I know that many people on CoTH have purchased race track rejects and have made them into successful eventers. I would love to hear your stories if you have the inclination to share.
Thanks!
Lots of good stories. I can tell two quick ones about OTTBs.
This is my horse Porter–(JC name Blame it on Bush). He is the bay in the pictures below. He’s a 2008 model. I got him from Three Plain Bays at the end of his 4 year old year. First Picture is when I bought him, second picture was less than a year later. He hadn’t been restarted from his racing career. I gave him a light winter/early spring and then we started competing last summer. He ended the year with two Training Level events. So he has moved up the levels pretty fast. Super jumper and dressage is getting there. He is unfortunately injured at the moment from an accident in his field. We will lose the spring but should be back in action by summer. I expect to move him up to Prelim and maybe do a 1* by the end of the year. He’s still green about water but getting there…by the fall should be solid. He’s a really fun horse…like riding a sport car.
But the cool story is Richie. He’s a 2007 model–JC name Richie the Thief. I got him last year around Christmas. I got a mare for a broodmare prospect from a race trainer and he was given to me with her (ended up paying $500 for him). Both were in terrible condition. I wasn’t sure they were going to make it. Fast forward a few months and I got them healthy. I still own the mare. He had almost 50 starts…is sound. The mare raced for 7 years with 105 starts…also pretty sound. Sad they were let to get in such poor condition (see picture below) but they both scored a good home.
Anyway, my BM was going to try and do the Retired Race Horse Makeover but wasn’t chosen. I told her to go ahead and work with Richie anyway. So we started his training in May/June of last year. Long story short…she fell head over heels in love with him so I’ve given him to her. He did a bunch of schooling shows, a few BN horse trials and ended the year with a good clean run at Novice. He is the coolest little horse. Total mug for peppermints. The tips of his ears were frozen off when he was young…so he’s gotten the nick name “Stubby” from a few. I met someone who knew him as a race horse. Sounds like he had connections who cared about him until perhaps the last one. Sky is the limit and we are going to see how far this little guy will go but he is looking pretty neat and is a perfect match for my BM. He will likely move up to Training Level this spring and I would expect he will be at Prelim before the year is done. The video is from his lesson with Jimmy Wofford earlier this week. Jimmy likes him:D I need to sit down and write up Richie’s story a bit better…maybe he needs his own facebook page…
Richie with Jimmy (http://youtu.be/vBp5mC8xIOQ)
Porter going Training (http://youtu.be/4Po3-WWlzEc)
Wow he’s stunning.
[QUOTE=INoMrEd;7378561]
Wow he’s stunning.[/QUOTE]
Thanks. I think they both are 
I like the before picture of Porter because you can see how much the OTTB changes when you put the muscle back on them–I need to take a conformation shot of him now. And Richie…he is adorable…and it isn’t hard to make him look better than his before shot!!! Here is a shot of the them where you can see Richie’s ears. He’s in the middle with my BM, I’m on Porter on his right in Pink. This was one of their first outings last summer. Porter is about 16.1…so not huge, Richie is maybe 15.2 or 15.3. (and one of my mare’s off to the side…we don’t let her get any closer to the boys )
I can’t claim Toby’s (JC name Go Senor Go) racetrack reject story. That I have Tebogo Sporthorses to thank (and, actually, I don’t think they even got him off the track. I think they found him in a field). But he was definitely a racetrack reject of the most reject standards (my favorite comment on his performance in a race was “failed to menace”).
He is, however, the best thing ever and probably my truest partner in crime. I’ve had or ridden a lot of great horses (many OTTBs), but he is the one I have the deepest connection with. He totally gives me wings.
(Sorry if the link doesn’t work. Seems FB links are spotty).
It’s all on the blog in my sig. 
Yeah, I’m lazy…
I picked up a 2006 mare in October of 2012 while my WB mare was on stall rest/maternity leave. she looked like a wild hooligan but was such a nice mover that we decided to take a chance on her. i’ve kept her in training with a fabulous pro so she’s come along very quickly. she did her first recognized training last weekend and unfortunately had a green moment at the ditch but she is just amazingly honest and really all business when she understands the question. It has become apparent that I am the weaker link in this equation and with two other horses on my food bill and my WB back in full time work, she’ll likely belong to a new rider very soon, but I’ve had a blast watching her progress. I just know she is destined for bigger things than me.
7 years ago my friend bought hers off the track…he is now winning Prelim. 
Lenny (We All Love Aleyna) wasn’t even a racetrack reject; he ran 47 times, was stakes placed and won $446k+. His owner not only donated him, I believe she also donated money as well to the Thoroughbred Rehab Center, Inc. who took him on. Leigh Gray, who is president of the TBRC, gave him about six months off with a couple others in a field and then dropped him off for me when my former mount had to be put down. I think a good thing about horses who have been fairly successful at the track is that they’re worker bees; they know what it means to go out and do a pretty tough job on a continuing basis. So he took to his retraining fairly easily. That’s not to say he didn’t have his opinions about some things, but he was really pretty straightforward to retrain. And when we got him, though we’d been told he had ‘neck issues,’ we’ve never seen any indication of that or of soundness problems even though he ran from ages 2-6, I believe.
Fortunately, he’s been pretty amenable about hopping over fences and his dressage scores probably reflect my ability rather than his. I evented him through Training and then, due to my issues rather than his, moved back down to Novice last year. However, now my trainer is showing him back at Training and plans to run him this Spring at a T3DE. After that, with any luck, I’ll get my confidence back and start showing him again. I’m thinking the only crummy thing is that this is probably the horse I should have had 30 years ago. Oh well. I’m just lucky to have him now.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5qDNNc0n-K_S19VbEdpOG5sbzQ/edit?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5qDNNc0n-K_UW1RNlJ2cDU2aFU/edit?usp=sharing
Lenny (We All Love Aleyna) wasn’t even a racetrack reject; he ran 47 times, was stakes placed and won $446k+. His owner not only donated him, I believe she also donated money as well to the Thoroughbred Rehab Center, Inc. who took him on. Leigh Gray, who is president of the TBRC, gave him about six months off with a couple others in a field and then dropped him off for me when my former mount had to be put down. I think a good thing about horses who have been fairly successful at the track is that they’re worker bees; they know what it means to go out and do a pretty tough job on a continuing basis. So he took to his retraining fairly easily. That’s not to say he didn’t have his opinions about some things, but he was really pretty straightforward to retrain. And when we got him, though we’d been told he had ‘neck issues,’ we’ve never seen any indication of that or of soundness problems even though he ran from ages 2-6, I believe.
Fortunately, he’s been pretty amenable about hopping over fences and his dressage scores probably reflect my ability rather than his. I evented him through Training and then, due to my issues rather than his, moved back down to Novice last year. However, now my trainer is showing him back at Training and plans to run him this Spring at a T3DE. After that, with any luck, I’ll get my confidence back and start showing him again. I’m thinking the only crummy thing is that this is probably the horse I should have had 30 years ago. Oh well. I’m just lucky to have him now.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5qDNNc0n-K_UW1RNlJ2cDU2aFU/edit?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5qDNNc0n-K_S19VbEdpOG5sbzQ/edit?usp=sharing
My second horse was a racetrack reject; I didn’t get him directly off the track but from a resale barn that had bought him out of some guy’s field where he’d been for the two years in between racing at 3 and the sale barn picking him up, apparently without feed or any kind of farrier care based on the state of his feet and the fact that he was 200lbs underweight. I ended up competing him through Prelim, and when the jumping at that level became too much for him we switched to dressage and competed through Third Level. He was as you can probably guess always very solid in dressage and loved to run cross-country. I still have him, although I have stopped competing him in favor of leasing him for others to learn all the lessons he has to teach them. It’s amazing how my quirky horse has turned into a good schoolmaster!
My horse is a 2007 model. Got him a little over two years ago, right out of his stall at mountaineer. 8 days after his last race he was home with me in NJ. For the entire first year we just worked on flatwork/dressage, this year we started BN. We are moving up to novice in the spring, hopefully wont stay there long.
This horse defines catty. He is so quick off the ground, knees to eyeballs and he can jump the moon. He has punched himself in the nose with his knees before. My trainer suggested a nose bumper. :lol:
Some horses don’t have much of a sense of humor. This one does. He finds himself to be quite hilarious. He is just the happiest horse 90% of the time. He has A LOT of sound effects. Hitting jumps highly offends him and when he pulls a rail he squeals like a mare in heat and throws a fit. He will also squeal and hop around if any other horse pulls a rail. He grunts, huffs and puffs, and will violently shake his head like a wet dog when I put too much pressure on him under saddle. His endless antics and gigantic personality amuse me endlessly and he is truly the love of my life.
Picture:
http://img802.imageshack.us/img802/1839/53es.jpg
Pedigree:
http://www.pedigreequery.com/macho+mambo
