Where did you get your OTTB?

[ThreeFigs]

I was trail riding with a student along a golf course in Aurora, CO. This gent steps off the green and asks me, point-blank, if I’m a trainer, says he’s got a nice mare at the track who won’t run and would I be interested?

I ask what he wants for her. $300, he says. There must be something wrong, I think, so I ask why he doesn’t sell her by the pound – he could double his money. He tells me she’s a real nice mare who needs a chance. Bucked shins, but nothing else wrong with her. Three years old.

My student, her husband and I go to Arapahoe to have a look. Love at first sight! As I was standing with my back to her stall, wondering how I could make this work (I had little money and no job at the time…), “Dot” draped her head over my shoulder and looked at me with her big brown eye.

Dad and I drove to my cousin’s ranch the very next day to borrow his trailer to pick Dot up. When she stepped off the trailer at the ranch (where she rested for a few months), my cousin asked me if there were any more of these $300 horses around.

She was a dandy. Loved to jump, worked cattle, and you could open and close gates from her back.

[BasqueMom]

I was like 52 or so when I bought Basque who was seven (raced for 5 years) and
no further training. Everyone thought I was nuts…softest eye I’d ever seen.
He went to my favorite barn and into full training. The trainer who had been shaking her head over my purchase but had me on him the first weekend was all compliments after working with him for a week (I was out of town) and said she could not find a hole in him. We proceeded to have a ball for the next six months doing things I could not do with my old guy (he didn’t trail ride, spooked
a lot, etc) until EPM reared it’s ugly head. He’s the kind of horse that makes
you brave…

[gypsymare]

One at Penn National through CANTER PA and one through Finger Lakes Finest.

[EcstaticLady]

The Tulsa Penny Saver had an ad for “free” TBs. A friend and I went to “look” because neither of us was in the market for a horse at that time. Almost made it out of there and this beautiful bay mare came up behind me and put her head on my shoulder

The woman I bought her from had a whole herd (30+) that she had bought from a retired breeder. She had raced as a 2/3 y/o but had been a pasture ornament for almost 3 years when I got her.

Oh yeah, she wasn’t free by any means. That was over 8 years ago.

[Megaladon]

Two I bought from a dressage trainer. One bought but really rescued as he was super skinny, rain rotted and sharing a tiny, muddy paddock with a very scary looking Angus bull. Another was bestowed on my family when I was a kid from my father’s boss (daughter off to college). My last one from a person who lived in my town. They were having a garage sale and I couldn’t take my eyes off this mare!

[gabby.gator]

the one we have now we went to the Canter NE Showcase, specifically looking for a new hunter prospect for me. I really liked this gelding, (big, dark bay, pretty package) but my trainer checked him over and found he had an “ankle” and didn’t have the range of motion needed for his intended job, so I walked away… um, but hubs didn’t. He just fell in love, trainer offered him for free, and the rest is history due to family circumstances, he sat for over a year, which turned out to be a good thing, I guess, because he’s fully healed and I’m hoping I get to do some shows with him this year. And hubby trail rides him every now and again.

[PeteyPie]

[QUOTE=CANTER Colorado;7360248]
It’s great to hear you give these horses such wonderful homes. To answer your question, an OTTB refers to any horse that has raced whether straight off the track or not. If your horses raced, they will have a tattoo on the inside if their upper lip and there will be records of their racing career. Even though they are now broodmares, they have the stamp if OTTB. Hope this helps! Loves the breaking bad reference![/QUOTE]

Thanks, CC. I have papers on all of them and have quite a bit of info about their careers from their JC papers, Equibase, and the internet. One was a dud on the race track raced a few times and never placed, one was injured young and never raced, and two of them had successful racing careers, the mom and the daughter.

The dam is a really well-bred mare and like all four of my mares, has no Northern Dancer (or Native Dancer), Mr. Prospector, or Seattle Slew in her pedigree (a little rare and a great outcross for those lines). She raced almost 60 times in her career with over 50% in the money and seems to be sound, except for her propensity to get abscesses. Her daughter ran a while and also placed in the money over 50% of the time.

I could go into more detail… …lots more detail, but it would be boring to everyone but me, probably. Of course I have dreams of breeding them and have picked out sires who would work well, yet I know full well it will never happen!

In the meantime, I like to follow the careers of the offspring of my first two mares (I decided to draw the line with them because it’s a numbers thing – I can only help a few so why torture myself). Some of them are doing well, at least one was almost certainly sent to slaughter based on the reputation of the trainer who last owned him (as well as other info), one broke down, and a few I have not been able to locate at all – they may have died young.

[pryme_thyme]

We purchased an off the track quarter when I was in my teens. Purchased from a horse trader to rescue her.
If I do it again I will be going to the track.

[scubed]

The ones I currently own

1. Internet ad from person who had purchased him from track
2. Word of mouth from excellent reseller from whom I had gotten previous horses
3. Word of mouth from professional reselling CANTER horse
4. Facebook/word of mouth from jleegriffith (personal resale horse, rather than officially a CMA horse)

[Kodidog763]

I got my gelding through equine.com/private party. He came off the track and went to a hunter/jumper barn in NY, he was purchased by a private party, who brought him to Minnesota, where I bought him. My mare was through an ad on our local yahoo group. She came off the track and went to a polo barn, but was unsuited to polo, so they re-sold her to me.

[elizabeth_Callahan]

Canter Pa, and a Fingerlakes Finest!

[foundationmare]

Who is your finest, elizabeth?

[Mali]

Direct contact with a trainer…“friend of a friend” type of arrangement.

[Beam_Me_Up]

Of the current 3, two I got at the track–1 at Penn (listed on CANTER PA) and 1 at FL (listed on FLF). The 3rd I got privately–he was listed in the newspaper and in a bad situation.

[Meany]

Current OTTB is the one I rode to get my gallop license at the track.
When he was done running, his grouchy angel of a trainer arranged to have him delivered to our farm.

[Lil_Nibs]

Perturbed - from Equine Rescue League (1991). Twilight from a dealer up Monkton, Md way (2000) and best horse I ever owned. Pal - Camelot auction, (2010), Tess, from a friend but the mare raced in MD (2012). Love my OTTBs.

[ThatBayHorse]

By accident!

Moved to a new town, asked contacts if they knew anyone with horses that I could ride/lease, found mine in pretty bad shape in cowboy barn, rode him a few months, fell in love, and bought!

[foundationmare]

Oh elizabeth, you have first crack! Cool!

[ladyj79]

My first ottb was at age 12, he was also 12 and from my trainer who had picked him up off the track as a six year old. He was a stakes winner and then top notch show hunter before being retired to trail ride and cart kids around.

Second was from the racing stable, became a phenomenal sport horse broodmare.

Third was from Canada.

Fourth was from a sketchy dealer. My heart horse.

Fifth was from Canter Michigan! He’s a rock star.

Sixth was a long-term racer, trade-in on a WB mare. He was WAY nicer that she was. Super second career going now as a children’s hunter.

[Ensigne]

Maker’s Mark Secretariat Center!