehorse trainers are not aware of the ways to properly rehome a Thoroughbred after its career, nor are they aware of the vital role they play in this process,” they wrote.

Sean Collins and Davis Klein proposed “CK Aftercare” in order “to promote aftercare awareness and education in low-tier and low-income tracks within the United States.”

Alyssa Carinder, a 2021 graduate of the University of Louisville, is launching her career as Farm/Development Manager at the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation's sanctuary farm at Chestnut Hall in Prospect, Kentucky. At UofL, Carinder double-majored in Equine Business and Marketing and competed on the hunt seat team.
Photo courtesy of Sarah Memmi/UofL Equine Industry Program

“This issue has come to light in recent times where trainers and owners have had a 'one more race' mentality instead of retiring their horse,” they wrote, adding, “We will create an on-track presence and form personal connections with both the horseman on the track and the different local organizations that may take the horses when their racing careers are over. These personal connections will help educate horsemen on the different options and create trust with our organization.”

But because aftercare must address the range of horses coming off the track, Adrianna Lynch and Emily Charnota proposed that prominent auction houses such as Keeneland and Fasig-Tipton could create a “select sale” that would promote higher-end Thoroughbred sporthorses.

“Aftercare is really complicated and fairly new, so that means you have a lot of room to innovate,” Memmi said. “I was really impressed with the work that they did. They came up with some really interesting ideas, and looking back on it, what I'm happy with is that the future leaders in the industry are getting this ethical piece of the sport. They're into it because they care about horses. They want to do right by the horses.”

The month of May has brought many issues in horse racing into the mainstream. Trainer Bob Baffert gave enough material to the writers of Saturday Night Live to make a mockery of himself and the sport. Then, one day later, Michael Blowen of Old Friends gave enough material to the writers of CBS Sunday Morning to show how moving aftercare can be.

With Churchill Downs suspending Baffert, the city of Louisville may not be as welcoming a place to him as it once was. But, with the growth of the University of Louisville's Equine Industry Program, including the addition in the fall of a graduate program connected to an MBA, the city is welcoming some bright minds and future leaders that can revolutionize horse racing if they're given the chance.

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Thoroughbred Makeover Diaries Presented By Excel Equine: Riding Lessons About Nothing

I had my most valuable but optically boring riding lessons ever at the Super G Sporthorses farm my wife and I run in Parker, Colo., this month. I loved them, but I recognize that it was in the same way that George Costanza in Seinfeld loved pitching TV executives to create a show about “nothing” in the episode “The Pitch.”

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.

 

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.

 

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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Thoroughbred Makeover Diaries Presented By Excel Equine: What To Do About ‘Trainer Fatigue’

Writers usually write about topics on which they are an expert. That's not the case here. I'm attempting to write about something I'm experiencing but don't quite know how to diagnose or solve…yet. Hopefully, this space, which has come with all the support you have given me over the past year of sharing my riding adventures through “Thoroughbred Makeover Diaries,” will help me take the first steps.

I started “Thoroughbred Makeover Diaries” because the plan was to compete at the Retired Racehorse Project Thoroughbred Makeover, an event I had announced for the previous five years, in 2020 with my 2016 bay OTTB mare Cubbie Girl North. The idealistic side of me thought this would be a space to showcase a fairytale George-Plimpton-esque journey of an announcer-turned-rider that would help an important cause to me in Thoroughbred aftercare.

The journey hasn't been a fairytale; it's been very real, filled with the most extreme highs and lows I've ever experienced, like when I got seven stitches and completed my first recognized event with Cubbie in the span of a week.

We didn't reach our destination because the 2020 Thoroughbred Makeover was postponed, as many sporting events of the past year were, because of COVID-19. Also, the extremes moments can be a blessing and a curse when working with retired racehorses straight off the track, especially if you're an amateur rider. Those extremes became more than I cared to experience as someone who's been riding for less than six years.

When the 2020 Thoroughbred Makeover was postponed, I decided to give Cubbie a break. I began working again with my first horse, the 2013 chestnut OTTB mare Grand Moony, whom I started showing under the name Sorority Girl in 2018. She had successfully competed in the Thoroughbred Makeover in 2017 with Ashley before becoming my first horse. The challenges of retraining a retired racehorse straight off the track that I experienced with Cubbie helped my journey with “Moo,” and we had our best results at events, even successfully moving up to the Novice level of 2-feet-11 at the end of 2020.

I decided that I wanted to continue progressing with Moo in 2021 and put my Makeover goals on hold. This year will be a “Mega Makeover” that includes the classes of 2020 and 2021, and announcing is my first priority. So, Cubbie is now on a free lease for the year with a caring, kind, up-and-coming trainer, Nicole Dayberry, and I hope I get to announce them at shows in Colorado and the surrounding area this year.

As I was arranging for Cubbie to go to Nicole, I told Ashley that I wanted to take a break from working with green OTTBs. So, naturally, as my wife and trainer who truly knows what's best for me, she found a retired racehorse that I should buy.

Kim Wendel, an upper-level eventer based in Colorado and a fellow board member with the organization that runs the Spring Gulch Horse Trials, was selling her 2017 grey OTTB gelding The Gray Man. “He'd be perfect for you,” was the sentiment of both Ashley and Kim.

“Well, s***, he's too nice to pass up,” I thought.

Long story short, a friend that rides at our barn, Rageena Price, and I decided to buy The Gray Man together. With his cool backstory and personality, a barn name of “Uno” because he only has one eye, and an eagerness to learn, this OTTB is full of potential for good times ahead. At the same time, he's a young horse full of playfulness and can be a lot to handle as a 16.3 hh big baby.

It's safe to say that Uno has a lot of personality, whether it be with his rider or with the Super G barn cat Archie. Photo by Ashley Horowitz

It's that balance that's exciting and terrifying. I imagine a scale where I weigh the pros and cons of OTTBs. On one side is the talent, the journey, and the reward for helping a racehorse successfully transition to a new life after retiring from racing. The Thoroughbred provides opportunities unlike any other horse breed. Weighing that down from the other side of the scale are the difficult learning moments for horse and rider, the miscommunication as they figure each other out, and, especially for a young OTTB, an exuberance that can be difficult to handle.

Unfortunately, I've fallen into the trap of looking at this scale before, during, and after every ride and then deciding whether it's all “worth it.” That's exhausting, and it leads to what I'm experiencing as “trainer fatigue.” It became worse as the big goal of competing in the Thoroughbred Makeover loomed.

So, what's the solution? After reflecting on everything I've written about, which is the most personally beneficial part of “Thoroughbred Makeover Diaries,” I've arrived at “change.” Change is difficult to implement, difficult to observe, and difficult to appreciate—at least for me.

Uno has shown an aptitude for jumping, but, as a young, energetic horse, he can also be a lot of handle. It's figuring out that balance that's a key to working with OTTBs. Photo by Ashley Horowitz

Not all OTTBs are alike. Now I'm working with a gelding instead of a mare. Cubbie would hold massive grudges. Uno does not. But, I have to appreciate that change and not fall into the trap that the journey with Uno will be the same as it was with Cubbie. I've changed my goals. It's not “Makeover or bust.” It's “What will make for a positive step forward, big or small, today?” And, hopefully, I will embrace that a backward step does not mean the end of progress or the journey.

Uno is excited about life and has a lot of energy. I would initially see that as a bad thing because his overeagerness is difficult to handle. However, that eagerness, once it's channeled, will be beneficial to taking big jumps on a cross country course. That's going to take time, so in the meantime, I lunge him before each ride. If he's hasn't been ridden in awhile, I'll close the doors to our indoor arena and let him run around. It used to freak me out, thinking, “I'm supposed to ride that,” but now it's cute.

 

I once told a corny joke while warming up on Uno and started laughing. At the sound of my laugh, he leapt in the air with all four feet off the ground, and I flew up with my four limbs above the saddle. I managed to stay on and one-rein stop. It was terrifying, but I changed my perspective that the best way to deal with it is to go with the flow. Uno wasn't being mean-spirited in the moment, and neither should I.

I still struggle when Uno wants to go forward, thinking he'll run off with me. I'm trying to find the balance between accepting where he's at with his progress and asking for a little more, the difference, for example, between just getting the trot and getting him to work at the trot. And, I need guidance on knowing when to end the lesson and not push the issue.

So, I'm not saying that I've figured out the answers to my challenges, but hopefully I embrace the idea that “Rome wasn't built in a day,” and neither are OTTBs. That's why Ashley won't just give me the blueprints but instead empowers me to go through the struggles, with her playing the role as trainer, foreperson, therapist, and inspiration, to create my own journey, wherever it may lead.

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