Haha! Maybe next time! Right now I am head over heels in love with my Oldenburg. But a previous TB made a soft spot for them in my heart.
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Bahahahaha okay okay I’ll agree this time! Love it 
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I wonder what happened to First Cornerstone as well. Tried to contact the seller, but no luck. I liked his breeding as well.
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Today we had our first official ‘ride’ or stand rather, still working on her being patient and standing rather than walking off on a mission.
Taking everything slow with her, I gather a feeling that she could be the type that won’t show if she gets overwhelmed. This filly is seriously quiet… how did I not realize that OTTBs are seriously chill!
Are they all like this? If so I’ll never go back to regular baby horses
Note: I do feel gargantuan on her dainty little frame
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I’ve really been enjoying this thread. Thank you for starting it, @pryme_thyme
People who don’t work with racehorses forget that these horses are already well broke. They’ve had many different riders, they have hacked out, they have been ridden w/t/c and gallop in all sorts of scary situations. They’ve probably been lunged and long-lined, they have been ponied.
So yeah, sitting on them the first time is usually a non-event. Where the rails come off the track, so to speak, is when riders start asking them to do things in a manner different than they are used to. Then they get confused and overwhelmed!
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That’s a great point! I have never actually been to a track to see what they experience, though most things seem uneventful.
It is shocking how quickly she picks up things, it must be half personality and half being exposed already.
I am glad to see more people interested in OTTBs as of late for second careers 
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@pryme_thyme How exciting! You look great on her! My sample size isn’t enormous, but I’ve never had an eventful first ride on an OTTB. As mentioned, the shenanigans can start when you start the reprogramming process. 
My Maya continues to be perfect. I think she’s gonna be a total babysitter type. We popped our first cross rail, just to introduce the concept and she was very unimpressed. Lol. She had her first solo hack all the way down the road today. It’s not far, but well beyond where she’s gone before. Only a touch of jigging when the neighbor’s horses were very excited about the new kid passing by.
Little Miss Maggie had a fat leg for a few days this week. She got a lesson in cold hosing and thankfully the leg was 99% down today. I’m hoping to have my first sit on her at the end of the week when my friend can come by and be my documentarian/911 person. 
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Awww that’s so amazing!! I am so glad to hear she is so sane.
Keep sharing your story and pictures
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Exactly!
It’s the new things like using their back or going off to a show that isn’t a race when the anxiety might start to show up, but then some others don’t care at all.
She’s imported right? So think about how much she has seen. She’s flown across the world already.
Usually when they start feeling good in their body and getting fit is when you might get antics. Or about January- April in Canada
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Okay, I am in love with her expression. And ears. And that pink nose spot, perfect for kissing!
I’m really enjoying this thread as an outsider- I don’t have any experience with OTTBs, but I have friends who just adore them. They’re something special!
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Oh goodie so they are the typically babies still haha.
I tend to mentally skip Jan through March, too many baby horses my brain now just blanks it out to make sure I keep loving horses haha
And yes, it’s true, I couldn’t imagine what it would be like in an airplane as a horse. It is kind of odd too, is it normal practice to import race horses?
Yes for the richer owners it is. My first event horse raced all over the US, was flown to California and the west coast, then Alabama and Arkansas and then shipped back to Canada. eta he was in Kentucky, Ohio New Mexico and Florida too (raced until 9) It’s wild lol
They’re not all wild in the winter though, she may stay super quiet. Mine get a bit silly but they are also super fit haha
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Pretty normal. Most racehorses in North America were born domestically, but imports and exports happen so frequently that it’s not unusual at all.
Racehorses move around a lot more than the average show or pleasure horse period. There is almost always several different farms along the way in the progression from birth to their first race. And then depending on the racing stable the horse is in, there may be several moves throughout the year as most tracks don’t have year round racing. Trainers move from race meeting to race meeting, often at quite the distance.
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It’s amazing what the average racehorse has seen and where they’ve been. My gelding only had 12 starts, but he raced ALL over - KY, NY, FL, VA, Del Mar. He was the most successful racehorse in my herd by far, but he’s been a ‘failure to launch’ in his second career. Too much baggage, physical and mental. My other mare is kind of interesting. She’s Canadian bred with 35 starts. She set up shop at Woodbine for the first half of her career, then was sold to a trainer at Penn National and stayed there for the second half until I bought her. She didn’t do a whole lot of moving around, except to come to the States and then from the track to the farm. That seems more unusual than going from meet to meet.
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One of my current geldings was foaled in KY and shipped to Ireland to sell as a weanling. He was purchased by American owners, who then sold him as a yearling, where he was sold to England. He then went through the 2 yr old sales and was sold back to the United States, where he was then sent back to England after his first start. In England, he was sold privately back to America. So yes, some do them do travel extensively.
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What! That is incredible!
I’d love to know what she’s doing now
My one broodmare had a bit of head scratcher on her record.
Everything in her early years was all very normal, moving between the sales and tracks in North America. She ended up starting her broodmare career in Indiana.
But then she was exported to England in the middle of her breeding career. She stayed for a year, no foals on record, then was repatriated back to Indiana where she resumed her US breeding career. I got her a few years later at a Kentucky farm dispersal.
That Indiana-England-Indiana move is an odd one, especially for a middle-aged broodmare. I never did find out what the heck was up with that. She was a good mare by Indiana standards, but pretty mediocre by international standards. Who funded two flights for that horse?!? And heaven help the humans who had to accompany her because she was not a good traveler.
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That’s really strange. I almost wonder if she was left open for a year and someone accidentally did an export report for me? Maybe intending it for another horse?
And then instead of dealing with having that removed, did an import certificate when they realized.
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I wondered that too, but no, she actually went per her former connections. I never did get anymore clarity on why. She was in foal to a European runner standing in the US at the time of export, so I almost wonder if someone was buying up mares in foal to him or something. That could just be coincidence, though. There are no reports for that foal so maybe she aborted and they sent her back. That’s still a lot of money spent for a mare whose produce record was only ok. She had a couple blacktype runners at that point but definitely not “fly her across the ocean twice” quality.
