When Elizabeth Hund walks out of the ring to collect her blue ribbons on her off-the-track Thoroughbred Timbuktu, she can’t help but smile.

While “Truman” is a consistent winner in the amateur-owner hunter division, his role in Hund’s life reaches far beyond ribbons and shows, connecting both his rider, his former owner and a very special trainer. “We have a relationship that we never would have had without this horse,” said Hund. “The horse became the conduit for even more important relationships.”

Truman raced nine times under the name Soxinthecity and won $500 before Sharon Kvistad of Prospect Farm in Jamestown, Ind., adopted him from New Vocations in 2008. “He was 4 at the time and built like a 2” by 4”, but was just so level headed about everything,” Kvistad said.

At the time, Kvistad was training with Wendy Newby, and even though Newby had been diagnosed with a rare form of multiple myeloma, she agreed to help Kvistad bring Truman along.

“She was in remission for a very short time, but it just came back with a vengeance,” Kvistad remembered. “I asked her who she might recommend I work with. We’re in central Indiana, so there just aren’t a lot of really, really good trainers around. She said, ‘I’ll help you. All I can do is sit in the golf cart, but I’ll help you with him.’”

Newby helped Kvistad start the gelding over fences, but sadly died that November.

Heartbroken but still determined to keep progressing with Truman (Gold Case—Honey’s Angle, Honeyland), Kvistad began training with Newby’s daughter, Tammy Provost.

In 2009, Truman was champion at his first two shows in the baby green hunter division with Provost in the irons, but by the end of 2011, Kvistad’s husband was diagnosed with kidney failure and required a transplant, so Kvistad made the difficult decision to sell Truman.

“We just made the decision that we needed to sell horses, and as hard as it was to sell [Truman,] because I knew I could not replace him, he needed to go somewhere where he could really shine,” she said. “He’s a nice horse. He deserved to be a star for somebody.”

Kvistad decided to contact Keiri Kaneps, an old friend and trainer with whom she’d kept in touch occasionally over the years, to see if she could help sell Truman.

Kaneps had moved to Colorado and said she had clients who could lease the gelding until he was sold. “Keiri looked at the horse and didn’t care what breed he was,” said Kvistad.

At the same time, Hund was training with Kaneps and was looking for a horse to practice on at home then sell while she brought along a young horse. Although still busy with her job in the banking industry, she had recently returned to riding after a 30-year break.

At Kanep’s suggestion, she started riding Truman to get him in shape to show and potentially be sold, but Hund was quickly hooked and bought him for herself. “When he first came, he looked quite a bit like a Thoroughbred—not thin, but lean,” she said. “Now I bet he’s gained 300 pounds and he’s 16.2 hands and he looks like a big, fat warmblood. Nobody would know this horse was a Thoroughbred unless I told them.”

Hund, Denver, Colo., had experience riding Thoroughbreds as a junior, so she knew Truman would be a good fit. “I was showing as a junior in the ‘70s and that’s all we showed,” she said. “I think the women that I compete against now that are in their 30s and early 40s, they didn’t have off-the-track Thoroughbreds. Everybody has gone to warmbloods. For me, it’s nothing new.”

After a few months, Truman turned out to be such a good match for Hund that she decided to start showing him and dismissed any ideas of selling him. “Of course, I haven’t done that! I just love this horse,” she said. “He’s far more successful in the show ring than I ever thought he would be. He’s a joy to ride, the barn favorite. I cannot imagine selling him.”

In 2012, the pair collected plenty of wins in Zone 8, including several adult amateur, pre-green and amateur-owner championships.

“Thoroughbreds have the best brains,” said Hund. “He just wants to do whatever he can to do things right. Sometimes he doesn’t know how to do it, sometimes he can’t physically do it, but he absolutely will try. He hasn’t got a bad bone in his body. He’ll do anything for you. For me as somebody that’s older, I need a horse that’s not going to flighty or spooky. He’s the perfect horse for me. He’s never going to put a foot wrong.”

In the midst of their stellar 2012 season, Hund found out that Kvistad would be visiting Colorado on business, so they met up for the first time in person at the Estes Park Hunter/Jumper Festival II in early August.

It was also the first time Kvistad had seen Kaneps in 10 years, so the weekend was full of catching up.

Unbeknownst to Kvistad at the time, Kaneps was battling cancer. Although she was weak from chemotherapy, Kaneps rode and coached Hund to the adult amateur hunter, 50 and over championship.

“She was going to do this until she died, and if it killed her sooner than if she had taken her time, that was fine with her,” said Hund. “Her mindset was, ‘I’m going to live my life the way I want to live my life and if it shortens my life, so be it.’”

Kvistad left Colorado thrilled with Truman’s new life and happy to have seen her former trainer. “He’s the star I was hoping he was going to get to be, which is really nice,” she said.

Two days later, Kaneps underwent emergency surgery and died on Aug. 7 from complications.

Hund suddenly found herself without a trainer and close friend. “After she died, I was just so angry, furious at her,” she admitted. “I’d think, ‘if you’d taken care of yourself, if you didn’t show, you’d still be alive, you could have lived longer.’ It took me a year to get over that. Now I’m like, ‘Well, that was her choice.’ It was her life, it wasn’t my life. I had to allow her to make that choice and not be angry at her.”

Hund began training with Ashley Keeler, who had taken on several of Kaneps’ clients, and continued her success with Truman into the fall.

This season, Hund and Truman have picked up several top placings, including the 3’3” amateur-owner 36 & over championship at Summer In The Rockies III (Colo.) and a reserve championship in the 3’3” amateur-owner division at Summer In The Rockies VI.

While Hund misses seeing Kaneps smiling at her from the in-gate, she’s thankful for the connections the gelding has made. “Sharon and I have stayed connected ever since,” said Hund. “Every time I win something on Truman, we all toast to Keiri.”

Hund is hoping to move up to the 3’6” division next year, but she has no expectations for the horse that’s given her so much.

She’s hoping to trail ride this fall and winter and would like to join the local Arapahoe Hunt (Colo.) to see if Truman would enjoy hunting. The gelding also enjoys being doted on by an 11-year-old girl at the barn who’s hoping to start riding soon.

“That’s the greatest gift—for me to share Truman with a little kid that can’t afford it,” said Hund. “Her eyes just pop whenever she sees Truman. How cool would that be to have her in the short stirrup class next spring on my off-the-track-Thoroughbred? It would just be one more connection that Truman is kind of the conduit for.”