Tag: Makeover Diaries

Thoroughbred Makeover Diaries Presented By Excel Equine: Dressage As Relationship Counseling For An OTTB And Her Human

My wife gave me permission to cheat on her during the holidays.

In fact, she facilitated it.

You see, before Ashley became my wife on July 23, 2020, she was my trainer for learning to ride horses. I took my first lesson with Ashley on May 30, 2015, and immediately fell in love with eventing on OTTBs. A few years later, I fell in love with her.

Ashley has remained my trainer, and, in some ways, the trainer-student relationship can be trickier than husband-wife. For Christmas and Hanukkah, Ashley arranged for me to take dressage lessons with other trainers.

As I've started to move up the eventing levels, my Achilles' heel has been dressage. That's the first discipline in eventing based on the movement and rhythm of the horse on the flat that sets a rider's initial score. After dressage, penalties can be accumulated for jumping or time faults in the cross country and stadium jumping phases.

I've placed in the ribbons in three of my last four events, even while moving up from the Beginner Novice level where the jumps are at a maximum height of 2-feet-7 to the Novice level of 2-feet-11. I've always been at or near the bottom of the standings after dressage. 11th of 16, 11th of 18, and 10th of 11. However, after clean jumping rounds in cross country and stadium jumping, I've improved those placings to 7th of 16, 6th of 18, and 5th of 11.

“His jumping has progressed so much, and dressage is what's keeping him out of the top placings,” Ashley wrote when she reached out to four different trainers in the area. “He is finishing on his dressage score; it's just a bad dressage score.”

“Dressage is the ultimate expression of horse training and elegance,” the FEI, the international governing body for equestrian sports, describes on its website. “Often compared to ballet, the intense connection between both human and equine athletes is a thing of beauty to behold.”

How is this achieved?

 

What your riders are trying to remember as they enter the dressage court to compete? Is there anything you would add?

Posted by Dressage Instructors Network on Saturday, January 9, 2021

 

That's 23 things! And we haven't even gotten to the actual movements in a dressage test, like a 20-meter trot circle, a free walk across the diagonal, or a serpentine. How am I supposed to “just relax”?! Not cool, Dressage Instructors Network.

Dressage serves as a foundation for proper riding that can apply to any equestrian sport. Putting in the hard work to establish a foundation will pay dividends in the long run for building a relationship, whether it's with horses…or humans.

Simone Windeler, The Elegant Rider 

My first dressage lesson in this experiment Ashley arranged with other trainers was with Simone Windeler on Dec. 27.  Simone arrived at our farm promptly for our 2:15 p.m. lesson, walked into our arena as I was finishing warming up my chestnut OTTB mare Sorority Girl (Jockey Club name: Grand Moony), and zipped up her blue “The Elegant Rider” puffy jacket with the same confidence that Superman would have used to put on his blue suit, ready to save the world — or in this case, me.

The author with Simone Windeler

Windeler's credentials also happen to match the aura she exudes as a dressage superhero. Classical German training. Graduate studies at Heriot-Watt University in Scotland. Board member for the Rocky Mountain Dressage Society. Well-respected judge for dressage and western dressage. Windeler judged dressage tests of mine at the Mariah Farms schooling show series that represented my very first horse shows in 2016.

Windeler began our lesson by asking me to ride around the arena at the walk, trot, and canter to assess. After about five minutes of just observing, she called us into the middle of the arena. Her diagnosis: I ride with tension that inhibits my ability to communicate effective signals and cues for what I would like my horse to do. The tension affects my mare's ability to develop a proper frame and rhythm, and that ultimately will limit our ability to reach our full potential together.

Although Windeler was focusing on my dressage, her diagnosis applies my life in general.

So, Windeler went to work on me. We focused on breathing exercises and balance exercises. My hour lesson was ridden almost exclusively at the walk, with a few minutes of trot at the end. Nothing fancy, but instead focusing on how a solid foundation helps build a strong house and not a house of cards.

Windeler walked either next to or right behind Sorority Girl and me for most of our lesson. She helped me become less tense by having me follow a breathing technique of taking in multiple breaths through the nose and letting out that number of breaths plus one additional one through the mouth. She helped me become more balanced by having me imagine that the sensation of my two seat bones touching the saddle was like squeezing two pieces of whatever fruit I imagined. Then, based on my assessment of where those two pieces of fruit were positioned in relation to my body and the saddle, we adjusted my position.

It was all subtle, but so is riding a chestnut OTTB mare, where one slight shift in weight can make a big difference for the horse.

“You think you're leaning forward, but you're really just straight,” Windeler said during one of our better trot circles toward the end of the lesson.

Windeler helped build me up to a position that, while feeling different for me, was actually better for the partnership with my horse. My mare showed her appreciation for my ability to be a better partner.

Sara Storch, SS Equestrian

“That's a great wife; I wish my husband took dressage lessons,” Sara Storch said as our lesson on Jan. 12 at 2:30 p.m. began.

Now, I'm definitely a believer that these dressage lessons have more to them than just dressage.

Storch is a high-level dressage rider, recognized by her earning United States Dressage Federation bronze and silver medals. She trains at Happenstance Barn in Parker, Colo., and the four-mile drive there from our farm represented the first time I've ever driven Ashley's truck and trailer. Now that's some serious trust by my wife.

The lesson with Storch was about building a toolbox and pulling out certain tools to address situations that come up during our riding. What was educational and encouraging for me is that none of these tools force a result. Rather, they are actions that guide the horse toward the desired outcome.

Sorority Girl looks slightly skeptical of Horowitz's lesson from Sara Storch

For example, one was giving my reins, which encourages the horse to seek contact and round into a proper frame. I had been trying to force the contact and frame by pulling on the reins. Another was using the inside leg during a transition to guide the horse's body to steady contact on the outside rein.

My mare, whose name of Sorority Girl accurately represents her approach to being told what to do, responded positively to the signals I was giving. You can't actually force a 1,000-pound animal to do something they don't want to, such as when one of my favorite horses, the legendary Australian sprinter Chautauqua (hyperlink: ), ultimately refused to leave the starting gate in the final race of his career. So, what's more effective is figuring out how to build a relationship and take action together as a team.

Kim Wendel, Kim Wendel Eventing

Up until this point in my dressage lesson medley, my two lessons had been with dressage-specific trainers, meaning that their equine focus is dressage. However, dressage is just one piece of the eventing puzzle, and sometimes it's an overlooked one.

“When I was riding in the lower levels, I felt like [dressage] was something we had to do before we jumped, and it was a little bit of a burden,” Kim Wendel, my next trainer, said. “As time has gone on and I'm able to do some of the more interesting or technical moves, then I feel like I really start to enjoy dressage as its own discipline.”

Wendel has risen up the eventing ranks with her 2011 grey Thoroughbred gelding, Happily Twisted, whom I announced in his lone racing victory on Aug. 2, 2014, at Arapahoe Park in Colorado. Although she has more than three decades of riding experience, Wendel only began eventing in 2010. After buying Happily Twisted off the track in 2016, the pair has risen as high as the CCCI 3* level with goals of higher in 2021.

“For better or worse, he's my creation and I'm his,” Wendel said about how her relationship with “Happy” is more like family growing up together.

When Wendel came to our farm on the morning of Jan. 13, we spent about 10 minutes before our lesson engaged in a quasi “Dressage Anonymous” meeting where we shared about how we've come to appreciate dressage more through our struggles with it. On the other hand, non-horse people have an easier time appreciating what happens when a horse soars over a 3-foot jump than lengthens their stride at the trot, although the latter can actually be more difficult to achieve.

A lesson with Kim Wendel

“Dressage is kind of like the part everybody fast forwards when watching the [Kentucky Three-Day Event],” Wendel said. “When you splash through the water, wow, everyone likes the photo on Facebook, but then you put up a picture of you doing a nice half-pass, you get half the likes because it's not as dramatic.”

It's similar to how it's easier to define a couple's relationship by how they are at parties or on vacations around the world than how they are cleaning the house, or, in the case of Ashley and me, feeding horses and mucking stalls.

Wendel's lessons focus heavily on foundation.

“The beauty in it is knowing the details, but that's a hard sell,” she said. “For me, the biggest thing is we all want to be better riders. In order to be better riders, we have to affect our horses positively. In dressage, in learning how my riding affects the horse's balance is a really big one.”

During our lesson, Wendel's focus for me was on how I could impact my horse's balance — from front to back, back to front, side to side, going to the left, and going to the right. She showed me how subtle movements — like opening my hand to the inside, giving the inside rein, and more — can make a big difference.

“She's super because as soon as you pushed your hands forward, she relaxed,” Wendel said during one part of the lesson.

Ryleigh Leavitt, RTL Eventing 

With my final lesson in this series of four with Ryleigh Leavitt on Jan. 22, I realized that all of the trainers were giving me similar advice but saying it in different ways.

“As a guy, I'm glad I'm hearing the same thing several different ways because now it will sink in about how important it is,” I joked, getting a laugh out of Leavitt, as well as my amused wife, who has appreciated the effect these lessons are having on me.

Leavitt is a native Coloradan now competing at the highest national eventing level, Advanced, aboard her 2007 bay Dutch Warmblood gelding MoonLight Crush.

“You want to look like you're sitting there looking pretty and making the horse do everything because that's the goal of dressage to show off the training,” Leavitt said. “You're doing a lot, but you're not showing it.”

Relationships with horses—and humans—are hard to build. When Ashley and I were married, our officiant joked, “You may now salute your bride,” and with that, I entered the dressage arena of marriage.

 

 

The post Thoroughbred Makeover Diaries Presented By Excel Equine: Dressage As Relationship Counseling For An OTTB And Her Human appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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Thoroughbred Makeover Diaries Presented By Excel Equine: Riding An OTTB Isn’t So Different From Playing Poker

Buying a recently-retired racehorse to retrain to be a sport horse or pleasure horse is like anteing up to play Texas hold 'em poker. The initial cost to see your hand — the antes and blinds for poker or the cost of horses at the end of their racing careers — is relatively low. The possibilities and dreams when you're first holding those two cards or starting to retrain an OTTB are always high.

“As long as I have a chip and a chair, I'm still alive in this event,” said Jack “Treetop” Straus, who discovered one chip hidden under a napkin to remain in the main event at the 1982 World Series of Poker, eventually won poker's most prestigious tournament, and inspired a motto for all players' dreams.

Like that one chip, an OTTB offers the dreams that one of the most affordable investments in the equine world can lead to future ribbons, special moments, and a potential lifelong bond between horse and human. On the path to achieving those goals, the big financial and emotional investment comes later, like in poker, after seeing your hand's value once more cards are revealed on the flop, turn, and river.

What's the best way to play an OTTB poker hand? Cue the late, great Kenny Rogers in “The Gambler”

You got to know when to hold 'em,

Know when to fold 'em,

Know when to walk away,

Know when to run.

You never count your money

When you're sittin' at the table.

There'll be time enough for countin'

When the dealin's done.

I'm relatively new to riding OTTBs, but they're the only horses I've ridden since I began my journey from broadcasting to riding in 2015. The three horses I've owned have each taught me different lessons about how Rogers' wisdom applies to training retired racehorses—and to life in general. 

You got to know when to hold 'em

“Are you sure this is the right horse for me?” I asked over and over and over again.

In 2018, I bought my first horse, a 5-year-old chestnut Thoroughbred mare who I announced when she raced at Arapahoe Park in Colorado in 2015 and 2016 and when she competed in Show Jumping and Freestyle at the Retired Racehorse Project Thoroughbred Makeover in Kentucky in 2017.

The fact that I gave Grand Moony the show name of Sorority Girl should tell you everything you need to know about what she was like to handle and ride. Or, if you're an equestrian, the fact that she's a chestnut mare already told you that.

My trainer, Ashley Horowitz, picked Grand Moony for me. She was the first to train “Moo” when she came into CANTER's retraining program right after retiring from racing. She competed with the talented and precocious filly at the Makeover. Ashley knows how to scout talent. If you need any proof of that, she married me two years later.

Ashley didn't recommend Moo as my first horse because she'd be easy. Although, I admittedly had what I later realized were unrealistic dreams of winning horse shows right away. That would be like expecting to make the final table at my first poker tournaments.

Ashley recommended Moo as my first horse because she'd make me better. Moo was tough. We had runouts at jumps when I didn't ride confidently. We had bucks when I became unbalanced.

That's why I kept asking Ashley, “Are you sure this is the right horse for me?”

Ashley always patiently said yes and that I just didn't see it yet.

Sorority Girl steals the show at Horowitz's wedding

 

Like inexperienced poker players, I didn't know how to assess the chances of winning with my cards. Ashley knew my first hand would get better as the metaphorical equine community cards were dealt.

Sorority Girl and I have competed together for three years. We're developing a partnership as we move up the levels in eventing, but more importantly, we're developing a special relationship. Sorority Girl even made herself the center of attention at our wedding in July. Winning our first ribbon at a recognized event was even more rewarding when it came at the same event where we suffered our first elimination one year earlier.

Know when to fold 'em

The most promising hold 'em hand can be beaten by a lesser starting hand depending on how the community cards fall and how each player chooses to play their hand.

I was really encouraged by the next equine poker hand I was dealt in OTTB Cubbie Girl North. The 2016 bay filly that I found in a CANTER listing after she retired from an unremarkable four-race career in her home state of Illinois has been the protagonist of this “Thoroughbred Makeover Diaries” series.

But Cubbie has also been an antagonist. 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.

Despite my emotional connection to Cubbie, I'm open to the reality that we may not be a good match.

Ashley and a good friend, Rageena Price, are now riding Cubbie. She's becoming more agreeable, and maybe they can exorcise the darkness that has sent Cubbie into dangerous rages. Or maybe not.

Ultimately, it's important and valuable to realize that reaching our goals with our dream horse may not be in the cards. And, we have to be OK with the part of “The Gambler” that isn't so fun.

I haven't given up on Cubbie, but I'm lucky enough to be married to a trainer who I can literally hand the reins to. The mare still holds a special place in my life, and I hope our stories reconnect and our hand improves when the dealer turns over the next cards.

There'll be time enough for countin'/When the dealin's done.

I'm now at the end of my first year of retraining Cubbie, the first horse I've worked with where I've been the first person to ride her off the track. The roller coaster of our journey has provided valuable learning experiences, and I'm proud of the rider I've become.

That said, I wanted to take a break from working on project horses. Essentially, I wanted to count my money…but the dealin' wasn't done.

“You have to look at this horse,” Ashley said as she showed me a sales video for The Gray Man, a 2017 16.3 hh gray Thoroughbred.

I looked at the video. Impressive movement by a horse with an impressive story I was already familiar with. The Gray Man has the barn name of Uno because he has one eye. He lost the eye after he became tangled with some fencing when he was eight days old.

 

“Sometimes the best opportunities come when you don't expect them,” Ashley said.

Uno came to our farm on Dec. 13 for a test ride. I've never seen a cooler OTTB. Kim Wendel, an upper-level eventer, was selling Uno because she had just imported another horse from Ireland. She said Uno had been ridden six times since retiring in July following a two-race career in his home state of Indiana.

He hadn't been ridden or turned out in a week and a half before he came to our farm. The inactivity, combined with trailering to a new location, combined with being in an indoor arena for the first time in his life, made Uno justifiably nervous. Did I mention he has one eye?

Seeing how he processed his new surroundings looking in both direction with his right eye and seeking human connection for guidance made this a hand not only worth playing but one that I would kick myself if I didn't try to play.

Ashley rode Uno. I rode Uno. Rageena rode Uno. The three of us loved him. It was one ride, but we each experienced gorgeous movement and a brain that is full of curiosity, is eager to learn, and desires to please.

This is my last “Thoroughbred Makeover Diaries” in 2020, and I've truly enjoyed writing this series. Writing each article is like a therapy session where I get to process the lessons I've learned from the Thoroughbreds in my life. From my first article in January to this article in December, I couldn't have predicted what the journey would be. Of course, nothing between January and December 2020 was predictable.

Writing these articles has been personal, and I appreciate the support I've received from the many readers and subjects of these articles that have witnessed my journey. I know there are other paths in the equine world, but as I listened to Kenny Rogers sing about “the ace that [he] could keep,” I realize I've found mine.

I have a chip (well, a horse) and a chair (well, a saddle), and I'm excited for whatever cards are dealt in 2021. Happy Holidays and Happy New Year.

Horowitz will continue his Thoroughbred Makeover Diaries series through the 2021 Makeover event, thanks to ongoing support from our sponsor, Excel Equine Feeds.

The post Thoroughbred Makeover Diaries Presented By Excel Equine: Riding An OTTB Isn’t So Different From Playing Poker appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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Thoroughbred Makeover Diaries Presented By Excel Equine: Horowitz Learns That In Eventing, Winning Isn’t Everything

“For when the one Great Scorer comes to write against your name,

He marks—not that you won or lost—but how you played the Game.”

—Grantland Rice, sportswriter, in “Alumnus Football”

 

“Winning isn't everything; it's the only thing.”

—Vince Lombardi, NFL coach

Grantland Rice is a major reason why sports are such a big deal in the United States. His syndicated column, “The Sportlight,” described by Britannica as “the most influential of its day,” anointed some of sport's greatest legends. It helped college and professional sports tug at America's heartstrings during the Roaring 1920s, and a nation of sports fans has never second-guessed its devotion since.

Rice created the “Four Horsemen” of Notre Dame and the “Galloping Ghost” of Red Grange—monikers still steeped in lore 100 years later and so influential that I once embarrassingly asked my high school English literature teacher how was it possible for there to be “Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse” in the New Testament when I thought Grantland Rice coined the term.

Not only did Grantland Rice write and broadcast sports, but he also gave advice about how it should be played. It's “not that you won or lost—but how you played the Game,” he wrote in his oft-quoted 1908 poem “Alumnus Football.”

Yet, as much as I admired Rice—again, I instinctively believed he was also the author of the Book of Revelation—I thought his advice about “how you played the Game” was a bunch of crap.

That's because Vince Lombardi, the coach of the NFL's Green Bay Packers who was so influential that the trophy awarded to the winners of the Super Bowl is named in his honor, came along about five decades later and said, “Winning isn't everything; it's the only thing.”

That's what the goal of sports has come to be about. There are similar phrases that roll off the tongue.

“Second place is the first loser.”

“No one remembers who finished second.”

“Nice guys finish last.”

And so on.

I started competing in the equestrian sport of eventing in 2018 at the age of 33 with my sights set on winning ribbons. Never mind that I had only been riding for three years on my journey from announcer to rider. Never mind that my first horse, the 2013 chestnut mare Sorority Girl (JC: Grand Moony) that I used to announce at Arapahoe Park, had never competed in a recognized event either, although she had performed well in freestyle and show jumpers at the 2017 Retired Racehorse Project Thoroughbred Makeover with my trainer and wife, Ashley Horowitz.

Our first recognized event was the 2018 Spring Gulch Horse Trials in Colorado at the Beginner Novice level of 2-feet-7. I also announced the show and would take a break from announcing for our dressage, stadium jumping, and cross country rounds.

I made it through all three phases, which eventers treat as a significant achievement given the number of obstacles that have the potential to eliminate a competitor. I even managed to place 12th of 21 in my division. So, I honestly thought that the ribbons would start to come — no, they would have to come for me to prove my worth in my new sport.

The ribbons did not come. I found a variety of ways to be eliminated from my next few shows. We were eliminated for too many refusals at cross country jumps at our next recognized event, the 2018 Round Top Horse Trials in Colorado. Then, I fell at the ditch on the cross country course at the 2018 Event at Archer in Wyoming.

A disagreement about a ditch at the 2018 Archer event resulted in Horowitz and Sorority Girl parting company

And then came the coup de grâce at the Spring Gulch Horse Trials in May 2019 when Sorority Girl put on the brakes during our dressage test, refused to move despite my kicking her to go forward, and backed out of the dressage arena. Adding insult to injury, she kicked over the “A” block for good measure.

I thought these results made me an outcast, but the eventing community, especially in our area, is incredibly supportive.

“Everyone has been there before,” Ashley said. “This is how you learn.”

Things then started to click for Sorority Girl and me. We had our best dressage test to date at the 2019 Round Top Horse Trials and didn't add any penalties on cross country or in stadium jumping to finish on our dressage score in sixth place out of 18 at Beginner Novice. That earned us earn our first ribbon. I realized that going through the challenges of being eliminated the year before made this achievement more rewarding than if it had all just happened perfectly as I scripted in my head.

We ribboned again at our next show, a return to Spring Gulch where the announcer filling in while I competed made sure to remind the crowd, “Hey, everybody, fingers crossed Jonathan and Moo stay in the arena.” One of the dressage judges, whom I knew through my role of announcing the show as well, told me that she caught glimpses of my dressage test from the other arena while judging a rider in her arena to see what fireworks there might be in my test.

So, lesson learned, right? I appreciated how my failures made my successes more rewarding and embraced the importance of both Grantland Rice's “how you played the game” and Vince Lombardi's “winning.”

Unfortunately, that wasn't the case.

Just as things were starting to click for Sorority Girl and me, I started retraining a Thoroughbred straight off the track, the young 2016 bay filly Cubbie Girl North, who has provided me with a roller coaster ride that I've been chronicling during a roller coaster 2020 in this “Thoroughbred Makeover Diaries” series.

Looking back on our first year of retraining, I realize it would have been absurd to think that “winning” should be on the table immediately given that Cubbie was completely new to eventing and I was still learning. While I appreciated some of the moments where we would click, I wasn't appreciating the end result.

Things came to a head at Spring Gulch in August when we finished with an improved score, but I was sour about the mistakes a green-horse-with-green-rider combination are inevitably going to make. Instead of seeing the progress, I saw the failure — even though nearly everyone that has followed our journey has been encouraging.

Ashley sternly and tactfully told me that I was entirely missing the point of eventing and that if I continued to be this way at shows that I could get someone else to coach me at them.

That's when I made the biggest change and the most progress in my three years of competing. It didn't come from adjusting how I rode or what equipment I used or anything physical between me and my horses. It came from embracing what the sport is all about and why the people that compete are so attracted to it. It came from putting more of an emphasis on how I played the game over winning the game.

I started changing my focus to how much fun it was to travel to shows, especially if I was also announcing, and on how rewarding it was to spend time doing what I love with the horses and people that mean so much to me, especially on the adrenaline-inducing cross country courses.

This all took the pressure off winning, but, frankly, winning is incredibly elusive in eventing. The sport requires nearly flawless dressage, cross country, and stadium jumping rounds where one missed movement or one dropped rail can knock a competitor down the standings. At the USEF CCI4*-L Eventing National Championship — the highest level offered in the United States this year — held at Tryon, N.C., this month, a rail that fell on the very final fence knocked leader Elisabeth Halliday-Sharp and Deniro Z from first to fifth.

With a new outlook on the sport, I did manage some good results. Sorority Girl and I finished on our dressage score in seventh of 16 at Beginner Novice at The Event at Archer in August. Then, we moved up to the Novice level of 2-feet-11 and again finish on our dressage in sixth of 18 at The Event at Archer in September.

Horowitz and Cubbie go through the water at the Event at Archer

However, the “result” I'm most proud of came during the first time I've traveled a long distance for a show to the Windermere Run Horse Trials in Missouri a month ago. That was also the first time that I've competed two horses at a recognized event—perhaps because it was the first time in more than a year that I wasn't also announcing.

Needless to say, we didn't get the “results” as Lombardi would have liked.

About two minutes before Cubbie and I were scheduled to enter the dressage arena for our Beginner Novice test, Ashley asked me to try to take up more contact on the reins during our warmup. Three days prior, Cubbie told me exactly how she felt about contact on the reins when she ran me into the walls of the arena on our farm. So now at our final show together for the season, she planted her feet and decided not to move.

“Don't do anything,” Ashley said. “Just go in and get through the test.”

We pulled off the second-worst dressage score in the entire competition across all levels. The dressage scribe, a friend that had traveled with us from Colorado and was volunteering at the show, told me that the judge, whom I also knew from announcing at previous shows she's worked at, turned to her during my test and said, “I thought Jonathan was a better rider than this.”

It's true. I did no actual riding because I really had no other option if I was going to finish the test. We even scored a 1.0 out of 10 for one of our movements that I knew Cubbie and I were doing wrong but knew she would not allow me to correct. However, after this glorious performance, we had clear cross country and stadium jumping rounds because Cubbie likes to jump and I could effectively manage her crappy attitude for those disciplines.

Sorority Girl and I competed at Novice at Windermere and had a good dressage test for where we're at, as well as a clear stadium jumping round. However, we had two refusals during the last three jumps on cross country.

“I need five minutes, and then I'll be good,” I told Ashley when I came off course, determined to appreciate what went positively and not dwell on what went negatively.

“That's fair,” Ashley responded.

What I ultimately took away was how this was a learning opportunity. I had slowed our tempo at the end of the course because I was worried about getting speed faults. Sorority Girl took my cue and backed off, so she, understandably, wasn't as bold as she had been for the first three-quarters of the course. For those keeping score, we ended up last of 13 in our division.

We fixed this the next month at the Texas Rose Horse Park Fall Horse Trials and went clear on cross country with a more consistent pace that helped my mare gain more confidence as we progressed through the course. I had my best finish ever at any event, placing fifth of 11 at Novice and, unexpectedly but happily, taking home a large pink ribbon.

Travel to events can be hundreds of miles, and there's a significant cost when you add up transportation, lodging for people and horses, entry fees, and more. The time actually spent competing across all three disciplines of an event is a total of about 10 minutes. However, there's so much more—the experience, the camaraderie, the bond we get to have with these special animals through the moments that click and the moments that frustrate—that make eventers so addicted to the game.

After three years and 12 recognized events, I'm glad that I've finally learned how to play the game.

The post Thoroughbred Makeover Diaries Presented By Excel Equine: Horowitz Learns That In Eventing, Winning Isn’t Everything appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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Thoroughbred Makeover Diaries Presented By Excel Equine: What It Takes To Go From Rider To Trainer

So far, we've followed writer, announcer, and Thoroughbred Makeover competitor Jonathan Horowitz in his journey to the 2020 (now 2021) event. This month, Jonathan's wife and trainer Ashley gives us her perspective on Jonathan and his OTTB partner, Cubbie Girl North.

“I think I want to compete next year.”

That's what Jonathan said to me in October 2017, 2018, and 2019. I get it. The environment at the Makeover is infectious. The camaraderie is amazing. There is nothing better than getting to watch the Makeover from the best seat in the house, the announcer's booth.

If you've been following the entire Thoroughbred Makeover Diaries series, you already know that Jonathan had just started riding a couple months before he announced the first Retried Racehorse Project Thoroughbred Makeover that was held at the Kentucky Horse Park in 2015.

I was there as well to see what it was all about. As a trainer of off-track Thoroughbreds (OTTBs) and a horse lover, I was instantly hooked. The difference between Jonathan and me is that I understood (at least a little more) first-hand what it all meant for all those competitors who were there that year. I loved watching the evolution of both his knowledge and understanding of what it took to ride at that competition.

When he made that statement to me in 2017 and 2018, I flat out told him, “No.” He was not ready to take on a fresh OTTB and have it ready to compete after only 10 months of training. I do need to take a moment and say that Jonathan very quickly became the most dedicated novice in learning all that there was to learn about riding, training, showing. Because he didn't know any better he thought, why not endeavor to learn eventing on OTTBs?

He bought my 2017 Makeover grad, Grand Moony, who was very successful in both Jumpers and Freestyle, and he learned to Event on her. She wasn't easy. There were many times he asked if he was in over his head or if she was really the right horse for him. Maybe she was, maybe she wasn't. But, she sure has taught him a ton in the last two and a half years, and she definitely is the right horse for him now.

I'm a little old school. I like throwing a young talent into the deep end…but with a lifeguard on the side just in case. That worked great for his evolution as a competitor, but as he's learned this past year, it's a whole different ball game when you're doing the training.

“I've found your horse!” I exclaimed as I was mindlessly scrolling through horse ads on CANTER's website in July 2019. A 3-year-old bay filly, of course that would be a good fit. In all honesty, when I was looking for a horse for Jonathan, I wasn't looking for what would be the easiest for him. I was looking for quality. I'm sure we could have easily found a horse that was a little older, had a little more experience, and most assuredly would have taken Jonathan down an easier road.

Unfortunately for Jonathan, that's not what caught my eye. Another thing about Jonathan, he's eternally trusting of all of my crazy whims. Of course, why not get a 3-year-old filly who only raced a few times?! This is one of the many reasons I love him.

 

I loved Cubbie's conformation. I loved that she had low miles. I could see that this horse had upper level potential. This is what an experienced trainer looks for, but for an amateur, it's a crapshoot. There was no hesitation from Jonathan. Maybe it was his naivete or his blind faith in me, but the next day, the process had been started for Cubbie to make her way to our Super G Sporthorses farm in Parker, Colo.

There are a lot of ways to approach the Makeover as an amateur. I knew that Jonathan was an idealist, thinking that things just simply work out. He had visions of how he and his beautiful horse would look, harmoniously riding together at the Makeover. But did he really know what it was going to take to get to the end goal?

Training horses is hard. It's not that every ride is or needs to be a battle, but it is a long process of ups and downs and a balance of steps forward and back. It is challenging and frustrating. Particularly with the rise of social media, there is so much out there on amazing successes. Everyone loves writing about the wins, the accomplishments, the moments in the spotlight. Those who train truly know what it has taken to get to this point. Jonathan did not.

Now, this is not a knock on Jonathan. You cannot fault someone for something that they simply do not know solely because they have not had the opportunity to experience it. As I have said before, Jonathan devoted his entire world to horses — to riding them, to understanding them, to building relationships with them. He spent countless hours watching me working with fresh, young OTTBs, getting them to be good citizens, and finding them good homes.

Jonathan Horowitz canters through the water at Spring Gulch with Cubbie Girl North.

The problem was, Jonathan thought because he had spent so much time studying and watching this “art” he could do it on his first try. Cubbie is a phenomenal talent. She has the potential and will be an upper level horse (barring unforeseen circumstances). However, those horses come with egos and opinions and, well, attitudes. Basically, Cubbie is not an amateur's horse.

Now, the problem with this is that I am adamant that I will not train this horse for Jonathan.

I have had the privilege of getting to ride and train with numerous top riders from multiple different disciplines within the equestrian sport—eventing, dressage, hunters, Arabian breed trainers, draft trainers—you name it. I am eternally grateful for all that I have learned from them, and it has helped me immensely. But, the most valuable thing that I have is the tens of thousands of hours of riding on my own and figuring it out. The mistakes are at least as important as the successes, but everything is logged away into a database for reference.

The feel comes at different times for different riders, but it is essential to bring out the true potential of any horse. Horses want to do the right thing. They do talk to us, but it is subtle at first. When you see a horse acting out, it has most likely already told you in their own way how it is feeling and/or what it needs from their rider. To truly train a horse you need to be able to receive this information.

Jonathan and Cubbie have extreme highs and lows, but that is inevitable when you have a novice trainer working with an incredibly smart and talented young horse. What I want everyone to take away from Jonathan's journey is that he is still out there, and he and his mare are moving up and making strides forward. This has not gone unnoticed. The trainers and riders in the area are watching him, and seeing him, and, my favorite part, rooting for him. He is out there every chance he gets trying to learn the language of his horse. It is an awesome journey to watch.

I have held to my standpoint that Jonathan will be the trainer of his Makeover horse, but that does not mean that I am not willing to step in and help. I step in when Jonathan is struggling to feel what Cubbie is saying and decides that it's not worth it for her to try anymore.

After 10 months of the pair working together, we have learned the pattern that about every three months I need to step in, hop on Cubbie a few times, and help open healthier lines of communication. So, I guess you can call Jonathan Cubbie's trainer, but I'm their therapist.

Ashley Horowitz's training experience spans from Arabians in Australia to Clydesdales in Virginia and everything in between. She is the head trainer at Super G Sporthorses in Parker, Colo.

The post Thoroughbred Makeover Diaries Presented By Excel Equine: What It Takes To Go From Rider To Trainer appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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