Tag: Makeover Diaries

Horowitz On OTTBs, Presented By Excel Equine: ‘Victory’ At The Thoroughbred Makeover Looks A Little Different For Everyone

The performances that make me smile the biggest and appreciate the retired racehorses and the trainers that care so much for them at the Retired Racehorse Project Thoroughbred Makeover the most are not necessarily the ones that win ribbons or even make the Finale.

Don't get me wrong: as the announcer of the Thoroughbred Makeover since the annual marquee event for OTTBs was first held at the Kentucky Horse Park in 2015, I've been blown away by the talent that Thoroughbred sporthorses can show in new sports with less than a year of retraining after a racing career.

Like when Rosie Napravnik went into a gallop after a flawless jumping round in the eventing finale aboard Sanimo at the 2019 Thoroughbred Makeover to win the discipline. It was reminiscent of the jockey-turned-eventer galloping out after a flawless ride aboard Untapable in the 2014 Breeders' Cup Distaff, after which Napravnik announced her retirement from racing, only to embark on a new equine career, much like the OTTBs that she now rides.

Sanimo and Napravnik moved up to the Prelim level of eventing in 2021 with two top-three finishes that qualified them for the American Eventing Championships and a return to the Kentucky Horse Park.

Or when Carleigh Fedorka had a breathtaking dressage test to win the discipline at the 2015 Thoroughbred Makeover aboard Called to Serve, a horse ESPN's Gary West once described as “a bull in perpetual search of a china shop” because of his naughtiness during race training.

There have been countless other performances that bring out the immense talent of OTTBs, and I'm looking forward to more when I announce the 2021 Mega Makeover from Oct. 12 to 17.

However, at least as valuable to the goal the RRP has that the Thoroughbred Makeover is “intended to inspire good trainers to become involved in transitioning these horses to second careers” is seeing the rounds in each discipline where trainers create a positive experience for their horses based on where their training is, rather than pushing things to the max.

I smile when I see the barrel racer that trots the barrel pattern rather than sprinting all out. The rider pats the horse on the neck afterward. They both leave the TCA Covered Arena proud of their accomplishment.

I smile when I see the freestyle competitor recognize that their horse is overwhelmed by the atmosphere, adjust their routine, and the horse picks up confidence as a result.

I smile every time riders show gratitude for themselves and their horses that just making it to the Kentucky Horse Park is an accomplishment, regardless of where the horses are at in their retraining, because the Thoroughbred Makeover is only part of a long journey that the horse will hopefully embark on in a new life after racing.

Jonathan and Ashley Horowitz announce the finale of the 2018 Thoroughbred Makeover.

There is no doubt that the Thoroughbred Makeover is an elite competition, with $100,000 in prize money and top-level riders competing across ten disciplines on horses that will go on to be leaders in their new sport. In addition, what makes the Thoroughbred Makeover so special and important is that it is also addresses a cause that all professional sports now have to reckon with — the welfare of their elite athletes after they retire. Thanks to the RRP and the Thoroughbred Makeover, horse racing is moving in the right direction with this.

“Since 2015, the Thoroughbred Makeover has steadily grown into not only the largest Thoroughbred retraining competition in the world, but also the largest gathering of people with a professional interest in Thoroughbred aftercare,” RRP executive director Jen Roytz said. “Since then, we've seen more than 3,000 horses go through the process of transitioning from racing to their sport horse careers by preparing for this unique competition, and now we're seeing our Makeover graduates from years past starting to perform at the upper levels in their new equestrian disciplines.”

After coming together for a memorable week at the Kentucky Horse Park, the Makeover trainers, who have represented 46 states and four Canadian provinces, as well as England, can return to their hometowns and inspire others with what OTTBs can achieve.

“That's what works so well with the Makeover,” RRP program manager Kristen Kovatch Bentley said. “It manages to cater to not only the trainers who use the structure of that first year to prepare horses for careers in the upper levels, or take advantage of the visibility to market a horse for sale at the event, but for the one-time 'bucket list' trainers who are entering this competition with their forever horse. It's rare for one event to be able to bring together so many different facets of the industry in one week, but because everyone has had that same incredible experience of partnering with these amazing horses to undertake this transformative 10-month journey together, the competition becomes a celebration.”

The Thoroughbred Makeover inspired me to learn to ride, and my work with OTTBs has changed my life. My wife, Ashley Horowitz, and I currently run the Super G Sporthorses farm in Parker, Colo., where ten of the 16 horses on the farm are Thoroughbreds. Those ten were bred in seven different states.

“For those who don't have a background in or natural connection to equestrian sports outside of horse racing,” Roytz said, “this allows them to gain a deeper appreciation of not only what these horses can go onto accomplish after racing, but how much time, skill, effort, money and more goes into their care and training as they make this life-altering transition from racehorse to sport horse.”

I'm one of those people and appreciate that I now have gone from “talking the talk” as a broadcaster to “walking the walk” as an eventer on OTTBs thanks to what has inspired me at the Thoroughbred Makeover.

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Horowitz On OTTBs, Presented By Excel Equine: Finding The Right Personality Match For Horse And Rider

Certain things just go together. Mike Smith and Zenyatta. Bill Murray and a Wes Anderson movie. Peanut butter and jelly. As great as those ingredients are individually, there's something magical that happens when they come together.

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.

 

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.

 

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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Horowitz On OTTBs, Presented By Excel Equine: Like OTTBs, No Two Snowflakes Are Alike

If horses could talk, this is what I imagine the responses would be if my wife and I asked each of our top event horses, “Can you do (fill in the blank with something we'd like our horses to do)?”

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.

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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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