Horses, specifically Thoroughbreds, have been in my life for most of my 37 years on this earth. My first horse was a super-green off-the-track Thoroughbred (OTTB) that today would probably be too much horse for a regular 10-year-old. But what did I know? He was super-sweet on the ground, loved attention, and was an absolutely gorgeous dark bay. Under saddle, he was completely different: a hot ball of nerves. But boy, was he talented despite his quirks. He really taught me how to RIDE. We developed an incredible bond and did everything together. This solidified my love of Thoroughbreds.
Fast forward 10 years, with both an undergraduate degree and graduate diploma under my belt, I’m living in Toronto and finding myself missing horses and realizing I could not have a life without them. My (new at the time) boyfriend – now husband – was invested enough to be willing to give up his Saturday mornings to find a barn to volunteer at with me and learn about these majestic creatures.
Enter LongRun Thoroughbred Retirement Society. Only about an hour from where we lived in Toronto, it was an opportunity to be in a barn again, smell the barn smells, do some chores, and see some horses. Not just horses: THOROUGHBREDS. I was smitten. For four months, we volunteered to do barn work and it was glorious. Then, they offered me a job as the adoption manager in charge of re-starting these lovely athletes and finding them forever homes. It was my dream job – working with Thoroughbreds full-time. Luckily, my husband is the most supportive human being alive and backed my crazy dreams and hobbies 100%. Fast forward seven years, I’m now the farm manager at LongRun, and we live on their farm.
LongRun is one of only two organizations in Canada that are officially accredited by the Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance (TAA). We rehab, re-start, and adopt out OTTBs who have finished their racing career. While we do house many permanent residents and stable stars, our mission is to find retiring OTTBs a second career in something they may excel in and place them in a home where they will be loved and succeed at a new job.
Early into my tenure with LongRun, a solid bay gelding walked off a van and into our rehab program. He had a bowed tendon. I was instantly in love. He was quirky, loving on his own terms, a handful to work with, and an absolutely gorgeous dark bay. I think I have a type …
Avie’s Quality was adopted by me after his rehab was completed and our journey was nothing short of frustrating. He was challenging, but everything I heard about him at the track was the same script – he was a hard horse to control. But he never got better; in fact, he got worse, to the point where he became unrideable. Four years into our partnership, in fall of 2021, I got the dreaded diagnosis of kissing spine. My vet was extremely positive about the surgery and its success rate. Finally, after six months of rehab, I had a horse that could relax under saddle at the walk and trot. It was glorious.
During September 2022, however, everything changed again. I was riding a particularly large and lazy OTTB, who had just finished rehabbing a tendon, and was getting him ready for adoption. Moving through a simple walk-trot transition, he suddenly stumbled badly and went completely down. It happened so fast I couldn’t get off and out of the way fast enough and ended up with my left leg pinned underneath him. Several pops and cracks later, I realized what had happened, got the horse off me and started damage control. It was not good. I knew immediately I needed to go to the ER.
The initial diagnosis was a spiral fracture of the base of the fibula and an avulsion fracture of the tibia. Ten weeks in a cast, and then six months into physical rehab, I wasn’t improving at a rate everyone felt I should be, so I was referred to a specialist. Two MRIs later, I was further diagnosed with a major tendon tear, multiple ligament tears and significant nerve damage to my leg and foot.
I missed riding; however, I had a certain level of caution that didn’t exist before the injury. It was 15 months before I felt strong enough physically on that leg to get back in the saddle again.
Applying for the Thoroughbred Makeover had never occurred to me. “That’s something professionals do,” I thought, or “I could never do that.” That was my outlook until I adopted out two horses from LongRun to an experienced makeover trainer for her 2024 journey. We started chatting and she convinced me that this sounded like a super fun, once in a lifetime experience. And what a great representation of LongRun if we had three amazing horses going down to compete!
Now, all I needed was a horse. Enter: Mr Nobility. On a gray, extremely snowy day in January, I was tasked with picking up the newest LongRun horse at a nearby farm. When they led him out, this recently gelded 5-year-old was tall, all leg, dark bay, and absolutely gorgeous. But it was the look in his eye that spoke loudest to me. Soft and trusting, this guy was looking for someone to love him and love in return. He walked onto the trailer like a pro and suddenly my brain could not stop spinning images of Kentucky.
I could tell he had been well-liked at the track – he was well-handled and actually very polite for being recently gelded. He had a winning personality and I was smitten immediately. Several days later, I put him on the lunge line to see him move and was shocked at how much of a brain he had. There was no silliness, just a great work ethic and playful attitude. And HUGE movement. This horse could move – holy cow, he had the nicest walk and trot I’d seen in a while.
The start of our journey has already had lots of ups and downs, more downs than ups. However, this super-sweet and loving OTTB keeps me coming back for more and finally, after two months of groundwork, on our fourth ride, we finally clicked as a team! I am excited for our road ahead to the Thoroughbred Makeover.
The Jockey Club supports many aftercare initiatives including the Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance, the only accrediting body in aftercare, and Thoroughbred Incentive Program (T.I.P.), which encourages the retraining of Thoroughbreds into other disciplines upon completion of careers. View all of the initiatives supported by The Jockey Club.
-courtesy America’s Best Racing
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