So many things with horses are a leap of faith.

When Bailey Bohrmann went looking for an off-track Thoroughbred to take to the 2024 Thoroughbred Makeover, she took a risk. She came across a Facebook post with an old race photo of a gelding in Kentucky looking for a new career. After a phone conversation with the horse’s breeder, she agreed to take him, sight unseen, without even any videos.

When Kathie Maybee took a call from Bohrmann and decided to orchestrate Bohrmann’s purchase of Eye Of The Cat, after turning down multiple interested buyers before, she was taking a risk too.

Both of them knew in their guts that the risk was a good one.

Now, Bohrmann will put her faith on the line as she brings Eye Of The Cat back to his birthplace in Central Kentucky for the Thoroughbred Makeover, held Oct. 9-12.

The Makeover is a training competition for recently retired race horses. Approved riders select up to two disciplines in which to showcase their horses (there are 10 to choose from, including English and western horse sports) after no more than 10 months of training for that new discipline. Horses complete a preliminary round of competition, and the top five in each discipline move on to finals, where discipline champions and one overall champion are crowned. A total of 353 horses made the final entry list for this year’s competition.

Bohrmann, a professional trainer from Holton, Michigan, is well-versed in OTTBs. Besides having competed with them, they’re an integral part of her lesson program at Heart Horse Equestrian Center. Two of her students told her they wanted to compete at the Makeover this year, and Bohrmann started to feel left out. The first order of business was to convince her husband it made sense to get another horse. (She had promised her Makeover horse would be a resale project but has since had to walk that back.) The second was to find an eligible horse, meaning one who had recorded a start in a race or official timed workout within the competition’s parameters.

In the meantime, Eye Of The Cat had run his last race in late 2022 and was relaxing at Maybee’s farm near Lexington, Kentucky. He had retired the winner of two races from 12 starts but developed a problem with exercise-induced pulmonary hemorrhage that cut his career short. Maybee had been happy to have him home again.

Eye Of The Cat’s dam, Bella Serenade, died giving birth to him in February 2018—a shock to his owner/breeder, Carmen Catizone, who boards his horses with Maybee. Eye Of The Cat went on a nurse mare—one of the better ones Maybee has had—but still, everyone at the farm felt bad for him and gave him extra attention, which he received gladly.

“From the time he was born, he was well-loved,” she said. “He was everybody’s favorite everywhere he went. Even at the racetrack, he was the favorite because he just had such a good attitude.”

Eye Of The Cat had become a sentimental favorite with everyone at the farm and with Catizone, who opted to retire the gelding rather than sell him on to a less competitive racing circuit. At first, Maybee said, Catizone was hesitant to sell him for a sport horse career. Both of them were worried about making sure that wherever he landed would be a stable home, and ideally a long-term placement. Maybee has kept horses who came back to her care, sometimes permanently in the case of her retired broodmares, rather than let them go to the wrong home.

For some reason, when Bohrmann called, Maybee knew she’d found the right one and set about talking Catizone into it.

“I had him here on the farm for probably over a year trying to find the right place for him to go because I loved him,” Maybee recalled. “The minute I talked to Bailey, I knew it was a match made in heaven.

“What makes me happy is the horse couldn’t be happier,” she added.

Predictably, the in-your-pocket personality Eye Of The Cat developed from being spoiled by his human handlers at a young age has held. He has to be into everything, so much that his barn name is now “Snoopy.”

Snoopy is the smallest of Bohrmann’s plain bay Thoroughbred fleet, which ranged from 16.3 to 18.2 hands before he was added in. Snoopy is a “borderline” 16 hands, a comparatively perfect size to work with kids—which he did almost immediately. Bohrmann had no concerns he’d take off with one of his students, or even her own daughter, who is 2 1/2.

“I know this is going to sound stupid, but I look into their eyes when I buy a horse, and I look for the soft, gentle, quiet composure,” she said. “When they look at you, and they’re just sweet, and I can just get kind of a weird telepathic connection to them, I can just tell when they’re going to be good. Honestly, out of the four Thoroughbreds I brought home, I would trust any of them going right into a lesson program from the track. They’ve all been sweet and safe, and that just speaks for the breed itself.”

Snoopy has begun his training as a jumper and will compete at the Makeover in the show jumper division, but he’s also cross-entered in dressage. Bohrmann has been a lifelong hunter/jumper rider but began dabbling in dressage in 2020. She’s found that although it’s challenging to switch from the forward jump seat to the dressage posture, it has improved her riding significantly.

“I’ve attended a ton of clinics in dressage with a lot of wonderful trainers, and although I wouldn’t say I’m amazing at it, I do like it a lot, and I think it’s important for any rider to have a basic foundation,” she said. “It has taught me so much on how I should sit, and how I should communicate with my horses through my body. And it’s really cool because I’ve been able to incorporate that into the lessons I teach my students as well.”

For some horses, the change of scenery and busy atmosphere at the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington can prove challenging, but Snoopy has trailered to various shows this year and been so far unconcerned by that sort of thing. Bohrmann said the left lead canter can still be a little questionable, but at this point in his career she’s not concerned. Although she thinks a high placing is attainable in the show jumper division, she said she’s not going to focus on placing-oriented goals at such a big event.

“My biggest goal for him is just having the best experience possible and taking everything in,” she said. “He’s only 6, and I don’t need him doing anything more than what he’s doing right now.”

Maybee plans to be on site to cheer Snoopy and Bohrmann on, proud as can be, even though their achievements are in a different sport than the one he started with. Bohrmann sends her regular photos and updates, and loves that his racing connections are so invested in his new life. Both women agree that Snoopy’s versatility—and that of the other Makeover competitors—are just a testament to the breed.

“I feel like Thoroughbreds are some of the smartest, most versatile animals I’ve ever met,” Bohrmann said. “They can go from being born to run to just being your companion at home. They’re smart, they’re goofy, they’re athletic; they listen well, and they’re born to please. They’re born to be a champion in whatever they do, whether it’s trail riding or being a pasture pet; they just want to be a champion in your eyes. And if you give them that ability, and you treat them like champions, they’re going to give you your whole world.”