S2 E28: Meet Ruby Bleu: Amanda Chance’s Warhorse Partner for the 2025 RRP

S2 E28: Meet Ruby Bleu: Amanda Chance’s Warhorse Partner for the 2025 RRP (transcript)
[00:00:00] Hi everyone, and welcome back to OTTB on Tap. I'm Nev. And I'm Emily. Hey, nev, what's on tap today? We're back with another spotlight episode in our RRP Trainer series, and this one's a real treat. Today we're joined by Amanda Chance, an adult amateur inventor, longtime thoroughbred fan and sport horse breeder who's making her RRP debut this year with a true warhorse.
Amanda, welcome to the show. Thanks for having me. All right, let's start with the basics. Can you give us a quick horse life origin story? How did you first get started in writing quick? Okay. I'm laughing 'cause I already know. You already know. You're like, this girl has a lot of words. I'll try to.
My job is literally words, so gimme a break. I'll try to abbreviate a little bit. So my origin story. Oh, way back in the day. Like a really long time ago though. For real. So I don't know if any of y'all were in Girl Scouts, but if you were, yeah, that was for a short [00:01:00] time you had a horse badge. It was a gateway drug that, that, that was a dangerous that because I loved horses, like little girls just love horses.
I guess. At least us, whatever's wrong with our brain chemistry. So I'd always had, my little ponies and stuff, but no one had put me on a horse. And that act was literally just the beginning of the end for my parents really. We got our horse badge, trail riding somewhere. I was in Arkansas at the time when I was a kid.
And then I just wouldn't shut up. Like I wouldn't shut up. And I basically badgered them into taking me to lessons, weekly lessons. There was this farm, we lived in Little Rock. This farm called Shadow Croft in Roland, which was near this mountain in Little Rock. That's all I remember was driving there all the time.
And I rode whatever. I fell off a lot. There was one lesson where this horse would just trot to the corner and abruptly stop, and I would fall off every time. So every corner is just plop. There she [00:02:00] goes, on again to the next corner. Plop. There she goes. It didn't bother me. I was like, oh no, back on.
I was just really happy to be there, on a horse. It couldn't be bad. And then we moved to Texas and my parents saw an opportunity here. They were like if you find somewhere that'll give you lessons and you set everything up, we'll take you. I'm 12 years old, right?
This is a mistake Here. It's like 1990, I don't want to tell you. Late nineties. With a phone book, like Yellow Pages. And I just go to like stables. Yeah. And I just start going down the list calling because and I'm very introverted. I don't like making phone calls now as an adult.
So that tells you how motivated I was. Yeah, I just start going down the list and finally this farm called Kingsbridge returned my phone call. 'cause obviously no one answers obviously not. They returned my phone call, which is Lord only knows what I left on that message. I was awkward as hell.
I cringe to even think. But I started [00:03:00] riding there. I took summer camp and then I started riding all the time. And then I was like full-time barn rats. I was there six days a week. I tacked up lesson horses. I turned horses out. I tacked horses up. Anything for the chance to ride, I would ride whatever.
I didn't care. And I got known as the kid who didn't care. So sometimes I rode some really not great or polite horses. Yeah. But it didn't bother me. I was just happy to be on a horse. So I rode there through high school. I ended up getting my first horse from that trainer, wildly inappropriate horse for me at the time.
He just ran away with me Oh boy. All the time. I did the jumpers on him and I couldn't stop him at the end of the course unless I ran him into the fence. Oh my God., It's horrifying. And he roared like a freight train. So you could just hear this. Especially in a covered arena, it's just like there I am just running into the freaking arena fence.
But I was delighted. It was my first horse, he was big, he was a thoroughbred, he was a 17 hand [00:04:00] long thoroughbred. I just loved the hell outta that horse. And then I took him with me to the east coast to be a working student 'cause I didn't think college was for me at the time. So I did what everyone does and I went to be a working student, but at that time and still now what Hunter Jumper trainers have working students, it's not really a thing.
Yeah. So that's how I started eventing. There were early only eventing trainers, so I went east and was a working student for a little while, which I'd been a working student at the hunter jumper barn my whole teenage career anyways. So it's just a different sport in a different setting and it was cold there.
I don't know how you guys do that. That was horrible. It sucks. I didn't care for it at all. I came running home with my tail between my legs two weeks into real winter. I was like, that is not for me. That I was wearing all of my clothes at one point and I was still freezing. Yeah. It wasn't cute.
And then I came home back to Texas and met [00:05:00] up with this lady who was starting a breeding farm and I ended up working for her breeding farm for a while which did burn me out. I think that's pretty normal, like a early twenties, seven days a week. Horse girl. Like you start to wonder if there's a little more Yeah.
To life than that then maybe it's not 14 hours a day, seven days a week. So I went to corporate world. I always kept riding. I always had horses. I had a lot of off the track thorough breads. I bred my first horse myself when I was 22. I leased a thoroughbred marere and bred her to a Warmblood stallion and that was my first home bread.
Raised her, showed her, I got married, got divorced. That wasn't for me. Leased Sadie out to somebody I met on Facebook, who is now the owner of the farm I live at in Ocala. Wow. Just random things at that happen. The horse, I'm competing now is the son of that mare that I originally bred.
Wow. So he's second generation. And then in that break that I [00:06:00] took when I got divorced and least Sadie out to this friend that I met I lasted about three months before I started picking up a lot of weird hobbies. 'cause if all you've ever done is ride. And then you just come up with some weird shit.
I was gluten-free baking. And she's I Emma, it sounds like a combination of Emily and I. It's truly like all of these different ingredients. I'm like, this really sounds was so much of both of us. I was bad. I took up triathlon guys. Come on. I was so mentally unwell that I was working out four hours a day 'cause I couldn't be alone with my thoughts apparently, without a horse.
Wow. Yeah, it was not a good time for me. So I lasted only a few months and then a horse found me on Facebook and it was cheap and it was cute and he jumped around a little bit, in the hunters, but he'd gotten really fried. Really badly. And they turned him out in the fields and the lady was just trying to get rid of him.
And she sent me this video of this fattest horse I've ever seen in my life. [00:07:00] Just trotting around a cupboard. And she was like if you buy him today, I'll sell him to you for $900. And I was like, what could go wrong? Okay. So my intention was to resell him. That was my whole goal, was to get my marere back after she was leased out for a while and keep showing her and then sell this horse.
And that is not what happened. That horse took me on quite a journey. So I started blogging when I had him and I ended up eventing him through preliminary level. He's just he changed my life. That horse. He is an off track there, but he never raced, he trained, he never raced.
So whatever you wanna call that. That was a long origin story. That's okay. Sorry. So that kinda leads us into this, which is for those that might not know who you are yet, you've got a really strong voice in the OTTB community.
Can you tell us a little bit more about your blog and your podcast breed ride event? Yeah. So that was also an accident. I'm just really [00:08:00] not good at intentionally doing things, but I guess I have a strength for just following weird rabbit holes. I don't know, because everything good that's ever happened to me has not been by my intention.
I've always liked to write, I took a lot of journalism and creative writing classes in school. It wasn't a career I followed, but. I've always liked it. And at that time, ne if you remember, you blogged a little bit, the blogs were popping. Yeah. At that time. That was like 10 blogs were the original podcast.
Yeah. Like 10, 12, 15 years ago, the blog scene was where it was at. And one of the girls that I rode with at the barn, she had a blog that was quite popular and she was like, oh, you should blog. And I was like, yeah, me. And I was like it might be fine.
'cause like I'd just gotten Henry the $900 Facebook horse that I bought randomly. I'll just do it a little and for my own enjoyment and if I keep up with it, great. If I don't, who cares? Maybe I can just use that as a way to track his journey, his training.
And that [00:09:00] really went off the rails fast. What started very casual, really took off. 'cause everything was so popular then that people were really insatiable for interesting stories or cool horses to follow or people that blogged regularly. So I was expecting to be speaking to the void.
Yeah. When I started. And it was not like that at all. I got a lot of followers really fast and Henry was an interesting horse to follow. And so I just started riding a lot and that was 12 years ago and it was originally called the $900 Facebook Pony. 'cause that was Henry. He's not a pony, but I called him a pony.
, It doesn't matter. And I just kept writing and writing and I got a lot of joy out of it. I think any of you know that there are pros to sharing all of these things on the internet and there are cons to sharing all these things on the internet.
And I'm actually a really introverted, pretty private person, so I've had to learn how to balance that. And sometimes you learn the hard way with repercussions of [00:10:00] the things that you say on the internet. So it's a learning curve for sure. And there are days where I just wish I could delete everything and disappear and no one would know who I am.
The tension between me and disappearing forever is quite high some days. But at the same time, I've gotten so many opportunities because of that and made so many connections like this and the community that has come from it. It's interesting 'cause like when I started I was. Maybe 30, not quite 30.
And I don't think I quite knew, like just how important support and community can be. And then some things have happened that I have blogged about that have been really hard for me to blog about. I really struggled with Henry, with my mental game, like the pressures of horse showing and trying to get myself in a good head space.
I really struggled with that for a long time and [00:11:00] blogging about it helped me a lot. Just even just to get it out. Yeah. And put it on paper. And then when my current horse was born, he was really sick. And it was probably the most difficult, two weeks of my life to be honest with you.
He was in the hospital, he had a 5% chance of making it he was so sick. And to just sit there and watch him struggle was really hard. And. The number of people that came forward, from my blog to support me in that and businesses that came forward to just offer their support.
Even just asking how he was or sending good wishes. It changed something in me fundamentally. Yeah. At that time, I didn't know how important that was and then that happened and I was like, this is actually so crucial. Yeah. So to my development as a person and who I want to be and what I need to remember is important.
So what started as a silly little blog, really honestly changed [00:12:00] my life. Yeah. Significantly. And the position I'm in now, none of it would be possible if I hadn't started that blog. And it's more if now it was, the $900 Facebook pony and. As Henry phased out of his career and presto started to come to the forefront, I changed it to breed ride event.
'cause I am quite involved in breeding now also. And when I started I really didn't think I was gonna event again. I thought he was gonna be a jumper. So things have changed in 12 years but it's been mostly good. And as blogging it died off. I do think it's starting to have a little bit of a resurgence.
I struggled with do I continue it or do I just fall off ev Most everybody else did. Yeah. And I ended up taking a middle ground. I used to blog five days a week. And that's an incredibly time intensive, when I worked a nine to five and I had, a lunch break and didn't start my day until.
7:00 AM like that was a different story. [00:13:00] Whereas now, I have to hustle, yeah. Every minute of the day is a hustle for me. So it started to be really hard to justify that. And so I started moving some of it behind the Patreon paywall. So now, most of my videos are there, if I have lesson videos, show videos I do hack chats where I'll just be hacking and just talk through updates.
And my friend Hillary does it with me and we just have a lot of content in there. And I was really hesitant about that at first 'cause I was like, I didn't know how I felt about it. Yeah. Because I've always wanted to be accessible and open. But I also had to balance that with, I can't do this for free.
Yeah. At this for sure. It's really when it's that time intensive, you, it was a decision. And I was like, either I stopped blogging or I put a lot behind a paywall that's. Yeah, that was where I was at and I still have my blog going and I post once or twice a week. You can still keep up with my horses.
I still read that. Yeah. You can still keep up and [00:14:00] know what you need to know. I don't share as much. There's not as many videos. There's not as much, but I still try to, the people that can't afford to or don't want to for whatever reason, I totally respect that. I still try to keep enough content there that they feel like they know what's going on.
Yeah. But it's been an interesting sometimes I just stop and I'm like, how did that one little decision that I made sitting in the ring in the middle of a lesson with this girl being like, you should start a blog. I can vividly remember the conversation.
I would never have guessed that. Yeah. Everything that I am and have now in my life that it is now is because of that one decision. Yeah. That's amazing. How those things send stuff into the world and we've experienced that now with the podcast to a certain degree and just some of the avenues and places it's taken us and people that we've met and lives that we've touched, and we're just getting started, so it'll be really cool to see how we feel about this in another five plus years.
There's a lot of power in [00:15:00] putting things out in the universe. Even if you think it's stupid or you think no one will care. It's crazy. Yeah. How many people,, just having somebody go I felt that too. Yeah. It just makes such a big difference to everyone you and them.
Yeah. I've learned more about myself than anything else. Yeah. From doing it, but it's incredible. That's really cool. Before we dive into your RRP horse, we'd love to hear more about your current string. I know you have a brood mare and your current competition horse have some similarities in their breeding, I believe.
And yeah. So tell us a little bit about those guys. So Presto is a second generation home bred, so he's my main competition horse. He is eight this year. I can't believe it's crazy to me to think that I bred his dam is sitting out in the pasture here right now. She's 18 this year. And I'm like, how the hell did I get this old and that my first [00:16:00] home bread is 18 years old.
That's insane. It's crazy to me that Presto's eight yeah, what the hell? I was blogging for years before I even Yeah. Br Presto. So everybody's been with him every step of the way, which is really cool 'cause it feels like he belongs to a lot of people. But he's my main guy nicest horse I've ever had.
Potentially the nicest horse I'll ever have, honestly. So he's interesting. He's a lot. He's obviously his dam lines thoroughbred 'cause he, that was the mare I started with, that I leased and then bred to this H variant. And then his sire, mighty Magic is 88% thoroughbred. He's by mittens out of a tic Marere.
So it's like European, but it's all originally from the US 'cause they just stole our horses. So he's 80% thoroughbred. And he's a cheeky little guy. He's not little. He's 17 too. But with a big white eye. With the white eye. He looks like chaos.
And he's not boring. I've never been bored a day in my life. He matches my chaotic energy. [00:17:00] I think he's hilarious. Other people don't agree. My friend Hillary is horrified by him at all times. She's it's just a lot. And I'm like, yeah, but it's funny. She's no, it really isn't.
It's possible that I have created some of it. I'm willing to admit you certainly don't do anything to tamp it down. I don't, I think it's so funny. I'm very entertained. He's got so much personality and it's just, I don't know, the horses are meant to be fun. And I like for them to have personality and expression and as long as he is not trying to kill me or be rude, be yourself, man. I don't care. So he's my main horse. We've done two preliminaries. We just moved up this season . He's still not challenged by that yet. He's still not paying attention. It's great. I'm paying attention. I'm terrified. He's whatever, so I have him and then Henry is still ticking.
He's 18 now, which is also crazy. He was six when I got him. Wow. When I started that blog, which is nuts. He's still sound, I invented him through preliminary [00:18:00] and at that point there was no modified, I was in area five, I was in Texas. There was no modified and I just thought preliminary was too much for him to stay.
Sound he is got kissing spine, he's got a spur in one knee. His legs go a lot of different directions. He is not built like his neck comes out really low. He is downhill. He's short, fat, round, little meatball of a horse. You wouldn't look at him and go, yeah, I wanna jump that thing around.
A preliminary yeah, he did it because I asked him to that horse was all heart and all try. But we ran four or five preliminaries and I was like, I just don't think he's gonna stay sound. If I keep asking this of him and he didn't owe me shit. Yeah. At that point I bought that horse to do three foot jumpers and sell 'em and I never wanted to event above novice ever.
I thought that looked stupid and terrifying. And it is stupid and terrifying. So he took me around preliminary and just was an absolute patron saints. I just think that's enough. For [00:19:00] him. I would like for him to be sound, for a lot longer. And.
I thought I would get one or two seasons out of him and I would probably, I don't think he would've thrived. Yeah. So I decided that was enough for him. And I literally jumped him this morning and he freaking dragged me to an er, landed bucking, and like I was gonna say, he's still trying to buck you off every day.
So Yes he's gonna go cross country schooling tomorrow for the first time in oh boy, six months and he's gonna be absolutely feral. But that's what's great. That's why I wanted to quit with him when I did, is because I want him to be able to continue to do, he's a thoroughbred.
He wants to work. He wants to have a job. Yeah. He's very happy out here, just dragging us around being a complete turd, but he's also, he'll jump from anywhere you put him. He's got a smile on his face, he's just playing, yeah. And I think that's great. And it worked out for me.
'cause I also have another horse I can work on the skills that I'm working on with Presto in my lessons. I can come home and have a practice horse. So Yeah. It's works really well. [00:20:00] Yeah. And then Rubes is my RP horse. So I've had him since July and we can get into what he is doing later.
Yeah, we're actually about to just ask you about that. Yeah, I do have the brood mare, so I have Oh yeah, she's four. She's four. She's Bio Thoroughbred Stallion, which you guys have probably, if you've looked at stallions at all. His name is Sini, so he's a Bernardini son. He's local here to Ocala and she's out of a mare by Mighty Magic, which is the sire of Presto.
And then the damn line is like Ramiro Verian. And she got run into a fence when she was a yearling and chipped a little bit of her neck, like she got a little bit of an injury in her neck and she's sound and she's fine, but. She would probably develop neck arthritis, having to actually do a job.
So her owner very graciously offered her to me 'cause she knew the breeding was up my alley. And yeah, mighty magic's are chaotic and if you don't like it and you're not prepared for them, they're not [00:21:00] fun. So she was like, I don't know if this one is one I wanna keep, but would you be interested in it?
I was like, obviously yes, sign me up. Yeah add some more to the chaos train. It's a mighty magic thing. A hundred percent. Good God, they sometimes they both look at me and I'm like, oh my God. It's the same look. They look really similar. Yeah, very similar. Look, she's just two hands shorter than him for whatever reason, and she's got more warm blood, I don't know, make it make sense. But, so I have four currently. Gotcha. So did you breed her this year? Yeah, so I own her in partnership with my friend Hillary, who I also do my Patreon with. She's my BF. We just do everything together basically. So I own her with Hillary and we bred her to Stallion from the UK called Future Guilty Pleasure.
Who's competed through I think intermediate. He's with Alex Bragg right now. Okay. He's young. Really nice horse. Really cheeky. So this should be great. Perfect. We confirmed heartbeat last week. Oh. So she's safely a month [00:22:00] and a few days in full. And we'll probably sell that one. I think we're gonna breed to sell the first few.
And then figure out if we wanna keep any of 'em. 'cause we've got a lot of horses at the most. Yeah. So now they are multiplying fast. Yes. Let's talk about your makeover partner. What is his name and how did you find him and what made you say this is the one? So he found me, I would like to point that out.
There was an ad that was targeting me very specifically looking for a specific kind of person for this horse that was very well known in Pennsylvania. 'cause he'd raced a hundred times and he just he was known as just a do-gooder, tried really hard. He made everyone money that owned him, that horse.
He was a high-end claimer. He did a lot of allowance races. He hit the board in three stakes races. This horse raced for eight years. Wow. He did everything. He won a lot of money, raced a hundred times and he's been [00:23:00] around a lot of barns. He's well known and a lot of people really loved him.
So they wanted somebody that would keep him well known. Keep him in social media give them lots of updates. And they specifically wanted somebody to aim him for RRP. And I was like I am an annoying person. I could definitely send you more updates than you could ever possibly want.
I already have social media that's built in. Yeah. I wanna go to RRP. What could go wrong? Yeah. He looked cute in his pictures, he looked like a sporty horse. The videos. His walk was what really grabbed me. He walked like an athlete. Yeah. You know what I, when you see one and you're like, that horse looks like an athlete.
He raced forever and won almost a million dollars. He still looked in really good condition. His legs were pretty clean. Everyone that's seen him, they're like, you raised how many times? Yeah. I'm like, yeah, I know. I know. I remember his ad and I saw his ad and I was like, Ooh.
I was like, I do not need a horse. I [00:24:00] didn't either. Don't need another horse. I didn't either. But, primes were committed and I just, I don't know. I don't have a good, if something comes at me, I don't have the ability to say no. Yeah. And that horse came at me. I feel like he really, he came for me.
Yeah. And once I talked to the trainer, we were talking on the phone like we were old friends. Yeah. She called me and we chatted about him and race horses and event horses and life and ramen and how much we have to eat 'cause we're poor and all of these things. And by the end of it, she was like, I feel like you're his person.
Yeah. Yeah. And she talked to the owner who was his breeder. Yep. At the time he'd gotten him back's, he'd been playing several times. It was Donnie Brown. Yep. He got him back and he was the one facilitating, finding the right person. And Cassie and Donnie they were both really great and they were like, how do we get this horse to you?
And I was like, I have this many dollars. How do we get him here for this many dollars? Yeah. So Donnie was flexible on the price. Cassie knew a [00:25:00] guy that was bringing a load down. Anyway, he got to jump on there for. A really good fill rate. Yeah. And he was here literally less than 48 hours later.
That's awesome. And I was like we're doing it. I did that. But how do you not just a horse like that is so cool. He raced a hundred times. Yeah. If you look at his record, his longest break was four months. That's wild. That's insane to me. Yeah. That's insane to me.
He's in the Pennsylvania Hall of Fame now. Yeah. And the people around him just really cared about him. Everybody that had the horse really cared about him. Multiple people reached out to me after he got here and they were like, that horse was in my barn for six months a year. Oh, I love whatever I that.
And he was just he was a workhorse. He showed up, he made my owner's money. He made me money. He never put a foot wrong like. That's did you say his name? I don't think you did. Ruby. Blue. Ruby. Ruby Blue. So people can look him up if they want to. Yeah. Yeah. [00:26:00] B-B-L-E-U Blue. Ble Blue. Perfect.
Yes. So what's it been like restarting a horse with that many miles under his belt? Is it different than a lightly raced horse or how'd that go for him? Yes. I will say he's not the first war horse I've had. The horse that I found for RP last year that I ended up selling way before RRP, he was really close to a war horse, like a couple races off, and he was seven, turning eight when I got him.
So similar situation, but these two horses really temperament wise couldn't be more different. And you also had to let Ruby sit. Untouched for six months, which was probably incredibly difficult. So getting one in July, first of all, bringing a horse from Pennsylvania to Ocala in July is borderline cruelty places.
It was not nice. And I asked Cassie, when we were talking about 17 times, like he sweats well, right? Like he's a [00:27:00] good sweater. So he sweats, so he sweats, right? She was like, this woman is crazy. I need to see pictures of him sweaty. I was like, but he sweats. And she was like, yes. Okay, because if they get down here and don't sweat, I'd have to send him back.
There's just no. Yeah. It's hot, it's humid, I can't do anything about that. He did need a break. The horse genuinely needed a break. He'd been racing for eight straight years. But him genuinely needing a break and convincing him that he needed a break were two very different things. You guys sound similar to be honest. Yeah. I don't have much chill either. Neither does he. And I felt bad for him 'cause he got on a trailer, rode probably the farthest he's ever ridden, showed up in this hellscape of humidity in July.
A hurricane came like a week later. Like it was just Oh, that's right. Yeah. It just felt horrible and he didn't like not having it. He was like, you do not know what you're doing. It is 6:00 AM what the hell? [00:28:00] And he would run himself around his turnout. 'cause he was like, I guess you're just not gonna train me.
A horse doesn't race that long, that successfully without knowing his job. Yeah. And right. Liking a routine and liking a job and convincing him that he could probably just take a deep breath and chill. . It took about six months, no joke.
The transition was difficult. But not for bad reasons. Not because he is bad, not because he is naughty, just because he's almost tries too hard. Yeah. And he wants too much to do work. So getting him here in July and I couldn't do anything with him for months besides a little bit of groundwork and trying to get him to take a deep breath was not the most fair situation.
So it's been different just because his work ethic is so high. And he's very serious and he thinks he knows everything. And trying to convince him. That this job is different and he needs to maybe take some few minutes to listen to my input. He's but you don't know what you're doing.
Like you're doing strong. [00:29:00] So that's been the hardest part of him is he's just a professional. Yeah. He's a pro and he knows how to do the one job that he did really well. And now I'm just, I've changed all of the rules, every single rule that he knew I changed every single one. And that's hard.
That's a big ask from a 10-year-old horse. Yeah. Yeah. It's not impossible. He's got a great temperament. He wants to work. That's 99% of it. It's just channeling that. Yeah. And then once you got him going under saddle in December, how did your opinion of him evolve and change the way that you started to move forward with him?
We spent the first few months addressing his body and all of, he was very well taken care of on the trek. I have to say that immediately, all of his connections really took care of that horse. Clearly, obviously. Yeah, he made it as far as he did with clean legs.
He was very well taken care of. But he had a job where he ran this direction and that's his job and he ran a lot and he ran [00:30:00] fast. And that takes a toll on his body, obviously. So the first few months we're just trying to get his muscles to loosen up and figure out if he needed any help anywhere maintenance wise.
And get him to understand that he could move his body different directions. Yeah. 'cause he knew how to put it in one place and go really fast that direction. But getting him to be like, you can bend this way, you can bend that way, your hind end can be independent. And he was like. What he really was just like, what the hell?
And making it physically possible was thing number one. And then making it mentally possible was thing number two. So we did a lot, before I ever really got on him, we had done a lot to address, chiropractic body, feet. His bringing a horse to Florida in July is just asking, oh my God.
It's just wet. Yeah, it's wet here. We're on sand. So if as long as you want a very wet foot with no sole, you're in the right spot. So his feet, he'd been in stalls for eight years, so naturally his [00:31:00] feet get here and just fall apart. Yeah, I can't even keep my horse's feet together very well that have been here forever.
It's a struggle. So that's not on him at all. It's just Florida. So he had to , do some stuff with his feet and so it was quite a bit and he was always very willing, he's very smart. He's very willing to learn. And by the time I got on him, I knew we had addressed some of the physical things.
And then I got on him and I felt a couple of other things and I was like, I feel like we have more to do to get his body where I felt like it needed to be, which is normal post track aftercare. And then a little extra for him because he's a little older and did a little bit more.
I've done more aftercare on four year olds to be fair. But he was always very willing to learn. He's very eager. He's a little overeager. All the good ones are, right? Yeah, for sure. But he's a worker bee. He's a worker bee.
It sounds like maybe it was good that you did get him a little bit early Yeah. To help Yeah. Train, give [00:32:00] him that extra time for the transition. I wish it hadn't been July. Yeah. Yeah. The worst, maybe October would've been better. The worst po Florida and July. There's not much worse than that.
The mosquitoes were huge. There were hurricane we had literally three hurricanes in the first two months he was here. I was like, sorry. The speech fell apart because it's so wet. And I was just like, oh my God. , He hates mosquitoes. It took a while to understand turnout.
Yeah. If there was a mosquito in turnout, he lost it. Oh God. He lost it entirely. I had to bring him inside, he couldn't cope. If he heard a mosquito, he would just start running. Oh my God. And I was like, I have bad news. The mosquitoes are here till November. So the first few months were hard and it's just because.
He was very used to one life and it was a really great life. And I was like, I sorry, I'm gonna do my best, but I can't control the mosquitoes, the hurricanes, the heat, the humidity, the, and he was like, I'm not sure if I like this. Do you have any tips for [00:33:00] transitioning feet to the Florida?
Unfortunately, if you just chuck him out you're not gonna have a foot. They just can't Yeah. Be chucked outside. He had to come in, he came in every evening. I basically left him out until the mosquitoes started, which is five or six. And then I would bring him in and cover him head to toe in four different kinds of bug spray, literally, and his fly sheet.
And he still was not happy. And he stayed in until the next morning. I would try to let the dew, we have very heavy dew in the summer, so I would try to let some of the dew burn off, but he sometimes couldn't quite make it that long. So I had to ease him into turnout. He had to spend some time inside to let his feet dry and to be away from the mosquitoes.
Yeah. As much as I would love to say yeah, chuck 'em all out, that's just not realistic for some of them. And it's not to their benefit all the time. Yeah. And the environment and the climate really do play a huge role in that as well. It's not to just benefit to be standing and wet 24 7, [00:34:00] especially if he's getting eaten alive by mosquitoes and running in panic away from them.
A recipe. It was the first few months I was like, I feel terrible that I've done this to this horse. He's fine now, but the first few months he was like, what the hell? As someone who breeds sport horses, I'm curious of how your background as a breeder has influenced the way that you evaluate off the track thoroughbreds.
I think for me the benefit is that when I learned about confirmation, I learned about it from a functionality in a sport horse perspective. All of the various things I've been involved in with breed registries and seminars and young event horse and all of this breeding related stuff, my eye for confirmation developed looking at horses from that lens.
Which is of great benefit. It's still not the same. Obviously if you're looking at warm bloods and now you have to apply it to a thoroughbred [00:35:00] and especially when it's still on the track, you have to see through things. How they're stood, how they're muscled, how they're not muscled, how they have weight, how they don't have weight.
So you do have to tweak your eye. Yeah. But the bone structure is there. Yeah. And the bone structure is the same and the bone structure you're looking for certain jobs is the same. So to me it, it was of great benefit because I didn't grow up necessarily learning about confirmation. I grew up in a horse show barn, but getting involved in breeding as early as I did, I was like 20. And learning all of that over the last two decades my eye has developed from the sport horse lens. Yeah. Are there certain traits or types that you find yourself drawn to that maybe others might overlook? Or what really stands out to you?
I have a type for sure. It's called chaotic. It's not everyone's cup of tea, but I do have a type. Yeah, I like them a little bit long. I like a little bit more neck. I would rather have more back than a shorter, I jump [00:36:00] things right. If I was a dressage person, this would be very different.
But as someone who wants to run and jump, I want them a little longer rather than shorter. My personal preference, I like long legs. I like a longer neck. I like a long humerus with a good slope to it. 'cause I think that's very indicative of stride length and jumping technique. So I always look for that, but I just really, I like a more.
Long lined, long limbed type of creature. And I would prefer a little bit taller to a little bit shorter just 'cause I feel more comfortable with more horse in front of me. I prefer to ride the horse up in front of me. That's my type person long. So we to fight over them basically. I was gonna say, you do have the same type.
She would've loved Alex probably. Oh yeah. Honestly, my Presto horse is like phy. He's a little too tall. If he was 16 three, yeah. But physically, that horse is really close to my ideal type and he's long, very [00:37:00] cool. Would you ever consider using a thoroughbred your RRP horse in a breeding program?
If it were a mare and do you see Valium in them as far as like sport partners? Yeah, so this is a great question. So obviously Presto is from originally an off the track thoroughbred Marere. I leased the mare bred to his stallion, got Sadie br Sadie to Mighty Magic. Got Presto. So the dam line is off the track.
Thoroughbred, that's where I started. It was with that thorough mare. Some of the best, most successful event breeders in this country started the same way with a good thoroughbred mare. A good thoroughbred mare, you can breed to a good jumping stallion and you're gonna get a good horse. Yeah, it's gonna be sporty.
The thoroughbred just brings work ethic, it brings class, it brings athleticism. I think mixing a thoroughbred marere with a warm blood is just to me, perfection for an event [00:38:00] horse, my perspective would change depending on, if you wanna a jumper or a dressage horse, it might be a little different.
Yeah. But I don't think for an event horse that there is a better. Ma match mix of bloodlines. Yeah. And as sport partners, obviously I think all of the best event horses have thoroughbred, usually thoroughbred dam line. The Germans always say, you put the blood on the top.
They did that Yeah. To preserve the type of the marere. So they kept the type of, the warm blood marere, they just put more blood on it from the top. That's what the Germans were going for with that breeding their jumpers and their massage horses. That makes sense. But if you're coming at it from the event horse perspective, the blood on the bottom has actually proven to be more successful than the blood on the top.
And it's because they tend to take more from the type of the dam. So if you have the thoroughbred type coming through more heavily and you're putting, the elasticity and the power of the warm blood onto that thoroughbred type, how could you ask for a better event horse than that? Yeah. So to me, the thoroughbred mare is the [00:39:00] key.
To breeding a good, we're gonna have to have you back on for a way more detailed deep dive into this because it would just be so fun. I will tell you I am in the process of creating my next one. My friend Hillary, she has a mayor that she bought to do RP ended up not taking her to RFP.
She just had her first full, that is Hillary's. I'm gonna breed her this year to a Holstein Stallion. So she's by Majestic Warrior out of a Brahms mare. Big I'm gonna have to send you guys pictures of this. Ma, you would not breed. Oh, I think you've sent me pictures of her before. Yeah. She looks like she ate every other thorough butt at the racetrack.
The Majestic Warriors are such nice horses, majestic Warrior was owned by Donnie Brown. Who's Ruby Blue's. Yeah. Old owner. So I've seen a, I've talked to Donnie Brown about Majestic Warrior at length. I was like, we have a mare. She's a boost. Her feet are like dinner plates.
She's got the biggest, most correct legs, just so much bone. And they're dead ass [00:40:00] straight. Like this. This is like the most classically built thoroughbred I've ever seen. She's 17 one. She's got a leg on each corner. Good luck knocking her over. There's no way. She's just classy.
She jumps straight. She's brave. I was like, Hillary, I wanna breed her. For me, that's fun. I love that Marere and her first full amazing. She's gorgeous. Yeah. So yeah sign me up. Getting back a little bit to the RRP let's talk about some expectations and your goals there.
How has your journey lined up with your expectations so far? I'm one of those people that doesn't, I aggressively don't make goals necessarily because I tend to get very tunnel visioned into specific goals, and then I lose sight of what's happening that maybe should make me change that.
I don't have a lot of specific expectations. I don't, I'm not [00:41:00] gonna sit here and tell you I wanna go compete in this event and do this thing, and I want him to do this by this date. You're not gonna hear that from me. I want to be really open. To what the horse wants and needs.
I wanna be respectful of his learning pace. I wanna be respectful of what he's mentally and physically comfortable with. I have the luxury of doing that. I don't feel a lot of pressure about it. I just want the horse to be successful and I want the horse to be happy. So I don't have a lot of expectations.
Yeah. That might make me a terrible person. No, I'm the same way. No, I think that's really insightful. It's been so cool to get to talk to, we had four trainers last year and now we've got four new trainers this year. And just, it's really fascinating how each trainer, like their mental process going through this and getting to talk through that.
And some people they know what discipline they're doing and that's how it's gonna be. Yeah. [00:42:00] And they're very much in that. And then others are like we'll see when we get there, kind of thing. And I know you have to choose your discipline before you get there, obviously.
Yeah. But it's just so interesting and I really like that because I do agree that with it's neat that you know that about yourself, basically. That if you have a goal, you might ignore other signs. Yeah. That maybe you're on the wrong path. Yeah. I think that's this, it's something I've learned about myself over time.
'cause even in blogging, at the beginning of every year, it used to be a thing, all the bloggers would be like, here's my goals for the year. And they were very specific and they tell you, they feed you this bullshit about smart goals, measurable, specific, blah, blah, blah.
That's great. I can't handle that as a human. I will go so hard that I will kill myself. To accomplish this thing that I wrote on a piece of paper. Yeah. That at the end of the day, doesn't mean shit. Yeah. At the end, the priority is the horse, how he's doing, how I'm feeling about it.
Are we doing [00:43:00] something that's good or not? And that's what I want to keep the priority. And I just, I have to go into it being very fluid, I think. Yeah. Because I do feel this horse doesn't owe anyone anything and that is the most important thing to me. If we get four months down the road and he's I'm not ready, great.
I'm not gonna put the pressure on him if he, I think he's fantastic, but, if he's not ready, we're not gonna do it. If he is, we will. I hope he is. I think we're on the right track for that. That is the goal, but . I'm not gonna sit here and say that if we don't make it, I'm gonna feel like it's a failure.
No, I feel like as long as I'm continuing to make the right choice for the horse, that's what this is about. It's the journey. The goal is the makeover, but it's not. Does that make sense? Yeah. The goal should be to produce a really nice horse, right? Yes. Yes. That's the goal.
I think, the original intent of the makeover to showcase the versatility of the breed. Yes. But also, the training and the things that they can accomplish. Yes. So I think that's awesome. And I drive my poor [00:44:00] trainer she, at the beginning of the season, she's oh, what's your goal for the season?
I was like, oh no, you don't wanna ask me this question. It'll start me down. I'll skip the second goals question. I will dodge that question a thousand times over because I can't do it. And the other thing is i'm very competitive with myself and I don't handle feeling like I failed very well.
I feel very disappointed about it. And if there's not a reason to set myself up for that, I just don't feel I don't see the need. Yeah. I just don't. Sure. Yeah. One of our other RRP trainers, we asked her what her methodology was when it came to training and she called it flexible consistency.
And I thought that was really brilliant. I was like, you know what, that that's exactly it. For, to me, that's exactly it. It's a horse. You gotta be willing to pivot. Yeah. And that could be on the daily. Yeah, exactly. Every day. Every day. You're like what next? What's the best choice here?
Exactly. Yeah. Speaking of milestones, [00:45:00] et cetera. Has Rubes been off the property yet or had any firsts that you're especially proud of? Boy, he's been off the property. I know you've, I know you've shared a couple of very behind the scenes videos and excerpts with me. Here's the thing, he's just really down to party.
He thinks if he's going somewhere, it's for a reason and he is there and he's shown up and he's doing the thing at 125%. The problem is, I just need him to chill the fuck out.
He's gotta learn before he can do anything. He's got to learn to take a deep breath and just relax. And he's still learning that off property. On the property. He could probably go do a starter tomorrow, he's brilliant. Off the property. He thinks literally everything is his business.
Everything he should be involved in should be done ATM speed, and that I am not really that important to any of the things that he has on his list of [00:46:00] priorities. So he's been off the property, so he has goals. He has goals. I'm not sure that he can name this. He's hall of Famer over here, guys.
I don't know if you know me, but you don't win that much money and race that long without having an ego, having some go get 'em, right? Yeah. That's not ever gonna be his problem. Slowing down his brain and his feet are the challenges for him. So he's been off property twice.
The first time we learned what not to do. The second time was much better. He just he has to move his feet all the time right now when he's off property. If his feet stop moving, his hamsters fall off the wheels and he goes straight up in the air and does a little interpretive dance that nobody really likes.
Oh boy. So he's having to learn that he can stop and take a breath in between the moving of the feet. So that's where he's at right now with off property. I have not gotten on him off property yet because he's not there yet. Yeah, he's gotta be present. He's not [00:47:00] quite present. Gotcha. So he'll go again tomorrow.
Luckily this is Ocala. I can drive five minutes down the road and be somewhere. Yep. So he'll go tomorrow. And we'll just do the same thing again. We did a lot of groundwork when he first got here and he tries really hard, he's not being naughty. Yeah.
This is not coming from a naughty place. It's coming from, he goes a thousand miles an hour and I just need him to not Yeah. Go without miles an hour. Yeah. So that's his most cha at home. This horse is brilliant. He's just gotta figure out how to go off property and keep it together. And it's really hard because, obviously, especially with the ones that have raced a lot, but I found even with Oscar, the first couple times I took him anywhere and opened up the trailer and saw that he was just lathered in sweat.
I was like, yes. Oh. Yes. And I was like, oh, he thinks we're doing something. 'cause he always shipped to race. And it's breaking that cycle of thought is tricky to be like no, we're here just to. [00:48:00] And I'm like, put your head down. Why is your head so high? That's where he is at. Like he comes off the trailer lathered and he's head straight up in the air on a periscope and he is looking for the racetrack and I have to try to funnel that into something positive and calm.
Yeah. And that's just gonna take mileage. It's, yeah. And to be honest, he got a little bit backburnered during peak horse show season because I do have a horse that I was trying to move up to preliminary and Ocala between February and April is literal insanity. So I couldn't get him a lot of places very often just because I literally ran out of time.
Everything's calming down now, so he will start going places more. He's been in a consistent schedule at home, but getting him off property has been more difficult. Yeah. So that's his next big thing is I just have to start taking him. A lot until he can figure out that it's different there too.
Yeah. And you, sorry buddy, you're retired. Yeah. And you also strike me as the kind of rider that [00:49:00] might feel a bit more comfortable if you could actually climb on him and just say look, we're all right. 'cause I know you can tolerate a lot of silliness under saddle.
Yes. I think it, the thing with him is he's really okay until he bubbles over. Yeah. And then he explodes. You kinda lose him. Yeah. And like I said, it's not malicious, it's not bad, but when he explodes, he just literally can't anymore. Yeah. And he just has, he has to move his body in a very kind of explosively violent way.
So I'm not super keen to get on him until he can control that. Or we can find a way to funnel it positively because, yeah. I do have to consider the fact that I have another horse I'm trying to compete very seriously and if I get hurt on this one for something stupid and avoidable, that was a bad decision on my part, I'm gonna be really mad at myself just because you rushed or we're just like, I'm just gonna do it.
Yeah, for sure. Yeah. And I don't, and I feel like if I did come off of him or something in that environment now, I would just have a way bigger problem. A massive setback for sure. Massive. Yeah, as much as I love to just get straight [00:50:00] on one and figure it out, 'cause nothing really bothers me.
It doesn't, it's fine. I just don't, when your spidey senses is like that's just let's just not like that's probably not in our best interest and it's not gonna end well. We need to wait until he can learn to regulate some of this a little bit. He's yeah, for sure.
Yeah. I need to see a little bit more. Like the hamsters, they can go fast, but they need to stay on the wheel so not just go. Yes. You've got a lot of readers and followers who are fellow adult amateurs, and we have a lot of listeners who are adult amies. And what advice would you give to someone that's thinking about taking on their very first off track thoroughbred?
I feel like you should have some thoroughbred experience before you just go buy one. Like if you, great advice, if you can ride some, preferably, maybe start on ones that have been off the track for a while and then work your way to more [00:51:00] recent or, put yourself in a position with someone that does know thoroughbreds really well, whether that's a trainer or a friend, or there's a lot of people out there willing to help if you have a thoroughbred, if you have a reseller nearby and you're like, I would love to learn more about this, I guarantee you they're gonna help you.
Yeah. I wouldn't just be like, I've always ridden. Born bloods or I've always ridden quarter horses. What could be different? Eh, they're great horses, but you have to understand how their brains work. Yeah. And put yourself in a good position. And if you're gonna go buy one, work with someone that you feel has a really good reputation and is honest because these people know the horses on the track and they can tell you which ones would be good for a first timer and which ones might not be.
'cause they're all very different. The one I had last year, literally a grandma's fricking monkey could have gotten on that thing and trotted it around the field like day two. I literally sold him to [00:52:00] an adult amateur for her first horse, like an older lady. I would not have done that with 99% of them.
He seemed incredibly straightforward and like a really good, he was. He had no thoughts, only vibes. I don't know how he won a stakes race, but he did. He was just dead ass quiet, perfect horse for her. Lovely. I wouldn't have known that buying him straight off the track. They were like, oh yeah, he's quiet.
No, they were serious. He's really quiet. I would look for trusted people before you buy and really take into consideration what they say and be very brutally honest with yourself for what you're able to deal with and what you aren't. Because if you're the kind of person that has three evenings a week to dedicate to this, you need a very different type of horse than the amateur that has six days a week, multiple hours a day to deal with this.
And depending on your background, how much experience you have with a thoroughbred don't yet. Don't set yourself up. Failure with any [00:53:00] horse. Yeah. But especially not one off the track. That's not fair to anybody. Yeah. I think that's great advice. Yeah, definitely. What about first time makeover trainers?
Anything that you've learned that you wish you knew on day one? Read the rule book. Yeah. I live in perpetual fear eventing and literally every, my biggest fear is going to jail if that tells you anything. So I always feel like I'm in trouble, so I, yeah. I'm like very careful. Yeah. I loathe rules, I loathe authority, but I have a deep respect for not attracting their attention.
Yeah. So I always feel very, like I have to know the rules. I have to know what's going on. Yeah. And if I don't know the rule, I kind of panic. Yeah. That's good advice. 'cause they also changed a lot of rules this year and they do that. People didn't look at them until after they sent in their applications and they were like, Hey, just friendly reminder.
I have all of the dates outlined. I read through, I literally [00:54:00] read the rule book. Yeah. I am probably the only idiot that I as well sat down. Yeah. I was like, I almost, honestly, this is how dorky I am. I was like, I wanna print this out. I had to pave through it. I don't wanna look that out.
This is do. Yeah. Beautiful. Yeah, I know. I luckily come from a competitive background, so the horse show aspect of it, very familiar to me. If you don't come from a horse show background I could see it being more daunting. But for me it's just for me to be comfortable, I have to know the rules.
Yeah. So I've attended every webinar thing and it just makes me feel better. Yeah. And then I feel like I'm not constantly wondering if I'm doing the right thing. Yeah, but I've also watched a lot in the past, like I've always kept up with makeover stuff throughout the years, so it's not as new concept.
And there's so many resources as, as well, in their site and just if you just Google, look on YouTube or whatever for different videos of the different disciplines and what to expect and things like that. Yeah. I think you can know as much as you want to know. Yeah. [00:55:00] Yeah. That's great. So I have a crazy question.
How do you make sure that this stays fun even when the progress isn't linear or life gets busy? I'm an idiot. I can make anything fun. This is what I was talking about. What I have learned from blogging is like I. Used to have a really hard time. Like I am very, I'm my own worst critic.
I'm very nitpicky. I'm not a perfectionist except when it comes to horses. And my expectations for myself are ridiculously high. Unrealistically high. And I struggled for a very long time and I got so much anxiety from it that I actually found myself showing up at a horse show. And I was like, I hate this.
This isn't fun. Yeah. I don't know where I've lost this along the way, but like I've completely lost sight of the point. I'm upset about dumb shit. I'm not enjoying my horse the way I should be. And I [00:56:00] just had this real epiphany moment where I was like, I just realized it wasn't fun. And I was like, I have to change this.
Yeah. And I know it's coming from my brain, like I'm the one doing this to me. So I need to figure out how to change this because this is a me problem. Yeah. It's a brain problem. And it took me a long time, it really did because you're having to reprogram your brain computer. Yeah. And I still have to consciously sometimes go, I'm being a bitch to myself.
I need to step back and take a bigger picture. Look at this. Yeah. I literally, all the time I have to do that to myself after horse shows that don't go well. I'm upset because I did something stupid. Obviously everybody's gonna do something stupid. And I carry it for days and I'm just like, why am I doing this to myself?
This has to be fun. I'm not a professional. I would love I take it very seriously. I'm very committed to this. I [00:57:00] work very hard, but everybody's gonna make mistakes. I have to be able to. Have the mental fortitude to say, that's a mistake. It's not who I am. Yeah. And that's gonna be part of the journey.
And if I can't find joy in the process, and if I can't remember that this is supposed to be fun, I shouldn't be on a horse because I'm not bringing my best self to that horse and I'm not gonna make the best decisions for that horse. If I'm constantly thinking that I have to do this thing or I have to achieve this thing.
Yeah. And it's honestly since I moved to Ocala, it took some of the pressure away a little bit. Like I could go to more horse shows. Yeah. And right. People don't know me as much here. It gave me a chance to go you've been working on your brain, let's put it into action.
Yeah. And be a freaking adult. And I. Have a little bit more perseverance. I just have to be mentally tougher because I thought I was so mentally tough because I was tough on myself. But that's not, it's not [00:58:00] the same thing what mental toughness is. Yeah. Mental toughness is resilience.
Yeah. And being able to step back and say, this is a process. I have to understand that I'm gonna find the good and I'm gonna go with that. Yeah. And having that actual moment of self-reflection, introspection, that ability to be able to actually slow yourself down enough to say you can be physically strong enough to do the job and compete and everything, but mental fortitude is not just about calming your nerves.
It's about like you say, learning how to live in the moment and enjoy the moment and not just be getting through moment to an an end goal or for a competition result, or whatever the case might be. Yeah. I just constantly have to be like, what a privilege it is to go to a horse show and have a bad day.
Yeah. Yeah. I think there's a saying that pressure is privilege. And I think that's a thing that I think resonates with everybody and can apply to every rider in terms of wanting to be a little bit better than you were the day before. [00:59:00] Yeah. And competition is important to me, and being better is important to me, but nothing is more important to me than the horses.
Yeah. And if I can't, at the end of the day go that wasn't a great day, but this is still a great horse. And we're learning, we're gonna try again tomorrow and we're gonna put this behind us. If I can't do that, that's a problem. That's, yeah. That's something. And it's a choice.
Yeah. It's not, it's, I would love to tell you, that's just my brain. It's not, no. You have to make it, it has to be part of like a little mantra that you're doing with yourself all the time to remember to take that time. It does not come naturally to me. Yeah. I'm very hard on myself and I relive, I could have 25 good jumps, and the 26th bad one is the one that lives in my brain and I have to consciously go, I'm gonna push that out.
Yeah. I have to file that away. And remember what those 25 felt like. The good news is you have a lot of really annoyingly good jump photos to look at. Last horse show I had about 27 [01:00:00] bad jumps and three Good. So that makes me feel any bad. And that was the end of the day where I was just standing there and I was like the good news is the me of two years ago would've been freaking ecstatic that I just ran around a prelim on my home, breaded.
And a couple things went sideways, but we're in one piece. He's happy. We have all the systems in place that we need to fix What went wrong today? The horse is happy and healthy. I learned something. Yeah. It's not actually a bad day. Yeah. It's hard. It's, that for me is, that's the hardest part. It doesn't come naturally to me, but making the choice and like acknowledging when your brain's going down a bad path is, for me, it's been key because I wouldn't be able to do this if it wasn't fun.
This is hard. Like it's hard. It's physically hard, it's mentally hard, it's financially hard, it's emotionally hard. It's long days. It's sweating, it's [01:01:00] blood, it's tears, it's frustration. If you can't, this isn't sound very fun. I know, Amanda, it's hard fighting. I've got I work on a breeding farm too, so like I've got fingers broken by baby horses and just, there's something wrong with me every day.
And I'm still happy about it. Yeah. Like baby horse broke my finger. I was playing with a baby horse. How bad could it be? Exactly. It's very easy, I think to lose track of the reason we started. Yeah. In all of the hard a hundred percent. But you have to find a way to recenter your brain and remember I do this 'cause I love it and I love the horses and that's what's most important.
I think that's one of the things we find the most fun about doing this is like learning everybody's origin story and figuring out , what is this common thread that keeps us all together? And really it's just these four-legged creatures that it's the one thing we all have in common and we just can't seem to stay away from.
And I don't know, I [01:02:00] just love it. But I was sitting on Henry this morning, on this beautiful Tuesday morning at nine 30 sitting on this horse that I bought for $900 off of Facebook that took me to preliminary and now he's 18.
He's just standing in a field being happy. And I was like, this is why we do it. This is like my 8-year-old self. That's what I always like to think about. What would my like childhood version of myself say. I rode, gem on the beach last week and I was just like, and I've ridden other horses on the beach, but there was something really special about doing it with him and just being like, this is gonna just be one of the top best moments of my life.
It's just so special to me, even the bad moments, aren't that bad. Yes, exactly. Amanda, this has been super fun. Obviously I think the three of us could talk for hours. And we're thrilled to follow along with your journey this year. Where can people find you online and keep up with your makeover journey?
So my blog is breed ride event.com. My Instagram is breed ride event, [01:03:00] all one word. You'll see a lot in my stories. I post a lot in my stories, not as much on my page. Perfect. And then Ruby Blue has his own Facebook page, so just Ruby, one word Blue, B-E-B-L-E-U, ruby, blue. And I post some stuff there too, so you can follow him, any of those places.
He's a character, he's entertaining, so Awesome. He'll be funny to follow. And do you have any non-profit or cause that you'd like to highlight while you're here? I love old friends. I don't know if you guys saw that. TikTok with silver charm and the man, the, oh my God, it was so cute. I'm gonna have to send it to you.
They were frolicking through the field together. Oh my God. And I was like, yes, all of my available money here, like weed, a frolic in the field. You love it. Any thoroughbred charity is, obviously 5 0 1 c, check it out. But any thoroughbred charity is. Great for me. There's a lot of people doing a lot [01:04:00] of good things for thoroughbreds and any way we can support them is fantastic.
Awesome. Thank you again for joining us and for everybody listening, don't forget, our next spotlight features Chelsea O'Brien, a returning RRP trainer and ambassador for Pastured Place. 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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