Well I’ve already contributed to this thread once, but here is my most recent “OTTB”. 
. I didn’t buy her, I bred and raised her. I trained her at the track, and she won a couple cheap races. She was a first foal from a mare that the owners didn’t want any more, and sired by my stallion. She was little, matured at 15.2. But she was big inside. She never put a foot wrong at the track. I belled her out of the gate myself, as there were no jocks available that day. I don’t usually do this, as I’m no jockey. But I did the breaking and galloping, so I took her to the gate that day, and had to wait there, wandering around in circles for about half an hour until two other horses showed up to “go with”, because that is necessary to get your gate card… the horse must load and break adequately with others. I lost my goggles going into the gate, and they put me on the outside so that I could swing wide and not get a facefull of sand when the other two horses outbroke me, and left me behind. So, the gates opened… and I never saw the other two again… they were so far behind. She looked after me that day. And continued to do so.
When we sold the race training farm and moved to a new life, she was finished racing, and I figured she’d make a nice children’s hunter. I advertised her for $2500, but got no interest. I guess I hadn’t figured out that people don’t buy off the track TBs for their kids any more. So I started riding her here, with practically no facilities built. But that was OK, she didn’t mind. And in no time she was popping around over small courses. I took her to her first show, which turned out to be on a rolling grass field. No problem, she jumped around. A friend took a picture of her there, she was stunning. Won prizes, of little note, it was just a little schooling show, but I was pleased… it couldn’t have gone any better. I began to think I might have a fun show horse on my hands, a 3 foot hunter for an old lady. More little local shows happened, and she continued to impress, and win. Then, we moved into the jumper divisions. Again, not big, just 3 foot 6, but she won a mini prix. And I hadn’t really competed at the shows for 20 years or so. But I again began to think I might have a jumper on my hands.
So I jumped her up to 4 foot at home. No problems. And entered a 3 Bar jumping class at a fall fair. She liked grids, and had courage, so I thought she’d do OK, probably roll a rail at some point. She didn’t. But she flattened a bit in front of the first jump (at 4 foot), and brought it down, the rail ended up between her front legs, and she came down onto her knees. I was in front of the saddle, still on board but on her withers. I dropped my outside hand to hopefully guide her further OUT of the line, and hopefully we would both remain upright. I managed to slip back onto the saddle as I was doing this. But did she take the guidance out of the line??? No. She swerved BACK into the line, and jumped the last two jumps, at 4’3" and 4’6" clean. Her decision entirely. Her dedication to her work. Stupid human, we don’t give up just because of a near fall. We finished second in the class. I was stunned. I put my hand on her shoulder, and felt the electric current of greatness under her hide. People came by just to touch her, incredulous. I kept saying “it wasn’t ME that did that… I was guiding her OUT of the line. It was HER”. She was amazing.
She won that class a number of times, jumping up to 5’ at the end of the line. And someone in the stands took this picture of her doing this, and as you can see, she is 6 inches clear of the 5 foot rail.
Even though she was only 15.2, her stride was so big that we had to come into these lines dead slow, lots of energy, but really collected. Otherwise, it felt like she was considering taking only ONE stride in there (not a good idea).
So… that’s what a TB can do for you. It was entirely WBs that we were jumping against. The first time, when she finished second in the class, was the ONLY time that she was not the winner.
I had to put her down last week. She was 24 years old. Star Coral.
. But he is very cute!
I’m attributing it to the large hind end and the fact that we are still growing and tend to be more downhill.
. He’s got Giant’s Causeway. My other one gets mistaken for a WB all the time. He’s an In Reality - when he was working he had that metronome canter that fools you into almost leaving out a stride despite feeling like you’re going slowwwww.
