"Thoroughbreds For All" Event in KY

Oh, dear... I am sorry I've been absent from the blogging scene. I have been expending a lot of creative energy over on my Millcreek Spreaders Facebook Page (hope you'll pay it a visit!), so this poor blog has fallen by the wayside. However, I am ready to get back to telling you about my trip to Kentucky in April.

The first event I attended, held the Friday night I arrived, was "Thoroughbreds For All." Sponsored by New Vocations Racehorse Adoption, this featured evaluations both in-hand and under saddle of some of their current horses by internationally-renowned 4* eventer Philip Dutton, former top jockey Chris McCarron, a Lexington veterinarian and an eventing trainer. I drove (at a rapid rate; I always seem to wind up having to jet around Lexington because I spend too much time yapping with the friend I stay with) to the farm and thankfully my phone GPS got me there in good order, because as usual it was down a winding country road and very easily missable. This is the second year the event has been held and they had a huge turnout of people!

Here's the view down the barn aisle. Of course I made a beeline to see the horses, even foregoing the tasty-looking buffet until after they had been inspected:

Naturally I fell madly in love with one of them. This guy was such a character - you could tell he will be some lucky person's total pocket pony, as he wanted nothing more than to engage with humans:

His name was English Major and I really hoped he would be one of the featured horses of the evening. But even without seeing him move, believe me, I was ready to throw him on a trailer and take off! (Note: He wasn't even grey. I guess I'm partial to chestnut with chrome, too. :-)

After I'd visited with the barn inhabitants, I had the pleasure of meeting up with none other than Stacy K., author of the Behind the Bit blog. I've been reading there for at least three years and was quite excited to hang out with her in person! It's not often that I get to attend events like this with a fellow equine enthusiast who really knows what's going on. We enjoyed the dinner buffet and settled in on the bleachers in the arena.

The first demo was Chris McCarron riding a TB fairly new to the NV program. This horse was being extremely looky-loo, I'm sure because a crowd on bleachers did not normally accompany his lessons. No doubt he fancied himself right back in the paddock at the track. Chris unsurprisingly dealt with him quite admirably, though Stacey and I agreed that neither one of us would want to ride a recently off-track TB in similar conditions.

Next about six horses were brought out in hand and walked and trotted around for the "judges." I found their commentary absolutely fascinating; I know quite a bit about conformation, and have some knowledge of how function follows form, but these folks picked up on all kinds of stuff. Plus, they were quite interested in the horses's background. For example, check out this stunner:

What a GORGEOUS boy! Really nice confo, too. Unfortunately, Philip and the vet made it quite clear that they would have serious reservations about putting this guy into any kind of sporthorse training. Reason being, he never even made it to the track due to ongoing suspensory issues (unspecified) to both fronts. Really a shame... I hope he finds a wonderful home with somebody who just wants to trail ride or do very low-level stuff, and love on their "Black Stallion" eye candy.

This one had a perfectly stunning head:

I get a kick out of TBs with very Arabian-looking heads, as they seem to be throwbacks to the three TB ancestors. Of course you can't "ride a head," as the saying goes, but rest of this fella wasn't bad, either, and he was one of the horses they brought back out under saddle. I was disappointed that my pal English Major didn't come out either time (more about him at the end).

Here are some pretty poor photos of the horses being worked:

The riders were all pros and they had a good time putting three of the NV horses who we'd seen in hand through their paces. All W/T/C'd around for a bit and then were challenged with some jumping. I'm not certain if any of these horses had even been walked over a pole before. However, a pole started them out, then little crossrails, then a straight fence and believe it or not, these brave riders then asked the newbies to negotiate an oxer. You can see that in my photos. Not big but when a horse has never even jumped before the results can be interesting, to say the least!

Mr. Chestnut Arabian Head turned out to be a nice boy. He had a good trot and an iffy canter the judges said would improve with work, but he had no qualms about hopping over the jumps. A little bay mare whom the judges had been lukewarm about in-hand also did a great job, jumping in good form, and if I recall correctly actually wound up getting the best assessment overall for sporthorse potential. She was pretty nondescript-looking but again, you can't judge a book by its cover, especially a horse!

All in all this was a terrific event. I came away feeling like I had a much better handle on how to evaluate a TB for H/J/eventing potential (should I ever have the need, and let's hope I do). If you have the opportunity I highly recommend attending!

P.S. Regarding English Major: Sometime last month NV officially offered him for adoption on their website. He went quickly... color me unsurprised, if sad that he wasn't coming home with me. :-) Here's their cover photo of him - is it any wonder someone snapped him up?

Rolex, Here I Come!

Been a little busy lately, helping Son plan and carry out his Eagle Scout project. All went well and I'm extremely proud of him. However, my busy-ness has not prevented me from laying plans to finally, FINALLY make it to Lexington for ROLEX!!! Yahoo!

I wanted to go last year but started a new job in April, so leaving town for several days was not in the cards. So despite much hemming and hawing, rearranging and feeling guilty on my part, the tickets are bought for the weekend phases, the vacation from work is secured and the lodgings with my friend (same one who kindly housed me for WEG and the National Horse Show) set up. I've also notified a couple other bloggers of my acquaintance that I'd like to meet them there. Wendy (From Racehorse to Showhorse) and I got together the last time I went down to Lex, but I have not met Stacey (Behind The Bit) so I'm looking forward to that. Maybe I will trail around after her in the shopping venue watching her scoop up lots of goodies.

My own shopping is probably going to be limited to a Rolex t-shirt. I already have a cool hat from WEG, so I'll get a Rolex pin to add to my collection that I have on it (WEG pin and NHS pin). While I might not be actually buying much, you can bet I'm planning to try on or sit in some fun stuff, like helmets and high-end saddles. I've read that my bony rump will undoubtedly love the butter-soft environs of a CWD, for example, so maybe sitting in one isn't such a hot idea - I don't think a saddle like that is ever going to be in my budget, alas!

I debated a great deal over what ticket to purchase for the stadium jumping on Sunday. The most coveted seats are those close to the ring, but I finally opted for sitting up higher in the grandstand underneath the covered part. Rolex has a bad habit of being rainy and I didn't want an excess of water to spoil any part of my fun. I'll be sitting towards the in-gate end of the arena which I'm hoping will facilitate me being able to scoot over to the warmup ring, either during the competition or directly afterwards. As you will see in my next post - World Equestrian Games (WEG) Part 2 - doing the latter yielded some up-close and personal photos of Very Famous Eventing People, which was a lot of fun.

I have also gone all to pieces and purchased an actual camera. No more relying on my trusty iPhone for photography! My budget was miniscule, so it's nothing fancy, but I'm hoping it will be useful enough for some decent jumping and galloping photos. It does do HD Video so I'll be filming a bit, too.  Probably nothing will emerge as good as this...

but I will certainly try. I think my favorite part of watching eventing is seeing the enthusiasm on the horse's faces when they're going XC. My plan is to track down Wendy and her husband Matt and see what they are shooting. In case you think they don't know what they are doing, may I present the cover of the brand-new issue of Practical Horseman... photo taken by none other than Matt Wooley!

I'm just tickled for him and Wendy - it's actually his second Practical cover, too. Congratulations!