That is really neat…I never knew that about Kelso.
I love to see former racehorses doing well at other things. It would be so cool to see RA jumping 
she is my favorite racehorse of recent years and the day at Saratoga when she won the Woodward was my best day at a track ever.
I don’t think its particularly sad though not to breed her again. I wouldn’t expect her offspring to be champions.
Rachel Alexandra is a racehorse. Through and through. Pure class, and as the good racehorse trainers know, with the good ones, you give them the best of care, feed, maintenance, etc. and they do the rest. Racehorse trainers realize that a great horse will be great no matter who has it. Many times they make fools look intelligent, but the real horsemen know that they are merely the caretakers.
Those are the people RA has spent her life with. Why on earth would you want for her to wind up in a show horse barn? The mentality in that world is completely different. You want her to be with people that want her to conform to their ideas? Wrong/right, correct/incorrect are ideas that are everchanging amongst the hunter/jumper/pleasure crowd.
RA is not accustomed to that, that is not what made her successful, that is not what will keep a class horse of her caliber happy. RA is used to receiving everything she needs then being let do what she needs to do to be great. Now she is retired, unbothered, and looks pretty darn happy.
So why on earth does anyone think it a good idea to yank her out of retirement and try to throw her into today’s trendy riding? This has nothing to do with “showing what the OTTB can do.” We KNOW what they can do. The people you are trying to “show” do not follow racing, and they do not care what any OTTB does.
The selling point is the individual horse, TB, WB, Shetland, doesn’t matter, you pick the horse that suits your needs. RA owes other TB’s nothing. She owes you nothing. Her showing will prove nothing.
This whole, "make her a hunter/jumper/fox hunter/WP horse/circus animal thing is short sighted. Thankfully Barbara Banke and her team are very intelligent people that have experience dealing with class horses, and I am happy people like them have her in their care. Stonestreet will not be forcing anyone’s agenda on this retired champion.
I’m not saying that she should be ridden, because I don’t know her personally, how sound she is, how hot she is, if she would be suitable for a riding horse. But I think the whole “show barn” thing is kind of silly. I do different types of show and events and rides with my horses but they just live on my property and don’t have any kind of “trendy riding” or ways of forcing them to conform to weird things! I just ride them and have fun with them and I think its nicer for them than just standing around. Not that there is anything wrong with a horse just standing around though!
Kinsale King just did a little show with Carl OCallaghan…was cute to see. Looks like they are both having fun.
I imagine everyone will be watching to see her colt’s first start. Pure speculation on my part, but I would give her a year off too, to make sure she was totally healed internally from her surgery and then early next year a full reproductive exam. As I recall, she was sent to r&r after her first foaling as a precautionary measure for pain management, but not really true complications. 2nd foal was huge and caused the problem. If the surgery hasn’t caused any permanent damage there wouldn’t be a true reason not to breed her again. Perhaps to a talented but smaller more refined stallion.
If they give her a repro exam and find nothing wrong, which they won’t because there is nothing wrong with her reproduction, they should just roll the dice once again? Thank God you aren’t in charge of making that decision.
[QUOTE=Spotted Pony;7443959]
i guess it was insulting to five time Horse of the Year Kelso to show in the jumpers.[/QUOTE]
Kelso did foxhunt a few times ridden by his owner/breeder, Allaire du Pont. I worked at a farm that adjoined Mrs. du Pont’s farm in Maryland for several years and people used to talk about her taking him out in the hunt field, but you are the first to say that he was shown as a jumper.
[QUOTE=Spotted Pony;7443959]
i guess it was insulting to five time Horse of the Year Kelso to show in the jumpers.[/QUOTE]
I think y’all are missing the point–the insult is specifically HUNTERS (or WP), ie the fashion-show, doped-looking subjective disciplines.
[QUOTE=EventerAJ;7443884]Disagree.
What makes RA’s genes so “special” and worth saving? She was an awesome racehorse, no doubt. But historically, super awesome racehorses rarely reproduce themselves. Breeding is a crapshoot entirely, the best genes don’t always get replicated and there’s no way to know for sure. She, and Lotta Kim, have had birthing problems. Why run the risk of creating more mares with reproductive difficulty?[/QUOTE]
I agree. Provided both her foals live to adulthood (I presume they’ll NEVER geld that Curlin, unless he completely bombs) her genes are preserved. Assuming the filly hasn’t inherited the same birthing problems.
[QUOTE=ejm;7445255]
Kelso did foxhunt a few times ridden by his owner/breeder, Allaire du Pont. I worked at a farm that adjoined Mrs. du Pont’s farm in Maryland for several years and people used to talk about her taking him out in the hunt field, but you are the first to say that he was shown as a jumper.[/QUOTE]
I misspoke. He did an exhibition as a jumper. I worked for Mrs. duPont after Kelso was gone and saw pictures of him “doing” jumpers. It was really just training and can’t really recall if he did more than one exhibition.
[QUOTE=Laurierace;7444765]
If they give her a repro exam and find nothing wrong, which they won’t because there is nothing wrong with her reproduction, they should just roll the dice once again? Thank God you aren’t in charge of making that decision.[/QUOTE]
Yup… I have to believe Ms. Banke has the brain to realize that the mare should not be bred again.
RA is so personally important to Barbara Banke. I cannot imagine her risking breeding her again.
And I agree with Angelico, she looks very happy and content in her routine, and is actually very sweet.
If they DO decide to breed her again, you can bet that she is going to go on the Rood and Riddle list for c-sections…they have several high profile mares that come in about a month before their due dates, go on 24/7 foal watch, and the minute they go into labor, are put on the table for an immediate c-section. Easy peasy.
I think that “easy peasy” is a bit of a stretch. Any surgery is a risk to the horse; in this case, two horses.
No kidding. C sections are basically colic surgery, I don’t know why anyone would want their horse to have colic surgery every year. You can’t just keep doing it over and over again anyway as there is too much scar tissue.
I know of several mares that have c sections done every time…they don’t necessarily get bred every year, but the procedure is fairly simple. There were two mares that came in specifically for that purpose when I worked there. Neither of them suffered from any complications. Both were repeat visitors.
I’m not saying that there are never complications, but it’s not out of the realm of possibilities if they were to decide to breed again.
Out of mere curiousity, which mares?
Some horses are happier with a job even if it is just getting ridden around the farm. It keeps their minds and bodies healthier. Not that I would like to see her compete but she is used to a routine and working…
[QUOTE=ivy62;7464529]
Some horses are happier with a job even if it is just getting ridden around the farm. It keeps their minds and bodies healthier. Not that I would like to see her compete but she is used to a routine and working…[/QUOTE]
No she isn’t. She hasn’t done anything in years.
She is not an old horse and she has been off the track for a few years but how do you know she wouold not enjoy it? My OTTB that is retired due to injury loves when we do stuff together. He cannot be ridden, back injury, but he loves his ground driving…
I just think a lot of these horses would be healthier both in mind and body if they did a little work.
[QUOTE=ThisTooShallPass;7463053]
Out of mere curiousity, which mares?[/QUOTE]
If she were to tell you, that would violate confidentiality. I know when I worked at one of the major clinics in Lexington - that would have gotten me in SERIOUS trouble.
We were required to sign a confidentiality agreement. Meaning we can discuss cases and patients, but we cannot give specifics, such as names.
