It has been a long 10 months of training, with so many ups and downs for Capture the Magic and I as we’ve worked toward our goal of attending the Retired Racehorse Project’s Thoroughbred Makeover, taking place Oct. 9-12 at the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington, Kentucky. The downs meant it kept feeling more and more impossible, despite the heart and drive we both possess. But this week we are packing the trailer!

Getting “Houdini” back to work after his nightmare injury in late July was no small feat. Despite handling stall rest and slow integration to larger turnout well, he was not quite as settled in the work once we were able to put a saddle back on. It felt at times like he was spending nearly equal time on two legs as he was on four! Having an extremely athletic and balanced horse is great, but it also means it’s very easy for them to express their emotions through tactics like bucking and rearing. Although he put on quite the show, he was acting out of excitement, so we just slowly ticked on, and the displays gradually got less theatrical. Sure, hearing I am a sticky and quiet rider is nice, but truly I would rather be complimented on how nice my horse goes instead!

I still can feel the flip-flop in my tummy the first time we were cleared to long line. I was trying to avoid true longeing as much as possible because it puts your horse on many small circles and is an uneven distribution on the joints. Bringing him back using straight lines was preferable, but he made that nearly impossible for us when he just couldn’t contain his emotions. So, we did the best with what we had and survived through it. 

I was then overly excited we were cleared for tack walking. Why? No clue because everyone knows tack walking Thoroughbreds coming off stall rest really isn’t all that fun. Trot sets? Sure; they love to go forward. But only being allowed to walk gives them soooo much time to think about their surroundings and possibly their intrusive thoughts—and at the walk, sometimes those intrusive thoughts win! For Houdini, they won a lot initially. 

For a horse that really has never reared under saddle, I found myself directly perpendicular to the ground a lot. Did I look scared? No. People often comment on how I can keep my cool and humor through some of the crazy moves I’ve ridden. Was I actually scared? Heck yes! I absolutely hate rearing. However, one of the biggest assets as a trainer you can possess when working with young horses is to allow your body and voice to stay calm and “with them” even when it hits the fan. You need to be the confidence for them in the moment they lose theirs. I haven’t found a horse yet that didn’t respond positively to that. If they can trust that you won’t panic when they do, you build a bond that will hold through many new situations they encounter with out having the outburst moments.

After about a week of basically just hanging on to my neck strap through the chaos, I found my partner again. On Sept. 24, just a few days shy of nine weeks post-accident, I trotted and cantered on my horse. He received a new shoe set-up that felt more comfortable for him, and man did he feel good. We have some muscle loss on the left side that we need to work back up, but now that we can actually work a little bit, I truly think it will come back fast. It was only a 15-minute ride, but it was absolutely everything my soul needed. 

It has been an incredibly tough past several months, and it’s just crazy how 15 minutes can make everything feel OK. I know that my horse is going to come back. How long it will take is an unknown, but in my gut, I no longer have any doubts that he will get there. I am so grateful to my team that has helped make it possible for him. 

As we inch closer and closer to the date of the Thoroughbred Makeover, I’m starting to get those butterflies in my stomach in anticipation. If you asked me in early July, I would have told you that despite me breaking my foot and losing a chunk of training time, I would have felt that Houdini was the most prepared horse I have ever taken there. I was the most excited to showcase him as I feel he has the opportunity to really help the Thoroughbred breed shine within the warmblood registries. He was so very ready even then. Now I am just thrilled we spent a week straight in the saddle. He feels more and more like his confident self with every ride. Most recently, this weekend we hauled about 45 minutes away to a friend’s beautiful facility to see if we could hold all the pieces together amongst a barn full of boarded horses. I wanted to see if the theatrics were going to show with the excitement of the haul. To my delight, he was pretty perfect. Sure, he had some moments of exuberance, but hey, he is still a 4-year-old stallion. It was such a good feeling.

So, now we pack the trailer. We are headed to Kentucky in just a few short days. I will still play it day to day. I plan to walk into that dressage arena if he continues to feel great. If we have a hiccup or set back, it’s no big deal; we will use the travel there an opportunity to do some groundwork in a beautiful place and cheer on so many people that have become close friends throughout the years of competing at the “Happiest Horse Show On Earth.” After all, we are there to celebrate all the Thoroughbreds!

Perseverance is a necessity when we love such gigantic, yet oh-so-fragile animals—flight animals whose first instinct is to flee from danger. We ask these animals to trust us and to “stay with us” when they may get worried, which goes against everything within them. One of the biggest accomplishments I have achieved with Houdini in the process of training for the Thoroughbred Makeover is earning his trust. If you read my first blog post, you know that he is not an innately brave horse, but he is a horse that tries with everything he has. He is still on this earth because he chose to trust me when he was down and trapped. He is still here because he chose to trust us through his rehab process. So many things could have continued to go wrong, but somehow, they didn’t. Whether it was everyone’s expertise coming together or simply an act from above that saved him, I will never know. Each time I swing my leg over, I think to myself how grateful I am I can still do that. I promise to never take that for granted. Every night I kiss his nose and tell him how happy I am he is here for me to love and spoil. 

Brit Vegas is a professional trainer who specializes in restarting Thoroughbreds for equestrian sports, such as eventing, show jumping, fox hunting and other English disciplines. She owns and operates Royal Fox Stables in Southeast Nebraska with a winter base in Aiken, South Carolina. In addition to campaigning her own horses through the intermediate level of eventing, Vegas also retrains and sells between 50 and 70 Thoroughbreds per year and has competed in the Retired Racehorse Project’s Thoroughbred Makeover each year since 2015, with multiple top-five finishes in eventing, show jumping and field hunters. In addition, she manages a sport horse veterinary practice for her husband, Dr. Adam Gengenbach.