“What are you planning to do with her?” I often ask my wife and trainer, Ashley Horowitz, as she's tacking up a horse to ride.
“I don't know,” is almost always her answer.
While that answer seems vague, like maybe she's being passive-aggressive in testing whether her husband of two months should already know the answer, I've learned that it's the most effective way to approach training horses. It puts the horse in charge of expressing what they're ready to learn and the rider in charge of crafting a positive experience.
The two most productive rides I've had on my 4-year-old bay OTTB filly Cubbie Girl North since my last Thoroughbred Makeover Diaries edition was published came when I didn't know what we were going to do until we were actually doing it. And, those two rides, which were back-to-back in a span of 72 hours, couldn't have been more different.
First, on Aug. 27, Ashley and I rode together with our 7-year-old son, Chase, for the first time as a family since the footing was finished in the brand-new indoor arena on our farm in Parker, Colo. Chase was trotting one of his first full courses of jumps, and they were all either cross rails or verticals about 12 inches high.
“Why don't you do the same thing?” Ashley asked.
I trotted to the first jump, and Cubbie took a big leap. Over the previous two months, we had completed five events at Beginner Novice where the jumps can be up to 2'7.
“Keep going. She needs to realize this isn't a big deal,” Ashley said.
As we trotted more and more one-foot jumps, Cubbie started settling into a steady rhythm, and she stopped making a big deal about them. We then cantered the course and called it a day. Boring never felt so rewarding.
Then, three days later on August 30, Cubbie and I were riding at a fundraiser at nearby Platinum Farms. We were in the start box preparing to school a round on the cross country course. While courses were set up for different levels, the informal nature of the fundraiser meant that riders could mix together heights of different jumps while they were on course.
“Are you going to do the first jump Beginner Novice or Novice?” Ashley asked.
“Beginner Novice,” I answered, thinking we'd at least get our rhythm at the 2'7 height I knew we were comfortable at before attempting the biggest jump height we've ever faced at 2'11.
“Thirty seconds,” the starter said, indicating how much time was left until we would leave the start box.
“No, I'll do the Novice one,” I screamed to Ashley, changing my mind and figuring Cubbie and I were ready for a fun challenge since she'd been feeling good in stadium jumping rounds earlier in the day.
We did the first Novice jump, then went over a ditch, then took the Novice corner, and rolled through nearly the entire course taking the biggest jumps we've ever done together…just three days after taking the smallest jumps we've ever done together.
Ashley Horowitz and Emily's Pegasus jump up a bank at the Mile High Derby on June 14, just one month and one day after the 4-year-old chestnut filly completed a 23-race career at Fonner Park in Nebraska.
Both rides were incredibly valuable despite being incredibly different and unexpected. However, both rides were actually the result of the same approach. It's the approach that Ashley has used with countless OTTBs, including her newest project, Emily's Pegasus, with whom she competed in the Mile High Derby one month and one day after the 4-year-old chestnut filly's last career race at Fonner Park in Nebraska.
It's the approach our friend, Brit Vegas, has also used as one of the most prolific trainers at the Retired Racehorse Project Thoroughbred Makeover, the event that I've announced for the past five years and now would like to compete in.
“It's the No Plan Plan,” explained Brit, who has ridden at every Thoroughbred Makeover since the first one was held at the Kentucky Horse Park in 2015. “Being good at retraining OTTBs is the ability to listen to the horse that you're riding in that moment and deciding, 'Do they enjoy what you're doing right now?' or 'Is it too much?' and making the decision for them whether you continue to train and teach or take two steps back.”
While I have my hands full with Cubbie as the first horse I've ever trained directly off the track, Brit plans to compete four horses at the Mega Makeover in 2021. Although the format of the Thoroughbred Makeover seems like it would be stressful with just 10 months to retrain a former racehorse for a new career, Brit has shown that doesn't have to be the case.
“Almost every horse I've taken to the Makeover I've brought along in the last two months of going, and they always end up in the top 10 regardless,” said Brit, who made the finale in Field Hunters in 2019 with Bombmarito.
I've made more progress with Cubbie in the last two months since the announcement in July about the postponement of this year's Thoroughbred Makeover took the pressure off our training. Instead of evaluating every ride and how it affects our goal of making it to the Makeover, I now appreciate the challenges and rewards each individual ride brings for its own merits.
I stressed in July about whether we'd be ready for the Makeover, and now I believe we would be. We've improved with every show, culminating in our best finish ever at the Mile High Derby on Kentucky Derby Day where we were one of just four clear cross country rounds out of the 11 competitors at Beginner Novice.
“If the Makeover were happening this year, you see that things would just be coming together for you and Cubbie right when they need to,” Ashley said.
I realize that the correct answer to “What will you be doing in October 2020 with Cubbie?” is “I don't know.” No one could have predicted how 2020 would play out, but the change in plans is the best thing that happened on the journey Cubbie and I are taking together. Zero plans are often the best plans of all.
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