OTTB eventing

[cottagefarm]

I am working on a project and need some stories of TB's off the track, in training but never made it to the track because of injury, too slow (you get the picture) that have made a successsful transition to eventing

Would love photos too of before and after if poss.
It may be a couple months before I have the whole thing together but I will contact you if I use your story.
You may send info to cottagefarmdressage@yahoo.com

I have posted on the other discipline threads too in case you read those too

TIA

[Jleegriffith]

Sally,
Check out my blog link below. I write about the CANTER Mid Atlantic horses that have been donated for various reasons but mainly b/c they were to slow.

[tbeventer]

I have two Storm Cat Grandsons (by WA bred Stallion, Delineator out of a Taj Alriyadh mare). Both went to the track. Cantilator, my Intermediate gelding came off the track after an unsuccessful attempt to beat the living well, you know, out of him. He was totally fried and his last trainer convinced the new owners to give him a second chance. Well, that he did and now at the age of 7 is competing at the 2* level with our sights set on Advanced in 2010. Full brother Charlie, 4, raced unsuccessfully in CA and after a call from his breeders, bought him sight unseen after he essentially flipped the crowd the bird in his last race. Both are wonderful geldings that are kind enough to put up with my 3 year old daughter riding them. "Tilly" will come off an Int. XC course full of piss and vinegar and my daughter, Ainsley will hack him back to the barn-- by herself!
I also own a Polynesian great grandson that I bought for a song as he was about to step on the slaughter truck. Currently on lease in NH with a young rider who hopes to bring him along through the levels, he competed Novice his 4 year old year and did a handful of jumper shows. He went from winning a level 1 jumper class to winning a leadline class with my daughter when she had just turned 2... all just 5 minutes apart.
He's been featured in a few publications, including the WA TB Times for their series, Second Chances. I would be more than happy to forward pictures and more information. I am a HUGE supporter of OTTB's and doubt that I will ever own anything but in the future! They have been the life of our sport for many years and will hopefully continue to show dominance above the WB crosses despite not being as "fancy" for many years to come! I doubt there are many other breeds that are so notorious for giving 110% every day of the year regardless of how THEY feel. Those that ride these special horses are truely blessed.

[Ajierene]

Wasn't Poggio off the track?

My trainer's mare was off the track and went to a (I think) long format one star.

There are a ton of them out there.

My mare is going Training this weekend - she's never been raced, never been trained to race....is off a thoroughbred racehorse breeding farm, though...but a really inept one....

[lstevenson]

I bought my top horse right off the track as a 3 yo, and took him all the way to Advanced 3 star level 3 day (long format). I have tons of pictures of him here on my new website:

http://lesleystevenson.webs.com/apps/photos/album?albumid=3885794

[cottagefarm]

Thanks guys,

The best response I've had yet :)
I will definitely be in touch with you as I get my project started.

[Auto Be A Storm]

Auto Be A Storm AKA Storm, 8 year old gelding out of Autocracy and Tapiz Blade. When Storm was born it was a rainy nasty stormy night in New Orleans. He hit the ground and was ready to go, At 6 month old he decided to mount his momma and got kick square in the head, the mare knocked him out cold for 10 minutes. we decided to wean him right then! A few months after that he kicked down a paddock and got nine nails in his back left hoof. Somehow managed to walk off just fine! As we are starting to get him in shape for racing he comes down with West Nile. It took us a while but we pulled him out of it and back into training. Of course training a young active TB colt we ran into multiple issues with injurys. But we got him to the training track summer of 2005, Storm is galloping out perfectly and we are getting him ready for the Fair Grounds meet, then Hurricane Katrina happened. We havd to evacuate and move everyone to Mobile, Al for a while. When we finally got him back to La we had a few months to get him ready for the 2006 Fair Grounds meet to beable to break his madian. Storm went right back into work and is tearing up the track. 3 weeks before his first and maybe last race ever a horse falls off the walking wheel next to his stall, and the horse falls under the gate in Storm's stall causing Storm to climb and 8 ft cinder black wall. He scratched and tore up from his from pasterns down his belly to his back legs. needless to say that scratched him from the racing buisness. 2 years later I asked if I could buy Storm from my friend and Storm is now in event training. We will be doing out first BN course in Nov. at Poplar!

[BEARCAT]

Got a TB from Finger Lakes last fall (Devil's Whip). He has turned out to be an awesome trail horse (we ride by ourselves 90% of the times and he is totally fine with that.) Took him to a little Hunter show last week-end. First time in an arena with a dozen other horses. He was a gem and exhibited absolutely no bad behavior in a group. Have schooled him cross country on a couple of different occasions. Again, was a super star. We were the only ones on the course the first time, and he could not have cared less. Second time, there were 4 other horses out on the course, and again, he maintained his composure (no calling, racing, getting antsy.) We schooled logs, coops, ditches, banks and he was great with all. So far, he has not refused a fence, be it a super flowery hunter fence or a natural coop. He doesn't even look twice, just calmly sails over them.
Only issue I have found was with crossing water, but we worked on that yesterday on the trail and he did wonderful. Took 30 minutes to get hime across the stream, which is really nothing in the life of a horse. After we did it about 20 times, he was fine.
He is 6 and never raced (too slow).

[caffeinated]

Here;s the blog entry I did after my very first event (I grew up a hunter person), which was also his very first event:

http://kidklondike.wordpress.com/2009/06/22/wheeeeeeeee/

:)

He is available, by the way (and has been getting professional training for about a month, to boot!). Hint. Nudge.

Also, this topic is never complete without mentioning some of the stars :) Courageous Comet, Brandenburg's Joshua (whose 3 yr old half sister is in training and racing at Charles Town races as we speak), The Foreman, and... well, there are an awful lot of them. There was a GREAT thread that went up around last rolex time, that went into a lot of detail about the breeding of the ex-racing thoroughbreds competing at Rolex. Might be worth searching for :)

[scubed]

My former horse (JC name Jin's Mad Money) raced 8 times and made a whopping $192. I bought him in 1999 (he was 7 and had spent some time as a pony horse). I rode him through intermediate and did approximately 30 events at the preliminary and intermediate level with him from 2000-2004. We did our first preliminary together in 2000, 15 months after I first got him. I later sold him to a young rider who went from BN before getting him in August of 2004 to 4th place at the CCI* at Virginia in May of 2006. She then sold him to a young girl in our barn (turning 10) in December of 2006. That young girl, who is now 12 did her Training move up at Stuart Horse Trials in July 2009 and finished with just one SJ rail added to her dressage score. The horse is now 17 years old and going strong.

[lizajane09]

My mare is a 1998 OTTB by Press Card out of Waltz withme Janet (Dancing Count) named Chatsworth House. She raced as a three-year-old, but despite showing a lot of promise in training she always wanted to stay with the pack and never finished better than fourth. She was then turned out by her breeders for a few years and put back under saddle at 5. I bought her near the end of her five-year-old year, when she'd been doing some W/T/C and started over fences. We've had some setbacks with injuries (never conformation or work related, just silly pasture injuries that have required extensive time off!), but she's now competing successfully at Prelim and we're looking to move up to Intermediate in the not-too-distant future. She's gone with me to college and now to veterinary school, and I plan on continuing to compete her as much as I can. She's an incredibly honest jumper, enthusiastic about everything, and very sweet in the barn... I'm a big fan of TBs. :)

[cottagefarm]

Awesome info guys.
Especially appreciate the pedigree info as I'm trying to see any common bloodline threads within the disciplines.