Tag: OTTBs

The Blueberry Bulletin Presented By Equine Equipment: Lessons From The Thoroughbred Makeover

Three weeks after the Thoroughbred Makeover and I'm still walking on air when I think about Blueberry's performance. My big goals going into the dressage competition at this year's Makeover had been that he be mentally prepared for the situation – two back-to-back dressage tests in the Rolex Stadium, a large and echoey structure unlike anyplace he had competed before – and that we not finish last.

Our scores on our two tests weren't the highest we've ever gotten, but they were solid and the tests themselves were the best we've ever put in. We came 40th out of a group of 89, many of whom were dressage professionals. I am thrilled with that outcome.

I started this series with a list of early lessons I took away from my first months with an off-track Thoroughbred (OTTB). (You can find that post here.) That seems like a good way to sum up the many things we learned from this wonderful, crazy, exhausting experience.

  • Last-minute hoof issues aren't necessarily the end of the world. Any time Blueberry experiences any kind of discomfort, he is pretty dramatic about it. We say he's a sensitive flower, which has its advantages in the dressage ring. I actually consider it a good thing that he's unafraid to express to me when he's in pain, because I know right away when something is wrong. This also meant that when he got his first hot nail (the first one my farrier has been responsible for in a decade working at my barn, just my luck), he acted like he was dying. Naturally, this happened about nine days before we were due to ship in to the Kentucky Horse Park. Initially we weren't sure whether he had a hot nail or a brewing abscess and I quickly learned that the former will resolve very quickly while the latter, though similarly minor in terms of seriousness, would probably take more than a week to get him back to full strength.We spent three days with his shoe off, diligently packing the foot round the clock and soaking it just before the farrier's recheck just in case he had both a hot nail and an abscess. In three days, the nail hole had closed clean and we were dealing with minor bruising from the time the shoe had been off. We practiced our Training 2 test two days before shipping, charging into the biggest horse show week with exactly two training sessions in the previous 10 days. By the time he arrived at the Park, he was sound, rested, and ready to go, if a little lighter on practice and fitness training than I had intended.

    So the next time I hear about a Derby prospect with a last-minute foot issue, I'm not going to throw them out until I know more about what's going on. A turnaround can be possible, even in what feels like the eleventh hour.

    A moment from our Training 2 test

  • Horses don't always fit into the timelines we've laid out. Ok, I knew this one already but I'd always thought of it upside down – that if anything, you have to move slowly doing anything with any horse just on principle. But that's not right for everyone. With a month or two to go until the Makeover, I was aware we'd need to step up from the Intro Level tests we'd been performing in competition to the Training Level 2 test we'd be required to do at Makeover. I also knew in advance that we'd only have one show prior to Makeover where we'd have a chance to ride that test. Each level contains three tests, which get progressively more difficult, so Training 2 is actually the fifth and most difficult test we've tried. With a few weeks to go, I still believed it was possible that after Makeover we'd need to step back down to Intro C, the test I figured we'd have been riding if we hadn't had the Makeover as a goal. The one time we competed Training 2, I forgot part of the test and missed a few key technical marks. We were still struggling to get our correct canter leads on the first try. It was — not quite a mess, but not an auspicious beginning.We got a lot of practice in during Makeover week, drilling Training 2 over and over. Leaving the Rolex, I knew I was sitting on a Training Level horse. In just a few short weeks, we belonged at that level. I didn't think we could both improve that quickly but we did.
  • A bored baby Thoroughbred in horse show stabling will eventually, with great determination and practice, find a way to poop into his water bucket. And his feed tub. My mare did not prepare me for this level of depravity. Gross, dude. He will also not learn from the experience and may do it again tomorrow if he has finessed his aim.
  • The notion that a seam ripper is a critical tool in your horse show kit is not a suggestion. I had Blueberry professionally braided because my braids are absolutely awful and I wanted him to look amazing. He did, and the braider sewed the braids in (which explained how they stayed in so well, no matter how he rubbed his neck along the door frame). She did a beautiful job. I reluctantly took them out at the end of the evening, in the dark, carefully hunting for black thread with bandage scissors so as not to cut holes in his mane. When eventers (at least the eventers I know) braid, it's usually with bands that are easy to pull, but the hunters mean business, even when they do button braids. Seam ripper = vital equipment next time.
  • Do not underestimate the bombproof nature of a well-behaved 4-year-old Thoroughbred. Our stabling for the Makeover faced out onto one of the busiest parts of the park for vehicle and foot traffic. We hacked through the show grounds and around the edges of the cross country course to get to our schooling area every day. Although Blueberry had been to small horse shows many times before this, he had to see and hear a lot during this particular week, and he feared nothing. Other horses spooking, bolting, galloping cross country, dogs, golf carts, backfiring tractors – he thought about none of it. Even the echoey Rolex grandstand and brightly-decorated judges' booths were of very little concern to him.The only thing he looked at was the giant rack of colorful jump poles that was being unloaded by volunteers on our first day at the Park and must have looked to him a little like windmills looked to Don Quixote. Fair enough. He stared, planted his feet, and shook in his bell boots. I was nervous, not knowing if he would try to bolt. I considered dismounting, but I sat still in the saddle. I patted him. I let him think for a few minutes, trying consciously to lower my own heart rate. He took a breath, chomped on his bit, and decided to believe me when I promised him they were safe. Is there a greater feeling than your horse saying, 'I trust you'?

    All smiles after our second and final dressage test at the Makeover.

  • The greatest lessons sometimes evolve from a tough warm-up. Blueberry handled the atmosphere of the Rolex Stadium brilliantly, but we did have a bobble in our first schooling session on Monday, several days before our competition on Thursday. We were running through our test and were just passing the judge's booth when someone dropped something inside the grandstand. It sounded like something heavy, maybe a folding table, making a big, echoey boom. I watched Blueberry's ear move towards it, process, and ignore the sound … but unfortunately, about two steps later, it was time for me to ask for a left lead canter. I wanted the transition to be sharp, and I rotated my knee about a half inch too far, touching him gently with more spur than heel instead of the other way around. I don't know if it was the sonic boom or the unexpected spur poke, but he took off bucking. It was a short episode and I sat it well, but I did have long enough to think about how much I did not want to fall and have my horse run loose through one of the more famous outdoor arenas in this country.I can't lie – this moment rattled me. I spent two days overanalyzing it, and then I realized that 1) He had almost certainly been reacting out of indignation and not fear 2) He had almost certainly forgotten about it as soon as I sat up, gathered my reins, and taken us through a 20-meter circle still in the canter and 3) I came out of this moment just fine. I didn't even lose a stirrup.

    All along this journey I have doubted myself more than Blueberry – am I a good enough rider to teach him this new sport? Do I know him well enough to read his moods and his emotional needs? Am I capable of putting the pieces back together when things go wrong? And thanks to our amazing support team – my husband, my trainer, my barn friends – I came away from that schooling session eventually recognizing that my horse has faith in me, and I should, too. (It helped that after a couple of days of long workouts and daily walks around the park, he was also probably too tired for a repeat.) This is something that I know will come up again and again. Unshakable confidence doesn't grow overnight, but it does come through repeated good experiences, and I know Blueberry can give me those.

The post The Blueberry Bulletin Presented By Equine Equipment: Lessons From The Thoroughbred Makeover appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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Do It For Devyn: Special OTTB And Rider Pay Tribute To Friend’s Battle With Cancer

The Thoroughbred Makeover has been over for a week now. Horses and humans who came to the Kentucky Horse Park from all over the country have returned home, jumps and competition arenas have been packed away, and the last ribbons have been awarded. But for anyone who showed up to watch the finale competitions on Oct. 15, one performance probably burns clear in the memory.

Meg Hems and her off-track Thoroughbred Nucks arrived at the covered arena well ahead of their scheduled finale ride, streaked in silver and glitter. Hems and Nucks had qualified for the finals in barrel racing, and had also participated in the Thoroughbred Incentive Program Barrel Racing Championship earlier in the week, but their first performance was something completely different.

Their first ride on that Saturday was for Devyn.

Hems and Nucks were also finalists in Freestyle, which is a delightfully open-ended discipline at the Makeover. It has basic requirements of horse and rider – that they showcase the horse's ability to walk, trot, and canter in both directions, halt and back up, do a lead change and trot in a figure eight. They have five minutes to show the horse off however they like. The discipline has seen a wide variety of creative performances through the years, with riders foregoing saddles and bridles, leaping their horses over fire, wearing costumes, and hauling props to music.

(See the 2018 Freestyle finals below.)

Generally, the horses who demonstrate the most versatility and most bombproof nature prevails, and with the top five competitors advancing to the finals, the discipline is a highlight of the Makeover's last day for spectators.

Hems had practiced the core elements of her routine for a few weeks before shipping to Lexington from her base near Hamilton, N.Y. Hems works long hours at a car dealership and has a daughter who is ten months old – not exactly a combination that leaves a lot of time for riding. She said she rode Nucks in the dark by the light of her truck's headlamps more often than she did in daylight.

So for her, putting on a blindfold at the start of her routine made the crowd twitter, but was just another ride in the black, with Nucks to guide her like he always had before. With blindfold in place, Hems trotted and cantered Nucks around the indoor arena as Tim McGraw's 'Live Like You Were Dying' played over the loudspeakers. The pair looped figure eights over an enormous tarp laid in the middle of the arena, Hems counting strides and using the sound of Nucks' feet on the plastic to help her get a sense for where they were in the ring.

Having practiced the pattern at home, Hems said Nucks turned himself through the space, knowing the center of the figure eights should fall over the tarp.

Nucks' quick mind was one of many reasons he had converted Hems from her skepticism of Thoroughbreds. From time to time, Hems hauls horses for Second Chance Thoroughbreds, bringing them from the track to the facility's base. Something about the Mission Impazible gelding, who retired a maiden after 12 tries, stuck out to her. Nucks called the program's coordinator and asked what his story was.

“I was not looking for a horse. I did not want another horse,” she said. “I really liked him. I had picked up a rehab project, a mare from my track, and I said, 'I'll switch with you.' She said, 'I don't have room for another mare but I'll tell you what, I'll pay you the first month's board to take him. People brag about getting a free horse but I got paid to take him.

“I've worked with quite a few [OTTBs] but I've always trained them for someone else or rehomed them … I've never connected with one like I do with Nucks. I trust him with my life. He's not going anywhere. I love that horse.”

Hems has done a little bit of everything as a rider. She runs barrels and does a lot of trail riding, but has evented, driven, done Western pleasure, roping, and hunters.

“I grew up riding English and decided I didn't like placing off someone's opinion,” she said. “Now, we just place off the clock and it's a good time. And I can wear sparkles.

“I'm weird in the sense that I like finding the job the horse likes, and then I enjoy doing the job with them.”

Her equestrian horizons were widened by the influence of her close friend, Devyn Merritt Anderson. While Hems grew up riding 4-H, Anderson grew up doing Pony Club, ultimately earning the organization's highest certification level in horse management. Anderson evented in the Genessee Valley, becoming the beginner novice champion for Area 1 and also drove carriages.

Hems and Anderson met while working at a farm and garden store a decade ago and realized they had horses in common. Their bond became a strong one. Hems stood up in Anderson's wedding and she was there for her friend throughout her ten-year battle with ocular cancer. Anderson was there for Hems' brother when he too was diagnosed with cancer.

Anderson (left) and Hems (right) at Hems' first event

“She lit up every single room she went into. If you needed someone to talk to or someone to cheer you up, Devyn was the person,” said Hems. “Devyn was the one who helped him through it more than anyone. Any time he was scared or unsure, he'd call or text Devyn. She'd walk him through it and tell him it would be ok. He ended up beating cancer, and that was their deal was he beat cancer so she had to, too.

“He fought, he won, and he gives a lot of credit to Devyn.”

Anderson also saw something special in Nucks. It was Anderson who convinced Hems not to make him a resale project, but to keep him. Anderson gave them both dressage basics that made Nucks' strides even and easy to count.

So as Hems prepared for the delayed 2020 Thoroughbred Makeover, she had an idea. She planned to take Nucks to the freestyle, which Anderson knew. What she didn't know was that Hems was planning to dedicate the routine to her.

“I was going to come in that arena and, surprise, this whole routine's for you,” she said. “She was going to cry. There was no question there. But it would be all the best tears. Her and I lived off surprising each other. I'd send her flowers randomly to brighten her day. She'd call me to tell me I was doing a great job. That was our friendship – we went out of our way to cheer each other up.”

Having wowed the crowd with her blindfolded trot and canter work, Hems signaled to four people standing in the arena with her – including her younger brother. Each lifted a corner of the enormous tarp, with Hems and Nucks walking underneath. Hems shed her blindfold and grabbed a flag from her brother, then galloped out from underneath the tunnel. The black flag showed a rainbow of cancer awareness ribbon colors, each representing a different type of disease, surrounding white letters spelling out “No One Fights Alone.”

Hems sent Nucks at a gallop around the arena's perimeter, the glittered tassels on her show shirt flying, the flag flapping, her hair streaming behind her. And then, she dropped the reins, throwing her arms open and letting her Thoroughbred sprint at full speed, completely free. To anyone sitting in the crowd, she had an otherworldly power to her, racing the wind on her nearly-black horse like something out of an ancient myth.

“I am going to be completely honest – I didn't plan to throw my hands up,” she said. “I didn't practice it, I didn't plan on it. The emotion hit me, and Nucks has my back through everything and I knew it. It just felt right.”

Anderson wasn't in the stands, as Hems had planned. Just a month before the Makeover, she lost her battle with cancer at the age of 31. At the conclusion of the song, Hems looked skyward. She said she knew that even though she wasn't sitting in one of the seats in the front row, her friend could see her.

“It's very true that nobody fights alone, as cliché as it sounds,” said Hems. “I wanted every single person in that crowd to know they're not alone. The disease is nasty, but there are people out there. We all have to have each other's backs.”

Hems and Nucks finished second in the freestyle competition, third in barrel racing overall and 3D Average Champion in the TIP Championships and High Point Adopted Horse Award.

“He's got an old soul to him,” said Hems. “He's only six years old but that horse, I can put my daughter on him. I knew he wouldn't do anything dangerous. He knows he's got to take care of his people and he genuinely loves to be loved. He lives for me to tell him he's a good boy.”

Now, she said Nucks will get a vacation. They'll spend the winter trail riding through the snow before gearing up for shows again. He may learn to work cattle in springtime. Whatever comes, Devyn was right about Nucks – he belongs with Hems for life.

The post Do It For Devyn: Special OTTB And Rider Pay Tribute To Friend’s Battle With Cancer appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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Bonne Chance Sends Horse To Young Event Horse Championships, Finishes As Top Thoroughbred

Although the Breeders' Cup is still to come, Bonne Chance Farm has already had a successful debut at a different kind of championships. While the operation hopes to send three horses to Del Mar in a few weeks' time, it also sent a former runner to the U.S. Eventing Association's Young Event Horse East Coast Championship in the 4-year-old division.

Bonne Chance had high hopes for Judge Johnny, the son of Empire Maker and Silver Deputy mare Lucas Street. JJ, as he is known more fondly, is a half-brother to Wavell Avenue, winner of the 2015 Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Sprint and earner of $1.1 million in multiple graded stakes. JJ's race record was much less glitzy, with five races and no better than a sixth-place finish.

Aftercare has always been a priority for the small operation, so when JJ expressed disinterest in his job, the farm sent him to local OTTB specialist Carleigh Fedorka of Sewickley Stables. Originally, the then-3-year-old was supposed to be a quick retraining and resale project. When Fedorka first swung a leg over the big bay, she knew she had something special.

“He's almost a little unassuming when he's just standing there. But when you put him together, he just blossoms into almost a completely separate animal,” said Leah Alessandroni, bloodstock and office manager for Bonne Chance.

It took JJ some time to grasp what Fedorka was asking of him over fences, but once he figured it out, he approached even three-foot obstacles with calm, relaxed energy more characteristic of much older eventers.

In addition to being an accomplished researcher in equine reproduction at the Gluck Equine Research Center, Fedorka's equestrian resume is also impressive, ranging from ranch work to preliminary-level eventing. She maintains Sewickley as a boarding/lay-up/sales center which specializes in developing young ex-racehorses. When she told the Bonne Chance team their ex-racehorse had incredible potential in a different sport, they listened.

“The original plan was to try to just get a good education for him,” said Alessandroni. “I think she got him in August of last year, and our goal had been to get him sold at the end of the year. But when it was obvious he was so nice, Alberto [Figueiredo, Bonne Chance CEO] didn't hesitate to say, 'Let's see what we have as a 4-year-old, because maybe he'll be even better. To his credit, any time we wanted to do anything or take him anywhere, he said yes at every turn. He had faith in the horse.

“It's one of those fairy tale stories where you have all these goals, and very, very rarely do they all pan out.”

Figueiredo asked Fedorka for a plan of what she thought she could do with the horse in a short timeframe, and what she thought a realistic goal might be. Fedorka sketched out an ambitious schedule on a piece of paper, with the USEA Young Event Horse Championship as the ultimate goal.

The YEHs, as they're known colloquially, exist to help the national governing body for eventing begin identifying young prospects who could someday become Olympic team horses for the United States. There are separate classes for 4-year-olds and 5-year-olds. Horses must earn a qualifying score in order to enter the YEH Championship, with the top-place 5-year-old finisher receiving a grant to travel to Europe, with a promised spot to represent the U.S. at an age-restricted international competition for 7-year-old event prospects in France. Fedorka said most of the top-place finishers are imported European Warmbloods campaigned by riders who routinely compete at the Olympics and other top international events.

Scoring at YEHs and at its qualifying events is different from a traditional three-day event. At a typical three-day event or horse trial, a horse and rider begin with a dressage test and their score represents the number of faults or deficiencies in that test. From there, they may accumulate additional faults for knocked rails, refused jumps, or time penalties in a course of stadium jumps and a course of cross country obstacles. The lowest overall score is the winner.

In the YEH system, horses are instead scored based on the potential they show in each of the traditional three phases as well as conformation.

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Fedorka was thrilled to get JJ's required qualifying score on their very first attempt this spring and spent the summer and fall bringing him through the novice and training levels. The pair finished 19th in the Novice Horse division at the American Eventing Championship. Coming into YEH last week, Fedorka said her goals were modest.

“I had very low expectations, because pretty consistently the top ten are big imports ridden by big name people,” said Fedorka. “I said all along I wanted him to be the highest-scoring 4-year-old, because I thought he was the most quality 4-year-old in the country and I wanted him to prove that.

“I wanted to beat my qualifying score, which was a 79. I really wanted to score an 80, and I scored an 85, which was insane. I just wanted the score; I didn't know how it would stack up against other people.”

JJ accomplished the goal, placing sixth overall out of 32 and claiming the prize of top-placed Thoroughbred and rating the second-highest score for conformation. Looking back at her performance, Fedorka said she can see areas where she left a few key points on the table thanks to a silly stumble in the dressage ring and a knocked rail in the stadium jumping. She believes that next year, JJ could enter the YEH for 5-year-olds with a serious shot at the championship's top prize.

Judge Johnny shows off in his dressage test at the YEH Championships

“He was over-prepared for the level [of the 4-year-old jumps] and it's not because we rushed him up the levels, it's because he has the brain of a unicorn, just wanting more and more,” she said. “I'd never say it about any other horse I've sat on, but 100%, Judge Johnny is the horse who could be the 7-year-old running at the three-star level, without a question in my mind. I think he's the best example of the breed to the masses who aren't quite sure about the Thoroughbred.”

Fedorka and Alessandroni took note of the fact that there are different types of incentive programs and special awards beyond the championship for horses who participate from different breeding programs. Although the Thoroughbred Incentive Program does give an award for best-placing OTTB at YEH, there isn't a grant or other incentive to tempt upper-level riders to hunt for ex-racehorses for the purpose of that program.

“We have the financial backing for the Thoroughbred Makeover and that is amazing,” said Fedorka. “But we have to realize that eventing is our bread and butter for these Thoroughbreds, and we need to find a way to get support for these little phenoms like JJ. I'm lucky that I have breeders who have the ability and desire to support him. Without them, I'm doing this as a side hustle on the side of being a scientist. This is not a full-time professional endeavor that funds itself.”

Fedorka also said that since other breeders have seen her work with JJ, she has had two send her horses to sell for them, while promising to fund their retraining to ensure they have the best possible start in their new careers. Without JJ's success, she's not sure those connections would have realized that placing a horse with a 're-trainer' was an option.

“I think the thing I'm most proud of is that we could showcase a path in aftercare that is very, very rarely taken,” said Alessandroni. “I think that's probably because owners and people involved in the management of these horses don't even know it was a path to take.

“So many of our aftercare organizations are doing great, great work, but they have their hands full with horses who need rehab or who don't have connections with the financial ability to support the horse. If we can alleviate some of the burden from those programs by doing some of the work ourselves and putting our money where our mouth is, I think everybody should be doing that.”

Alessandroni encourages other racing owners or breeding farms to connect with reputable sport horse trainers who can help them evaluate retiring horses and help them network a horse to an appropriate barn where they can get some basic retraining in the sport they're best suited to.

“So much of it is getting them into good hands and making sure that instead of that horse dropping down into a $2,000 claimer, you're giving them the best chance to get a good education and a second career, or really just a life,” she said. “If they don't have an affinity at the racetrack but you keep them sound and happy, they can truly do anything. You saw it at [the Thoroughbred Makeover], horses doing any discipline in the book.”

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Watch The TRF Second Chances Program Horse Show On Oct. 21

Join us at 8 p.m. ET on Oct. 21 to “come inside” the program at Lowell Correctional Institution. Our global audience will See, Hear and Feel the magic of the horses who are changing the lives of the women who love them. This special livestream of the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation Lowell 20th Anniversary “Horse Show” will present the horses and the women of the Second Chances program as they work together, every day, to care for one another and to build brighter futures.

Prepare to be inspired! For more than two decades, thanks to extraordinary support from the Thoroughbred industry and the Florida Department of Corrections, this unique program has been “Saving Horses and Changing Lives”. With the success of each graduate, the ripple effect on friends, family, colleagues and neighbors in society is beyond measure.

Read more about the impact of the Lowell program in this week's edition of our In Their Care series. Writer Tom Pedulla spoke with women say their lives were altered (or in one case, saved) by their powerful bonds with off-track Thoroughbreds.

Paulick Report News Editor Chelsea Hackbarth met a successful graduate of another, similar program at the Blackburn Correctional Facility in Lexington, Ky. That TRF program gave Joshua Ison the job skills he needed to launch a new career after completing his sentence. Read more here.

The livestream is set to begin at 8 p.m. ET and will be available in the embedded video player below.

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