S2 E23: Get to Know Our 2025 RRP Makeover Trainers and Their OTTBs

S2 E23: Get to Know Our 2025 RRP Makeover Trainers and Their OTTBs (Transcript)
[00:00:00] Hi everyone, and welcome back to OTTV ontap. I'm Niamh. And I'm Emily. Hey, Niamh. What's on tap today? Today we're introducing four of the trainers we'll be following on their journey to the 2025 retired racehorse makeover. Each of them is bringing a unique perspective and a different goal to the table, and we're so excited to share the start of their stories with you.
This episode is all about first impressions. You'll meet each trainer in a quick, probably about 15 minutes spotlight to learn a bit about who they are, how they got started with horses, and what drew them to off track thoroughbreds, and also a little bit about the horse they'll bring be bringing to the makeover this year.
And don't worry, we'll be diving deeper into each of their stories and future full length episodes. For now, let's get to know our first trainer. We're kicking things off with Stephanie [00:01:00] Parco joining us from Corfu New York. She's a busy mom balancing family life, bringing along OTBs, and she's passionate about showing that you can do it all.
Welcome, Stephanie. We are so glad to have you here. Can you start by just telling us a little bit about yourself? Sure. I'm a stay-at-home mom to three boys, ages 12, nine, and six. I live on a small farm in Western New York with them and my husband. We raise pigs, but we also have a jersey cow, sheep, rabbits, and of course the horses.
We have a 40-year-old pony that we've had for more than 10 years. He's taught all my boys how to ride. That's we have my cheron thoroughbred mare, who I've had longer than I've known my husband and our two thoroughbred geldings. Awesome. Can you tell us a little bit about what life looks for you these days, inside and outside of the barn?
What's your kind of day to day like? Sure. Yeah. So I'll just tell you a little bit of a typical day. So [00:02:00] most days I get up at 5:00 AM and I head over to this stable where my oldest son and I take lessons. I clean stalls over there in the morning. So that's how I start my day most of the day, is cleaning stalls and feeding over there.
We're lucky that it's a great place only five minutes away, and we love being a part of that. Of that barn. Then I come home, I tag my husband out 'cause he's been home with the boys in the morning. And I step into my homemaking homeschooling role because I also homeschool the boys. Okay. So we do homeschooling in the mornings and then after lunch we're pretty much free to do our activities.
So most of the time that involves horses, obviously. I'm really lucky that my oldest son, who's 12, is really into horses as well, and rides and shows along with me. He's actually riding my 2024 makeover horse this year as his show horse. That's great. Yes. In the afternoons we might be taking a lesson. We keep our horses at home, so we haul our horses over to the same stable where I work in the [00:03:00] mornings.
He might be taking a lesson, I might be taking a lesson, or we might just. Be doing some hacking at home or some training at home. And then of course it's dinner, more chores. And then once the boys are in bed, I can finally get some time to sit down, relax, maybe talk to my husband for two minutes without interruptions.
So that's a lot. I'm curious. Do you have like a riding facility at home? Do you have a ring and stuff like that or do you have to haul over to the other barn for that? Yeah, so our ring is in progress. It's just basically a grass field and my husband dug a track around, which is basically a moat right now, in April and.
It's been unrideable, but that's in the process. Yeah. I am lucky. We have a large gravel road that goes through our farm, and we do ride on that. We can actually, it's long enough we can go back and forth and do a couple miles. Nice. So we try to utilize what we have and hauling out is what we need to do.
Yeah. Awesome. And [00:04:00] how did horses first come into your life? Yeah, so a lot of people are surprised when they hear this, but I actually didn't start riding until I was 14. I was doing other activities that weren't really working for me, the typical soccer and tried softball, things like that. And I'd always liked horses.
My mom's always liked horses. And I said, I wanna start taking lessons. And soon after I got my first horse. A gray quarter horse mare and I kept her at home and it's been nonstop from there. Yeah, and I feel like when you have horses, when you're young and you actually keep them at home, you're learning all of the horse husbandry aspects, whether you're doing all of it or not.
You're aware of it and you're immersed in it in a little bit of a different way. Yeah. A fun story when I got her. I got her from a four H leader that just lived down the road and we didn't have a horse trailer or anything, so I just sat in the back of my uncle's pickup truck and held her lead rope and she trotted behind the truck.
That's that's amazing. Truck. The two miles down the road. Classic. So I feel like [00:05:00] we've done things like that too. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah. For sure. I definitely remember being at one property where our horses were over a mile, like that's where they were turned out. And to actually ride them, we would have to bring them back and forth, and so we'd either pony them or we would stick our hand out the back of someone's Subaru or something.
Yeah, you do whatever works. It's fine. When did a thoroughbreds first start to play a role in your horse journey? Not until recently, actually. I have to admit, I was one of those people that believed the stereotypes about OTTs. They were. Thoroughbred was okay. Crossed with something, but a full thoroughbred was a no.
But I have a good laugh about that now, honestly, because I could never live without one at this point. Oh, I love that. So tell us a little bit about your general approach or mindset when working with horses. Which or what feels most important to you? It's hard to sum up 'cause I feel like there's so much to that.
But I guess what comes to mind first is just allowing them to be a horse. So [00:06:00] lots of forage, lots of friends, minimizing stall time, making sure they can socialize, providing enrichment and movement and that's the basis and go from there. Yeah. I love that. I feel like even though thoroughbreds that have raced come from such a, a stalled environment, they leave the stall to go walk or to go train or to race, and they just, I feel like so many of them do better the more time that they have outside.
Oh, they love to be outside. They love, yeah. They thrive outside. They're like, don't put me back in that stall. Yes, yes. And it's very interesting 'cause obviously they're all a little bit different, but I feel like by and large, they all just really are like. I could have had this life the whole time. This is amazing.
But there are plenty of tracks that do have the ability to winter them and at farms, partner farms and things like that. Sure. So they, they do get some of that. And I know at Fairhill, for example, they get turned out in a lot of the barns and they do hack [00:07:00] out quite a bit. So definitely varies from place to place, but I would imagine in New York it's probably not.
Happening that much. Yeah. I'm very close to Finger Lakes racetrack. Yeah. So I know runs dangerous. They do close the track, obviously, and then the horses are boarded and turned out for the winter. So I know those horses do get that, but I don't think the two that I have probably had that experience knowing they came from bigger.
Trainers and facilities. Yeah. Gotcha. Yeah. What do you love the most about working with Off the Track Thoroughbreds? I actually love how versatile they are. I love trying new things and new disciplines like, and I love how I could easily go chase cows one day with them and go on a hunter show the next day.
They literally can do anything, and I just think that's so much fun. So let's talk about your makeover horse. What is their jockey club name and what do you call them around the barn? Yeah, so Sterling Honor is my makeover [00:08:00] horse. This year we just call him Sterling and he just turned four. And how did you find Sterling?
So Sterling, actually, I was not planning on getting another horse really at the time, as that kind of goes sometimes. But we were in Kentucky for the makeover last year and we went to the new vocations open house. And my husband was walking around with the kids. All the boys were there, my husband was there, and my other horse, my 2024 makeover horse, best idea is by honor code.
So when he saw the name Sterling Honor, he knows a little bit about the bloodlines and stuff and inquired, oh, is this guy by honor code? And he was. My husband just loved him. He was super sweet with the kids, and I was somewhere else. I didn't even see Sterling right away. And everyone came running over to me telling me all about this horse.
Mom. Mom, you have to see this horse. So we went over and checked him out, thought about it overnight. Talked to Amanda there at the facility and went and looked at him the next day and [00:09:00] she wrote 'em for us and. He was just awesome. My kids got to brush him, they got to hang out with him and he was just perfect.
And you had a spot on the trailer. And we had a spot on the trailer. We had to, yeah, it's always dangerous. A couple bales of hay in Kentucky and give somebody our tack box to take back to New York, but we made room. That's so funny. Yeah. That's always dangerous. We're like, there is another spot on the trailer, right?
Yeah. Don't need another horse. Oops. And my husband really wanted to get him and I was thinking to myself. What am I gonna say? No, my husband wants to buy me. Of course. Yeah. Yeah. Let's go. Sounds like a great but dangerous quality to having a husband. Yes. He's very supportive and encouraging, and sometimes too much, I have to say.
I don't think I'm quite ready for that, but a lot of the times he's right on the mark with encouraging me and being supportive. That's awesome. I love it. What are you hoping to explore with Sterling this year? Do you have any [00:10:00] particular goals? What types of disciplines are you pursuing or are you just seeing where things go?
Yeah, so when I took Bessie to the makeover last year, we did competitive trail and we came in 10th place and that was one of my goals was to be in the top 10, and I accomplished that. So my goal for this year is to. Going the competitive trail again and try to also be successful. The personal goal, can I retrain another horse?
They may be by the same sire, but they are completely different. Mm-hmm. And can I go and accomplish this again with a different horse? So definitely competitive trail. And then I didn't do a second discipline last year just because it was overwhelming going to the makeover. I just wanted to focus on one.
Discipline. But this year I feel obviously a lot more comfortable having done it once. And so I think we're gonna do dressage just because I think Sterling is really leaning towards that, and I think he would really do well with that. So what you're saying is I'm gonna have to compete against you at the makeover, [00:11:00] and I've been watching your videos furiously and I'm like, oh god.
Perfect little rivalry. I like it. No, it is so funny because when I posted in the RRP trainers group and I said what I was gonna do after I went to the obstacle course, so many people actually pmd me. I think you were one of them. And just full support, just telling me all of these different things to practice and think about, and I was like.
This is so nice. Yeah, I really liked it. Yeah. Competitive trail is so fun. The theme last year was the Wizard of Oz. It was like over the rainbow. It was just Oh wow. So cute. And I'm a huge Wizard of Oz fan, so when they announced that, I was just overjoyed. It was so fun. When did they announce the theme? It was when we were driving down there.
So it was like Sunday, Monday. Because I love a good theme. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. I do have a quick question and. We didn't ask this kind of in your. Intro, but what discipline would you say you typically ride in or you've trained in? Oh, [00:12:00] hunters is my typical discipline. Yeah. Yeah. But that's cool. I am not in a huge hurry to jump my horses and being that it's too six, that's the height that I am.
Yeah. You know, the most comfortable with. Yeah. So to take a green horse and then jump two six, which is at my max comfort level, it's not, I'm in the same boat with you. I think my horse will be a talented jumper, but it's such a truncated timeline. Yeah, and it's, I've been thinking a lot about the advice that Chelsea gave last year when she was like, you just gotta make sure your horse is broke on the flat.
And I'm like. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. We're getting there. Yeah. I actually think Sterling's gonna be a great hunter. Yeah. I actually don't think he's gonna love competitive trail, but Sorry buddy. We're doing it, but didn't you take it Anyway, we'll get into it in your main episode. I don't wanna give away too many secrets.
Before we wrap up your intro, what's something that you hope people take away from your story as we go forward? I hope that I can encourage other moms to keep pursuing their passion, even if it seems daunting because they now have to do it with kids in [00:13:00] tow. I just want them to know it really is doable and it's so worth the effort.
Yeah, that's a great message. Wow. I totally love that. Thank you so much for joining us today, Stephanie. We are so excited to follow in your journey. I do have one last question, curve ball I'm throwing in here for you. Oh. What is one word that you use to describe a thoroughbred. Joy. They bring us so much joy.
That's a good one. I love that. Next, we're heading to Pennsylvania to meet someone with a soft spot for dressage and a strong belief in OTBs. Our second trainer is Harley Whitaker, a dressage rider and trainer from Kirkwood, Pennsylvania, who's passionate about proving that OTBs belong in the dressage ring just as much as any warm blood.
Harley, welcome to OTT Beyond Tap. We're so excited to get to know you. Can you tell us a little bit about yourself? Sure. Thank you so much for having me. I'm excited to be here. I'm a dressage rider and trainer, and I have a passion for helping to bring [00:14:00] out the best of horses and riders and a methodical and classical approach.
I've been a crazy horse girl basically my whole life, and I'm grateful that I get to do what I love every day. So what does your day to day look like, both in and out of the saddle? Most of the day is spent at the barn from morning till mid-afternoon. I'm usually riding or teaching. And if I'm not at the farm, you can find me working out or pushing myself to do some crazy challenge sleeping because there's not enough hours in a day.
Yes. And what first got you into horses? So I don't come from a horsey background, like a horsey family or anything. I have loved animals since the womb, and I think I've always been drawn to horses, but I didn't have the chance super early to get. Familiar with them. So I would say I was in middle school, there was a farm [00:15:00] close to where I lived that was a therapeutic riding facility and they had volunteers come out and help.
And I took that opportunity and was hooked ever since. I. That's actually how I got back into horses after a really long break. I started just sidewalking and then they were like, do you wanna exercise? Ride some of them. And then next thing you know, I'm looking for a trainer and slippery slope. I do have an additional question here.
Have you always been in the Kirkwood, Pennsylvania area or did you grow up here? No, I actually grew up in Maryland, not far, but I grew up in Maryland and I think I've been in the PA area since like high school, so for a while. Okay, gotcha. Cool. You're very close to us. Coatesville and Neves and media. Oh, you're very close.
Yeah. Yeah. And how did you find your way into the world of dressage? I. So I think one of the people that actually taught me like up down lessons, taught me how to canner. She had a horse that [00:16:00] she wanted me to take a lesson on with someone She knew it was a friend of a friend and it happened to be a dressage trainer, and I had a lesson and I was hooked.
From that moment. It was Anisha Del Duco actually she owned. Okay. Major farm in Oxford and she asked me to be a working student. I started working there and I think I had the lesson on one of her horses and started feeling certain things and I was like, Ooh, I like that. So I got hooked. Oh, that's amazing.
And then so where do Off the track Thoroughbreds fit into your story and how did you get started with them? So I think throughout my journey, I've always been around a lot of different breeds. I never felt like I was partial to one specific breed, minus middle school. When I started at that therapeutic place, I was obsessed with Norwegian fjords.
Oh my God. That makes sense. Yeah. Cute. They're like cute. They're so cute. Obviously warm bloods ended up having a big place in my life, but I worked for Silva and Boyd for a few years. So I was [00:17:00] around a lot of the eventing crowd, even though I did dressage, and I think I saw a lot of thoroughbreds in that, and I just had them on my peripheral vision basically throughout my whole journey.
So what is something that you really appreciate about OTBs, especially in the dressage world? Hands down their work ethic. I think everybody knows that they have engines and they just have so much try and they'll go all day. And I think that is 100% the work ethic part of that. I appreciate what dressage and especially getting into the upper levels.
I think any horse can do dressage at the lower levels and the basic foundations is for everyone. But as you work your way up the levels and the difficulty goes up. You really have to have a horse that wants to do it and wants to try and have that, and I think Thoroughbreds is a never ending cup of that.
Yeah. Oh, that's such a good way to put it. You put everything I think we've been trying to say [00:18:00] in this podcast for the last year and a half until two beautiful sentences. It's really good. Tell us a little bit about the horse that you're bringing to the makeover, what their jockey club name is, their barn name, and just some details about them.
Sure. His jacket club name is Juano. Wait, so fun. Do you watch married at First Night Adult? Oh my gosh. Is there Acho? Yeah. Oh no Hu. The other day I was playing this golf game on my phone and I was playing against somebody named Juanito and that was one of Juan Cho's nicknames on this show. So it's really stupid inside joke.
That's so funny. Wacho is very cute. I like it. Okay, good. So his jockey club name is Juano. I don't wanna call him Wacho. So I call him Jack. He's a 16 hand plain bay. He is just turned five. He's very smart and levelheaded. He's a little goofy, but overall I think he's a really good egg. And so how did you end up with him and what stood out to you early on?
So this is a bit of a [00:19:00] story, so. I was in Aiken, South Carolina over the winter, and I don't know. Why, but I just kept having thoroughbreds come across my Facebook feed and in the back of my mind for a while now, I have been thinking about taking on like a resale project and doing that with a thoroughbred, and I don't know, it just got more glaring to me that I wanted to do that.
And I reached out to one of my long-term clients and biggest supporters and I was like, Hey, I was just wondering what do you think if we decided to get a thoroughbred and flip it and go down that route? And she. 100% was all in. And I was like, wow, okay. And as soon as she said that, I already knew which one I had in mind, which was the poncho horse, because I had seen him and I saw his video and I thought he was a really good mover.
And every description said that he had a good temperament. And I don't know why I was just so drawn to him, but I was [00:20:00] side note, my heart, horse, and the horse that I have brought up, the levels. Is named Jacks and he's also owned by this specific supporter. And so as I'm talking to this lady who owns Honcho and she's telling me all about him, she says, yeah, Jack stands really good on the cross ties and does this and that.
I'm like, wait, thank Jack. And she's, yeah. And I was like, oh my God. Like I'm screwed. This is the one this does it. Yeah. Yeah. However, we can't have more than one jacks in the barn, so we're gonna name him Jack. So that's a little bit confusing for everyone, but we're getting there. I like that. I think we're all a little bit superstitious and I don't know.
So we all look for those little signs from the universe as horse people. My nephew is Jack's, so there's another one. It's funny 'cause I don't think it's a really common name. Oh. No, I'm sure you were like, I'm sorry, what [00:21:00] I was, and when I told my client, she was like, oh, it's meant to be. I was like, yep, it was.
I love it. Are there any goals or dreams that you have for this particular partnership, or are you just trying to see. Just about getting through your journey to the makeover at this stage. I think my goal right now is just to put a strong, solid foundation on him and make sure that he's confident and happy in his work.
I wanna have a successful outing at the RRP. Like I said, he's supposed to be a resale, but I think my client and I are just gonna take it one day at a time and see how he blossoms throughout the season. We might wait. We might keep him for a little bit. We'll see. So cool. Awesome. I do have a little bonus question for you before we to wrap up here.
What is one word that you would use to describe an OTTB? I think versatile. Excellent. I like that one. Yeah, we just like to ask everybody that put the one on the spot. So before we let you go, what's something that you hope listeners take away from [00:22:00] your journey? I think just that you can do whatever you set your mind to and not to rush the process based on what you see everyone else doing.
Trust your gut. Yeah, that's a, that was me taking a really deep inhale and being like, it's really hard not to. Yeah, it's so hard. Especially I feel like in, not to bring this back to me, but like in my particular journey there's a lot of like early success and then we've stalled out in a, for various reasons and we're hopefully gonna be on the other side of that really soon.
But it's, you feel like anytime that you miss out. Feels like a lot of time in a way, I can completely relate to that too. Social media, every, you see everybody else out and about and doing things, and you think you should be there too, so it can be tough. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you so much, Harley. Where can listeners find you to follow along on social media?
Yeah, on Facebook. I'm Harley Whitaker or HW Dressage on Instagram. [00:23:00] It's HW dressage. Awesome. Great. Thank you so much, Harley. We'll be cheering you on in and out of the dressage ring until the makeover. Great. Thanks so much. From the dressage ring to the eventing field, our next trainer is an adult amateur with a love for sport horse bloodlines and a strong online following.
Next up is Amanda Chan joining us from Florida. She's an inventor sport horse breeder and the voice behind the popular blog and podcast breed ride event. This will be her first RRP and her partner is a seasoned warhorse. Amanda, welcome to OTTB on tap. Can you start off with a little bit about who you are and what your life looks like, both in and out of the saddle these days?
Thanks for having me first of all. Um, the second part is much more complicated, so I am all over the place. If anyone follows me on social media and you're like, what the hell is this girl doing? I don't know [00:24:00] either. Honestly, every day is different. So I guess out of the saddle first, that's less interesting.
So I used to be corporate and I quit that a couple years ago. So I took all of my side hustles and hobbies and made it into a cobbled together career, if you could call it that. So I have my blog, which is where everything started, which everybody. If you know me, you would probably know me from that. And that turned into Patreon.
And then that evolved into social media management. I started doing it for a couple friends and then just built up more from there. So I do social media management. I do a lot of copywriting. The writing in the blog has just transferred over to actually doing it for money. I used to write for Eventing Nation and that turned into more than it used to be.
I still don't write a ton compared to a lot of the other girls on staff. 'cause most of my stuff is like breeding related. And not everybody's that interested in that. I also do copywriting for a lot of equestrian brands. [00:25:00] Ride IQ is probably my biggest one. I write most of their copy and then I just do a bunch of little things on the side.
I have Magna Wave I Tech for my vet for pre purchases. Sometimes I work during the winter season, retail some. With one of my friends' businesses, a lot of weird random things put together to make money. How familiar All of them are horse related. Now. It's basically every side hustle that every horse girl has ever had just shoved into one person.
Mm-hmm. Which is fine with me. Great. It's way better than corporate for me. I was slowly dying in the saddle. I have four horses, three of them are rideable, one's a brood mare. I'm eventing a preliminary with. My home bread, and then I have Rubes, my RP horse. And then I have my retired inventor that I invented through preliminary, so they're all rideable at the moment.
I'm only showing one currently until Rubes gets going, [00:26:00] but I take. A lot of lessons. I started at the beginning of this year in more of a program with my preliminary horse. Because I live in Ocala, I wanna ride better than I do. I started taking a lot more lessons, which has been tricky to afford, but it's only money.
Exactly. So you can always make more. Right. Can't take it with you. Can't take it with you there. There's ways to make money. Right. So I started doing more lessons with him, so I feel like I'm constantly. Either doing something work related or driving my trailer out somewhere to go do something. So yeah, it's all horse related, whether I'm riding or not.
Basically. That leads me to my follow up question, which is how do you balance everything between your breeding program at the farm and riding, blogging, actually riding your horses, et cetera? Carefully and sometimes not very well to be honest with you. And you, if I'm remembering correctly, you don't drink coffee.
I don't. Uh, God. You're trying [00:27:00] to make an enemy of me already. I don't drink coffee. Don't. One of our, one of our very best friends, Nikki Sheer, who's a eye surgeon at New Bolton and one of the hardest working people I know, she doesn't drink coffee either, and to me, I'm fascinated by it. Mm-hmm. I don't drink coffee, so.
I don't do well with caffeine. I'm very caffeine sensitive, so I'm a late diagnosed on the spectrum person. Yeah, and I don't know if it has to do with that, but I'm very caffeine sensitive. It basically just makes me feel like everything terrible is happening really fast and I can't, I'm a slow processing person and if you speed it up, it just stresses me out.
So I've learned the hard way that caffeine is a no-go. I tried to drink a Celsius a couple weeks ago, 'cause I hadn't slept in three days, and I was like, it'll be fine. I thought I was gonna die. My heart was pounding out of my chest for in straight hours, and I just felt like the same amount of crap, just really fast.
Oh God. And I was like, this is terrible. How is anyone doing? It was terrible. I [00:28:00] don't drink any caffeine generally. I don't drink beer and I don't drink wine. So fueled by Taco Bell and ice cream. In spite and just rage, I guess I.
I'm not the murkiest person, but things get done. I'm a morning person too, and that just makes it even worse. 6:00 AM I'm like, Hey, let's go. Let's do stuff. No, the worst. I know, even, and I used to drive from Philly an hour and a half out to the barn in the morning, and I'd be like, can you just shut up? Had so much coffee, and I'd be like, I haven't had any coffee yet, because I literally woke up as she was like pulling up outside my house.
So, yeah. I get it. Yeah. I, I naturally wake up at four 30. I don't, I never set an alarm. Everybody is gonna hate me. Why did you guys make me talk about this? No, I think those are all gonna be very impressed, likable quality. This is my least likable quality. It actually sucks. I admire it. Right. [00:29:00] But the problem is I literally can't sleep past 6:00 AM It doesn't matter what time I went to sleep.
I can't do it. I just wake up and I'm like, I have horses to feed and I have to just go. Yeah. Stick to my routine, and if I don't, it just stresses me out. I can't go back to sleep. Yeah. I don't know. I'm just like this, but I'm also terrible past like 8:00 PM Done. Yeah. Don't talk to, well, I'm in the tracks, right?
Yeah. Yeah. Yes. I'm useless in the evening. Anyway, back to your question. Yeah. For me, I'm really careful about time management. This is where you can tell that I'm on the spectrum. My schedule is sacred. I'm very into schedules and my priorities. So what are my big priorities for the day, workwise or horse wise?
And what do I have to do today, workwise that I'm committed to? And how do I make it work? Like every morning? That's what my brain is doing at four 30 before I get out of bed and I have lists everywhere. Sometimes I remember everything, sometimes I don't. Usually I do. [00:30:00] Most of what I do is really flexible because I do a lot of cobbled together things.
I don't have that commitment like I used to and like most amateurs do, where you're tied to a computer from nine to five and you're expected to be in meetings, and I've done that. I understand that. I did that for 18 years, like totally get it. And I understand that the way I've structured my life now gives me the privilege of flexibility.
Which is worth a lot. I make less money now, but I have more flexibility and more time to devote to like the horses. Yeah, and that's the trade off that I've made. Yeah. It's also not uncommon to see me, I do a lot of work between 4:30 AM and 6:30 AM I do a lot of work between 5:00 PM and 8:30 PM I'll run inside in the middle of the day and shoot off a bunch of emails or set up something for somebody and all of this kind of stuff.
I keep weird hours. And it tends to be seven days a week. I try to keep Tuesdays where I don't do that much, but that [00:31:00] doesn't happen hardly ever. So it's just, it's a little tricky, but it's afforded me a lot of flexibility, which is worth it to me. Yeah. I have to prioritize the things that make me money, obviously, 'cause horses are very expensive.
Mm-hmm. But I also recognize that I did upset my life by quitting my nine to five and moving to Ocala. Because of the horses. And I try to prioritize that as well. I'm never gonna be a boy or anybody at the top level, but I do wanna do the best I can with the horses I have. Sure. And I take that pretty seriously.
I'm pretty committed to learning and trying to improve. So it's just prioritizing and scheduling basically. Yeah. And that can change day to day. Yeah. It just depends. Yeah. Yeah. So have Thoroughbreds always been part of your program? Yes, so I'm gonna date myself with this one, but I grew up riding in the nineties and [00:32:00] those days the thoroughbred was still kink.
It was when the warmbloods had started to take over, but. There were a lot of thoroughbreds competing to a high level. Yeah. In every sport still. And I did the hunter jumpers at that time, so there were less thoroughbreds, but there were still a lot of thoroughbreds. I was a barn rat. I was at the barn six days a week.
I rode whatever my trainer would let me essentially, and it was a lot of thoroughbreds. A lot of thoroughbreds came through the sail program, so I rode a lot of them. My first horse was a thoroughbred. I took him to the east coast with me after high school to be a working student. That's where I learned what eventing was.
Started venting on him after that. I don't think I have gone since that very first horse without owning at least one thoroughbred at any given time. So I've had a lot of them. Some were resales, most were resales, some were failed resales, some were intentionally kept. But it's once you pop, you can't stop kind of situation.
Yeah. [00:33:00] Especially for me, because I've never had a lot of money. Yeah. I don't come from money. I've never had a high paying job. I've always had to figure out how to make it work and find the best horse for the money I had. Yeah. And that's almost always a thorough, yeah. So, yeah, and I think a little bit of luck comes into that as well.
I think knowing what you like about horses and then taking a chance on something has definitely paid off for you. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Even when I didn't intend it. Yeah. Yeah. So this is your first RRP. Amanda. What made you decide to enter this year? So I actually entered last year two, but I didn't go because I ended up selling that horse in the spring, and that wasn't my intention.
But the perfect person came along that absolutely loved him, and it was a forever home that I thought he would just really thrive in, and I really wanted to keep him until after RRP, but I feel like. [00:34:00] Someone better is not gonna come along. It's not gonna happen. Yeah. So I sold him two months after I entered rrp, so that didn't happen.
So I finally was like, I'll just keep an eye out. I didn't have a lot of money to spend. I never do. And if something comes along, I'll enter. If it doesn't, I won't. I've followed RRP and the makeover since the beginning, and it's always been really interesting to me. I love thoroughbreds. I've always loved Thoroughbreds.
I've grown up on them. Some of my friends have done RRP and it looks really amazing, and that would just be a really cool bucket list item to do. I love thoroughbreds and I think RRP has done so many good things for the thoroughbred and for thoroughbreds in sport, that if I can be a part of it in any way, heck yeah, of course.
I wanna do that. That sounds fun. Yeah. Yeah. Tell us about your horse. What's his jockey club name and barn name, and just general. Yeah. Details about him. So his name is Ruby Blue with the blue spelled BLEU. [00:35:00] I usually call him Rubes. They called him Ruby. I had a hard time with that in the beginning, so now I call him like Ruby.
Ruby boy, rubes. He has a lot Rubia. He has a lot of names. So he's 11. I got him last summer, so he raced until he was 10. He's by the therapist Diane Messner, who was a Threequarter brother to Malibu Moon. Mesner is out of Macumba, who was the same dam as Malibu Moon. Malibu. Moon was just straight AP and D, and Mesner was Bernardini, so a son of AP and D.
So three quarter to Malibu Moon. And then his dam is Ruby Soul, who's by an Irish stallion, perfect soul, who's by Sadler's Wells. And then on the very bottom he is got Carson City and Hawaii. Hawaii. So Hawaii, he stood out to me, Hawaii. Yeah, his pedigree was definitely eye catching and he raced. A hundred times and won $940,000, so That's wild.
He is really what I was looking for. He's a true warhorse. Yeah. Which is so cool [00:36:00] to me. Yeah. And we'll get into it a little bit more when we get into like your full episode, but there's some really cool details about the owners and breeders and everything about him. Yeah. Um, also, we actually featured Ruby Blue on one of our OTTB evaluates episode.
Was it volume two, Emily? Yeah, I was just looking it up, so you can check that out if you wanna hear Emily and I dissect him from a confirmational standpoint in his racing record and his breeding a little bit. And of course that's where I forgot who Hawaii had influenced from the good old days, but nobody can forget mal.
So how did he come into your life and was there anything in particular besides the fact that he was a true warhorse that stood out to you? So I really wanted a few things in particular like warhorse. Raced 50 times. I think that's so cool. I wanted something nicely bred for sport. I'm a pedigree nerd.
I'm not breeding him. Obviously he's a gelding, but I do think pedigree tells you something. Mm-hmm. Pedigree was interesting. I wanted a horse built like an athlete. [00:37:00] I like a horse that looks like it's standing still. Looks like it could jump. You know what I mean? If you looked at enough horses. Yeah. I really wasn't looking for one when I came across him, it was like July.
Who wants to buy their RP horse in fricking July? But Felia stables posted him on Facebook and his ad was like, they literally were for you to me, is what it sounded like. I think we all bullied you. Like everybody that knew you and saw that ad literally sent it to you and were like, obviously this is your horse, Amanda.
Yeah. I mean they were like 10-year-old clean legs, no vices raised a hundred times like. Kind, but forward thinking professional racehorse could use a little bit of a break. Has a fan club owner wants references, wants frequent updates. I was like, well, let me tell you how annoying I can be. You're gonna be like, please stop sending me pictures.
I was like, I'm annoying. I can put him on social media. Warm. [00:38:00] Yeah. He was a little out of my budget. But I just made a comment, I didn't even reach out. I just made a comment and I was like, oh, he is a little out of budget, but he sounds right up my alley. And then a bunch of people commented, I think me, you were one of 'em.
Yeah. That was like, yeah, this is totally up your alley. And the trainer reached out to me and we ended up talking on the phone for an hour and at the end she was like, let's just figure out how to make this happen in your budget. Let's pull some strings. 'cause I feel like this is a perfect match. And I was like, yeah, I guess I have a horse coming.
So. It's just meant to be, things just happen. It's not even my fault. I didn't even, I didn't do it. You didn't wire the money. Oops. It just appeared. Even wrote it.
So what are your hopes for him this year? I think because I have a competition horse, I have the liberty. And you of, you might understand this, you have the liberty of doing what the horse wants to do. Mm-hmm. And when the horse [00:39:00] wants to do it, you're not like, oh, I have to do all these competition things.
I have to make this work in my sports and all of this. I have some freedom with that. Obviously I want him to wanna do my sport and I wanna go take him to competitions. But I have the liberty of taking my time and seeing what he wants to do and getting a feel for him. Yeah. I just wanna do the horse justice.
Yeah. In whatever. Format that is, if he wants to go lay down the most amazing eventing trip anyone's ever seen and win it, I'd be thrilled if he shows up there and he's just a good ambassador for a warhorse and happy to be there. I think that's, to me, just as successful. Yeah. He doesn't owe anyone anything that he's done enough.
He doesn't have to prove himself. Yeah. So to me, my job, it just feels like. I have to do justice to him and I have to do right by him, and I have to put him in good situations. And I really want him to be an ambassador [00:40:00] for the war horse because I think people overlook horses his age and horses with his record.
I think they, they assume things about horses like that, and I just would like him to be an example of maybe you should look a little harder at one that's a little older and not just assume that they can't be a good sport horse. Yeah, sure. Before we wrap up your intro, what's something you're most excited to share with the OTTB community this year?
For me, it's just the journey. That's what li, that's what horses are like. That's what life is. It's a journey. It's ups and downs, it's challenges and triumphs. It's good and bad. And we do live in a world where we feel like we only wanna show people the good things. And I try to not be that I don't feel obligated to share things I don't wanna share, but I also.
Want people to understand that everybody has ups and downs, and that's just part of it. And I think that really creates a good sense of community. And I want people to feel like they can relate to the journey and maybe [00:41:00] see some things of themselves in my struggles or whatever goes well. 'cause to me, it all comes back to community.
That's what RRP really is. At the end of the day. It's about the horses, but it's also about all the people that have made that possible for the horses to be there. So to me, that's the most exciting part of it. Yeah. Awesome. Yeah, we love that the, just the sense of OTTB community that's really just since we started this podcast has just become so evident to us and it's really, it's very special.
Yeah. Yeah. Thank you so much, Amanda. We can't wait to follow along. Speaking of that, where can listeners find you online? Oh boy. My blog is breed ride event.com. Ruby Blue also has his on Facebook page, Ruby. Blue, BLEU. He has his own page. And then my Instagram is breed ride event. Just one word all thrown together.
Awesome. So any of those places, I post a lot in my Instagram story. If you wanna see [00:42:00] behind the scenes, that's the place to go really. And then one last question. What is one word you would use to describe an OTTB? Oh man. So I knew this question was coming, which I felt. What almost made it worse. You know what I mean?
Yes. Yeah. People, there's so many good words and people have, I've listened to you guys in your podcast and everybody has such good words, and it's a lot of the same ones that come up over and over and I was like, God was a good word that in, I had to literally go to the dictionary, but I think for me, I landed on magnanimous for me.
Ooh. I like that. I, I think that one is really, captures several qualities in one word. And finally, let's welcome back a returning trainer who's no stranger to this journey. Our last trainer today is Chelsea O'Brien, who's back for another makeover season. She's based in Virginia, a proud ambassador for pasture place, [00:43:00] and this year she's working with not one, but I think two o OTBs.
Chelsea, welcome back to OTTB on tap. For anyone just tuning in for the first time, can you give us a quick intro about you and your business? I'm Chelsea O'Brien, and I am from Berryville, Virginia, and I'm a horse trainer and a farm manager of a farm here in Berryville, Virginia. I specialize in retraining and rehoming rehabbing.
Off track Thoroughbreds. My business primarily right now focuses on restarting horses for people. I do have some other breeds occasionally, but mostly my farm consists of 90% thoroughbreds and like a handful of other creatures, like two quarter horses, a gypsy vanner, and a foreign Lincoln. Oh, nice. So how have things changed for you since last year when we, when you were also [00:44:00] on the podcast?
Yeah, it's been a wild year. Things have definitely grown a lot. I have a wait list for horses for training. I've taken a lot of horses. I've gotten a lot of horses in. I found some really great homes. I'm still loving life with my BFF UBI and who is still up for adoption, but in the meantime, we're gonna still hang out and have fun and go try new things.
But yeah, it's been like a huge success of a year and it was a little daunting going into another year. Yeah. So they just keep coming, right? Yeah, it is. Oh gosh. I have to like up the ante now like we did well last year. Now what? That's a hard part. Oh, that's pressure. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. So you've got two horses this time.
Can you tell us a bit about each of them? Jockey Club names, bar names, important details and stuff [00:45:00] like that? So I'm taking another horse for Pasture Place, and that's the Pepcid Show, who I call, we call Peppy, also known as. Pepper, pepperoni, pepper, of course, a million names PEPs 16 one or 16 2 16. Two hand Chestnut, 5-year-old.
And the first time I wrote him, when I saw him, I said, oh gosh, this is a hunter. And yeah, he's flashy so much chrome, like big blaze face, three big white stockings, and then a smaller white sock. And he's just a overall really good boy. He raced or he did not race. I think he had six workouts. And like we talked about before, pasture places, giving opportunities to horses who may be harder to.
Adopt [00:46:00] out. So obviously Pepe's, everybody's dream horse because who wouldn't want this big, flashy, crummy horse? But the problem is, or not really the problem, but peppy fractured his sesamoid in training and I think it was like July or August of his three year old's year. And so he had a nice long.
Healing process, thanks to a pastured place, but didn't need surgical intervention or anything like that. But at that point, his racing connections decided it would be better for him to go on and be able to stay sound for a second career versus start him late as a, by the time he would've been sound enough to run, he'd be in his 4-year-old year.
That's awfully late to make your first start. Sure. So now peppy. With me and he's fabulous. [00:47:00] And then I'm taking a personal horse. So my neighbor next door is a race horse trainer, and she was so excited. That's dangerous. Yeah, I was gonna say that sounds dangerous. Yeah. Yeah, I might, she might have even. We talked about one that's sitting in my field right now for maybe next year.
Awesome. Um, so my neighbor is a race horse trainer and I was doing like a little ponying for her in the fall and she said, I have this one that's gonna be a really good barrel horse, and I'm telling you, you should give her a chance. I'm like, I don't know. I don't really need another personal horse. And she's, what if we co-owned her together?
And so anyways, we're going by. The round pen out back and I'm on the pony horse and the babies are falling behind us and they're like, look, Chelsea, that's fuzzy. So her name's Fuzzy Wuzzy. She's a 4-year-old. Cute. She made four starts and only made $2,227, [00:48:00] but she's very fast and she's built like a quarter horse anyhow, so she's maybe 15 too.
She's not a big girl, but she's very stocky. Not a lot of people in peg her as a thoroughbred. And the thoroughbred has a lot of in influence on quarter horses, but man, she does not look like a thoroughbred and Eddie has. So we're walking past the round pen and Diana goes, that's fuzzy. That's the one. And I was like, oh, wow.
And she's out there broing like fucking squealing and running and I'm like. Okay. Alright. Yeah, she looks fun. So anyway, they ran, her and Fuzzy had a soft palate issue and they tried to do a myectomy. Sometimes when they do those things, the memory of it, when they get to the top of the lane, she was afraid of not being able to breathe because of the soft palate issue.
So then she would just quit and shut down at the [00:49:00] top running home. So anyhow. So now Fuzzy's gonna be a barrel horse. Cool. Cool.
What are you most looking forward to this time around? I. I grew up as a hunter jumper besides meeting us, of course. Yes. I'm so excited to meet you guys in person. We've talked so many times now that I just can't wait for Kentucky. And of course when you guys come out and we have our meet and greet at the farm, everybody bring that RP horses.
That's super fun. But I'm looking forward to, it's been a number of years since I've legitimately shown the hunters, but. I'm really looking forward to trying something different. I think. For me, I'm all about proving people wrong. So I feel like sometimes people look at Western Riders and say they can't do this because they're not whatever.
And [00:50:00] then sometimes Western people look at English people and say, oh, they can't do this because they're too English, and this person's too western, and whatever. All of that. So I grew up as a hunter, jumper, rider, and pepe's, like the hunteries horse naturally I've ever sat on. I. And so I'm really excited to do something different because for the last two years with Sally and Newbie, I focus mostly on Western.
But I think it's gonna be cool to challenge myself to try something different, go outside my comfort zone. Showed a lot as a kid, and up until college then I had a head injury and I thought that barrel racing would be safer than jumping hunter jumps.
I'm really excited about that. I love the process. I'm having a lot of fun training, both of them, because they're both so completely different, but they're both such great brained horses that it's just fun to push the envelope. And [00:51:00] do you know the all around thing?
For sure. And so it sounds peppy, you're pretty sure we'll do the hunters and fuzzy will do. Barrels. Do you think you'll do a second discipline or have you not decided that yet? Yes, I'm gonna sign up for two disciplines on both of them. Mm-hmm. Because of my experience from the first year going, and I'm not sure that I could have, yeah, if I could have gotten my horse right before, since she had some soundness issues when we went, but you just never know.
Like they might not be feeling great. Some people show on Wednesday or, yeah. Is that right? Yeah. Some people show on Wednesday, some people show on Thursday. Some people show on both, or disciplines. If somebody, if one of my horses is struggling, say on Wednesday, but the dressage goes on Thursday, or I just wanna have the opportunity that if I get there and I only wanna do one division, that's great.
I can [00:52:00] scratch, but I want to sign up for two. Sure. So Pepe is definitely, no, that's good advice. Pepe's definitely like the hunter's. And then I wanna do a Western discipline on him too anyways, to show that how versatile the thoroughbred is. Yeah. I'm thinking of either doing Western dressage or we haven't tried it out yet, but competitive trail isn't out of the realm.
You stay outta my division. Stay outta my division. Chelsea. I don't think ranch work and peppy is gonna be a thing, but who knows? I just don't know about peppy and cows. Yeah, I'm not sure yet. I'm not sure about peppy and cows yet, but that's always my thought is like. There. Some handle it really well and some are like, oh no.
And then, yeah, and then fuzzies definitely 100% through and through gonna be a barrel horse. And then I'm not sure, could she do ranch or western dressage or do I [00:53:00] throw a English division in there? I don't know yet. Seems like a little, yeah, you've got some time. Don't you think, wow, this is flying by some, somebody that I know that's gonna RRP keeps putting like something like 200 days to the rrp.
I was just talking about that and I was like knocking it off. I don't need that in my brain. I'm like, no, that's Lindsay. That's so much time guys. The last I can say that because I'm not riding, it's wonderful. Right? Meanwhile, she's gonna be talking the two of us off a ledge. That's my job. I'm the ledge talker At the RRP.
Yeah. Just come talk to me. I've gotten practice with Neve. Yeah, that's fair. Before we close out, what's one thing you want to share with folks watching your journey this year? I. Don't judge. No, I'm just kidding. I actually think that's really good. I think everybody's journeys are so different in the way that people train horses is different.
I've been listening [00:54:00] to a lot to your stuff with Oscar and stuff, and then I see other people who are really far ahead and I don't feel like I'm there. Mm-hmm. And certain things happen. I'm like, wow, we're making some breakthroughs and I'm just doing the building blocks. Run your own race. Yeah. Yeah. But things don't look pretty.
I post videos where I'm like, well it's not very good, but give me a couple months. We're gonna polish this up. Yeah. Yeah. So that's what I mean by don't judge, somebody could be so far ahead in their training and everything's going well, and then something could happen and For sure. Yeah. Just, uh, we're all just hoping for the best, but yep.
I tell some of my. Kids that ride with me that wanna learn how to ride off track their roads. I'm like, listen, you're gonna have to ride like a monkey for a little bit here just to get things. Yes. It's not pretty. It's not pretty, but trust the process and yeah, that's really, I love that. That's where I'm at and my process right now.
Yeah, for sure. [00:55:00] Thank you so much for joining us, Chelsea. We're lucky to have you back on the show for another year. And that is a wrap on our trainer intros. We're thrilled to follow each of these riders and their OTBs as they prepare for the 2025 makeover. You'll be hearing more from all four of them in upcoming full episodes where we'll dive deeper into their backgrounds, training philosophies, and progress with their horses.
Be sure to follow or subscribe so you don't miss a thing. And if you're new here, check out our past episodes wherever you get your podcasts. And head over to o TTB on tap.com for more. If you enjoyed today's episode, we'd love it if you left as a five star review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Facebook.
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