S2 E29: A Tale of Two OTTBs: Chelsey O’Brien on Confidence, Giving Back & RRP Dreams

S2 E29: RRP Trainer Chronicles: Chelsey O’Brien on Giving Back, Growing Confidence & RRP Goals (Transcript)
[00:00:00] Hi everyone, and welcome back to OTTB on tap. I'm Niamh. And I'm Emily.
Hey, Niamh, what's on tap today? Today we're catching up with returning RRP trainer Chelsey O'Brien. Chelsey is based in Virginia and she's back at the makeover this year with two horses, one of her own and one representing the nonprofit pastured place where she's an ambassador. Chelsey, welcome back to OTTB on tap.
Thanks for having me. I'm so excited. Let's start by checking in. What does life look like these days? How are things going in and out of the barn? So it is just horses. Horses and more horses. Like 14 to 17 hours a day right now. Oh boy. I am in the. Tail end. There's a light at the end of the tunnel, a folding season.
So Oh, I forgot you've had what, almost 30 so far? We've had 30, , I've probably fold like [00:01:00] 26. There's a few that were born during the day. So I go at night and help she's very high tech and has remote watchers and cameras, we have full alerts.
We have. Milk testing and all of the things. So we have it down to a pretty good science. But there's been a few times where, a couple of them had, have exhausted us, but yeah, so eight more to go and we would do mostly Wow. Mostly racehorse babies. But we've had a few warm bloods and a couple of ponies, which that's my first time that she like ever doing ponies and Oh, that's fun.
What people say is true, they're wild babies. But we've had some really cool babies racehorse babies, so I'm excited to see how, they grow. But yeah, one of your cats babies just did really well. Didn't, yes, he. Yeah. So I did not fold him. The farm that I used to work for he was a Maryland bred.
He was a yearling when we came. And I folded and then on my off season of [00:02:00] falling I did the yearling prep and he was a dude. Okay. His name's mind frame. And he ran twice, then ran in the Belmont and was second in the Belmont and then was, that's crazy.
Second in the Haskell. And then he had a wow. Some sort of bruise in his foot. And then so he had quite a bit of time off and then he came back to run and I think it was a G three, the Gulfstream Mile. And he came back and won that. And that was a month and a half ago.
And then he ran on Derby Day in the Churchill Down Stakes which is a G $1 million race. And so he won that. Wow. And it was like a crazy race. There was like four. Wow. It was a four horse photo finish. Wow. That's so exciting for you though. Yeah. No, it's cool. Again, I have a very small role in his life, you know what I mean?
I groomed him and braided his mane over and pulled his mane and taught him how to bathe Yeah. And stuff. Hey, they gotta start somewhere, but it's still cool, right? Yeah. That's cool. [00:03:00] That's a once in a lifetime thing to, say you got to be a very small hand in, so that was cool.
But yeah, so right now I am like, full throttle horses at my farm all day long, and then babies at night, and I think we have eight left to go. Wow. I'm exhausted just listening to that. I know this is fueled by heavy amounts of caffeine. That's you by Celsius. For those that are just getting to know you, can you give us a little background and how did your OTTB journey begin?
So I started riding, when I was five, I went to A-Y-M-C-A camp and it was all downhill from there. Begged for lessons and, started riding. But I would say I probably started riding thorough rugs. I grew up a little bit south of Boston, Massachusetts and my trainer growing up would take some off the track.
And, we'd get on and ride and get them going and then she'd sell them. [00:04:00] So my starting thoroughbreds probably started when I was like somewhere between. 13 and 14, and I just loved them. I loved their brains. There was one that really sticks out to me who was amazing he was like 17 two or 17 three or something, and he was only four.
Wow. And he just, he was so smart and he could just jump and it was just fun. My horses growing up were all so tough that none were thoroughbreds, they were all just hardheaded. I had balers, I had just spooky spooky paint who just would spin me off. I have a great seat, but a lot of trauma.
And so I'm a doomsday thinker because of, those ones, the thoroughbreds on the other hand, love 'em to death. So then I moved to a farm like in 2000 and. Eight, the market crashed and I still wanted to keep my horses, so I moved to a self-care [00:05:00] farm. So I started taking care of my horses before and after school and I ended up helping with a lot of the farm was a combination between western pleasure horses and racehorse rehab and layup.
Interesting. So that's how I got into western riding and thoroughbreds ing. So I started helping with the rehabs and the layups and things, and I didn't know until I went to the racehorse. Side of things, how much I didn't know. I was the kid who could ride anything. I would ride 15 horses a day on the weekends, put me on anything.
I'm yeehaw around oh, your horse bucked you off 10 times. Let me get on, you know that kid. And then I moved to that farm and I realized how much like care things I did not know, even though I'd been riding for 10 or 12 years when I moved there. Yeah. Learned how to bandage properly and how to treat wounds and how to do [00:06:00] all that stuff.
And probably before that, the best I could do was soak an abscess foot, and so it was really cool to get that experience and learn how to bandage properly. And I think that anybody who, wants to have a good career in horses go learn from a race tracker. Yeah.
If you wanna learn how to take care of your horse's legs and learn about proper conditioning and things like that. You can learn so much from racehorse people. So anyways, I helped her restart a few and sell a few, and then I ended up buying one right before I went to college.
And then it was all downhill from there. And now I have I dunno how many I have of my own. Don't count them's, what I commend is not count them. I have eight thorough breads of my own.
Oops. They are like potato chips, right? Yeah. And it sounds like you might have your eye on another one.
Pastured [00:07:00] place has become a big part of your story. Can you tell us just a little bit about the organization and your role as an ambassador for them? I know we talked about this before in another episode, but for the people who haven't heard before, Pasture Place is a not-for-profit they have two farms.
One is a retirement farm and then the other farm is in Pennsylvania where they do a lot of the retraining. And it's a relatively newer since the end of 2022, and their dedicated to the the aftercare of thoroughbreds and they've helped rescue some from some really bad situations.
And I think they have a lot of retired horses. I wanna say somewhere around a hundred retired horses. Wow. And then they're also, putting a lot of time and training and effort into a lot of horses. They have two really great riders who ride for them at home in Oxford, Pennsylvania, who are [00:08:00] very talented event riders.
Even the ones who aren't going to stay RRP, which I believe they're both bringing horses to RRP this year. They're getting a lot of horses out and exposure and things like that. And I started with Pasture Place at the beginning just by, just by happenstance with the whole OTTV market post from one of the board members from pasture Place Megan, I think this had to have been . December of 2022 and she posted something like, who would want to bring a fully sponsored horse to the RFP this year? And I was like, I would love to. And the only stipulations were that you had to be within three hours of Oxford, Pennsylvania.
And I am. So I was like, okay, this is great. I put my application in, and told them that I was interested in doing mostly western riding and barrel racing. And there was a lot of different people who applied, but the majority was [00:09:00] inventors and they wanted to, try different things for different horses and not put just a bunch of event horses in the same division. So yeah. Sent me a horse and they sponsored two other riders that year. And they have just been so instrumental in so many things for me. They've given me so much, what's the word I'm looking for? Like a boost? Yeah. Like a boost.
But I feel like they've given me a lot of confidence. The opportunity that they're giving me is something that I never would've imagined I would be able to do for myself.
And it was a bucket list item for me. And they took a chance on somebody like me who doesn't have a long show career or a big show record or anything like that. But they took a chance on me and I took it very seriously. And I just feel so blessed to have had that opportunity. 'cause it's opened so many doors for me.
[00:10:00] Meeting people like you guys and showing people the versatility of the thoroughbred and giving horse. I'm very passionate about the underdog. And yeah, proving people wrong as far as, all of these unicorn in search of ads and things like that, I'm like, gimme your beat up.
Bang up. Not that passion places is sending me horses like that, but like those kind of things are near and dear to my heart. And horses like you. Yeah. Not that there's anything wrong with you, but he is a perfect angel sent from heaven. But we know, there's some things like the cribbing and things like that and tieback surgery that, , everyone thinks they need that perfect horse, right? That they can't have any dings or any imperfections or. Absolutely not. They can never have gotten a hot nail from a shoe, from being shot because maybe that was their fault and it's gonna happen again. Exactly. Things that it's been pin fired.
Oh gosh. Oh no. Yeah. And, I just, I love [00:11:00] that they're willing to give us the opportunity to work with these horses to, so that we can prove people wrong, yeah, because that's awesome. That's a huge thing, in any discipline, horses are going to get hurt, and it's not always because of bad care. It's not always because, just things happen. They get running around in the paddock and then something crazy happens, and absolutely. So giving horses like it's like that sea biscuit quote what do you just throw a whole life away?
Because they're not, it's a little banged up, a little banged up, I just feel they're living that and I wanna be a part of that and I'm so proud to represent them and I just , I wanna do the best job and do the best that I can by them. But really in reality, what I'm doing right now, I couldn't be doing without them.
For sure. Very nice. Let's talk about the two horses that you're bringing to the 2025 [00:12:00] makeover. Can you introduce them both and then tell us how they each came into your program. So we have 5-year-old peppy who's racing name is the Pepcid Show. And. He's the horse from Pasture Place.
He's by VE Day who's an English channel and Oh yes. And I think I told Emily, I know how Chelsey feels about English channel, which might be contrary too. I was telling somebody, I don't wanna say it out loud because he's changing my mind about it, but I had a chip on my shoulder about English channels, but that's because the breeding farm I worked at, one of the stallions was by English channel and he tried to scalp somebody and then oh my God.
And then one of those babies kicked me in the eye and, oh God. Fair enough. You've got a long storied history with English channels then normally when you hear it in the breeding, you're always like, oh, that's gonna be a nice horse. And then me, I'm like, [00:13:00] is it gotta be nice?
Anyway I think I messaged you. I was like, wait a second. I thought you said, I thought you said you didn't like,
so somebody that always one, right? Somebody told me , Chelsey, you can't tell the universe you don't want something. You have to tell the universe like what you want. But you said, I don't want this. And then it brought it to you. You manifested that. And I was like, yeah, you right.
Anyways, it sounds like it's a good outcome. No, it's fabulous. He's changed , my thoughts completely. He lives up to everything that everybody says about the English channels. Like he's super athletic. He jumps amazing. Not that we're doing a lot of that yet.
He's a big, good looking horse. He's he's just very cool and he is very funny. You can see the whites of his eyes. So he has almost this people like, quality to him. So I love that when horses have that. No I like that too, when they have that little bit of white and it gives them [00:14:00] personality.
Like you can Yes. Personally see what they're thinking. He's an eye roller. So it's after my own art. So the first time he, I wrote him English the first time that I wrote him, and the first time I wrote him was here at home. And then the next time I was like, lemme just put a western saddle on him and see what he thinks.
And he's standing in the cross ties and he is looking at me sideways and his ears are cocked back, not like. Pinned back to his head, but he is just looking I'll have to send you the video. 'cause it's funny, he's just rolling his eyes like, like a dog that's in trouble or something looking at you silent. Yeah. This lady, he's what are you doing to me? So yeah, but he's been, very fun, obviously because of his sesamoid and stuff. Obviously he's been cleared for full work and to have a normal career and everything that's great.
But, I think I also said something about not wanting to do an unraised horse. And so here we are with an unraised horse. But I don't care. I'm open to trying anything. And sure. I had some concerns, right? 'cause I'm like, [00:15:00] oh, other horses who have raised have had more exposure.
Is what is this process gonna be like? 'cause it's a lot different than, what I thought I was used to. Yeah. He's just a good boy, he just wants to try. Anything that I throw at him, I hack 'em out pop 'em over, little jumps we're not crazy far along.
We're like walk, trot, cantering working on the flat work, jumping here and there. And we did our first off property today, but. Cool. Yeah. So that's, and then tell us about your other horse. So then there's Fuzzy Wuzzy fuzzy for short and Fuzzy is a 4-year-old off track thoroughbred.
She made four starts. She's by Palace she's out of a Dunkirk Marere. Ooh. And she's she's 15 two and she has a huge hind end on her and her [00:16:00] chest is just about double of any thorough bread I've ever seen in my life. A lot of people mistake her for a gelding because she is so sick. Interesting. And yeah, she's most quarterhorse people that I've shown her to.
She looks more quarter horsey than our quarter horses. But she's really cool. I'm having a lot of fun with her. Obviously we plan to do barrel racing and possibly add in the ranch work there. But she's just really smart and good brained. And again, not super far along.
I'm big on the foundations. And then come summertime, then everybody will start rolling. We're slowly dipping our feet into going off property. Peppy did our first off property excursion today to a local farm to do a lesson. And then Peppy has gone to the barrel races. And I've poi her off of Yui.
'Cause Yui iss the best [00:17:00] horse on the face of the planet. And she's really good. For a four year I don't know, I don't like to say that actually. I don't wanna say four, four year olds. She's a good girl. No, she's just a good girl. She has great brain and she's and from what you've told us about going to the barrel races that like yeah, that's a big ask for a horse to come and just understand that.
This is gonna be a quiet time and she just you just don't know what it's gonna be like when you take them. 'cause you don't know, they could be so different because Yeah. If you take 'em to a regular horse show, for the most part nobody's galloping full speed.
In your, in hope. Yeah. Your area. And there's not like yelling, there's not there's just a little more con Yeah. It's not chaotic. Barrel races are crazy. Yeah. And the big thing with her was just that, I took you yui down to the arena to run him and so she stayed up at the at the trailer in Armenia was he was just hanging out with her and stuff, and he said she got a little wormy, but then all of a sudden he just was brushing her and he braided her [00:18:00] mane and, all of that. And she was just happy. She's a people pony. She loves z they're like the best friends on the face of the planet and Oh yeah, she's just a good egg.
Yeah. So you've already dipped into this a little bit, but in terms of personality and training needs, do you find them to be drastically different or is it a challenge juggling the two of them or do you feel like you've figured out a little bit of a program with both of them at this stage?
They're different in the sense that pepe's, the quintessential hunter, he just lopes around, float the rain at him and lo around. And he is really, he is really good and he is really smart and and he tries really hard. And the opposite is 'cause he's a bigger horse to put together.
I wouldn't call him like a big giant horse to put together, but he is a good sized horse and he likes to get long and he can get a little frontend and heavy. So we're working on transitions and things like that. And then fuzzy on the other hand is really naturally well balanced and super [00:19:00] athletic in a different way.
I've never had a horse come off the track and work over the back. Immediately wow. She's just like a bulldog. That's naturally how she carries herself is she just like these big free flowing shoulders and maybe you should do western dress massage with her. Yeah. I know.
Sounds would be a good fit. Yeah. She's an adorable mover and it's just gonna make everything that much easier because she's already understands how to use her body in that way. Yeah. Yeah. The other day, just for funsies I haven't fully started her on the pattern yet, but I was just messing around doing back and forth fi between two barrels and just teaching her where to position herself.
'cause you don't wanna teach them to come in and turn it tight when you're doing slow work because as soon as you add speed, they're naturally gonna wanna get closer to the barrel and turn tighter. And so you wanna teach 'em like go in wide and come out tight. And you wanna make little [00:20:00] teardrop shapes,
so she was doing it really well at the trot. So I was like, what would happen if I just tried to look, and I'm not kidding. I think she's the most naturally athletic course I've ever started. That's awesome. Barrels. That's really cool. So it's really cool. I'm really excited. But yeah, they're just total opposite horses.
He's Hunter King, she's gonna be the barrel queen. Yeah. Nice. Sure. So we're about are we six months out, five months out from the makeover? It's it's mid-October, so may cue the horror music. I know, honestly, I'm gonna put some horror. It was 200 days. By the time this post, it will be less than that, but maybe we're five months.
I don't know. I don't think any of us could do math. Okay. Barf. How are you feeling about the timeline this year? I'm feeling good, honestly, for the most part, they're both really good minded [00:21:00] horses. We're just trying to do the foundation stuff as best we can.
And then my goal is obviously over the next, two months is we're gonna really start, ramping up the hauling and going to different venues and trying different things. And I don't ever really set a I'm not strict on anything. We need to complete this by this and we need to complete this by this, and this is the goal that we have to I'm just taking it ride by ride.
So yeah, I'm a procrastinator by nature, I think I might have said it before, but as soon as August and September comes, you're gonna be talking to a different Chelsey. Be Chelsey a fire. Chelsey's stressed out. Okay. Now I gotta get this done. And now here I'm like, oh yeah, we're just gonna take it ride by ride anyways.
Yeah. Oh I feel I can [00:22:00] relate to that where I'm like, I do so well under pressure and I don't know, I just hate that about myself in a way, but it's like something I know I can count on a little bit. That little fire underneath of you. Yeah. I don't know, something also changes in me because I don't know why, but I have there's also a co competitive side of me that I try to not let come out.
Until the end, because that doesn't help anybody. It doesn't help the horses. Sure. It doesn't just wait until she's on that competitive trail. Neve, I know she's a, she's dueling out. Oh boy. Stay off the competitive trail. Chelsey. I don't know about competitive trail. The hard thing about doing some speed events for the longest time is I don't know sometimes that I have the patience.
So learning things like ranch work or doing competitive trail or something is also teaching me a lot of patience because before I didn't [00:23:00] realize how much my energy could affect horses and I don't know if it's just getting older. And more maturity or if it's having a child or whatever.
But I just realized now how much my energy, and intention can influence the horses. And I think that's a big thing. So competitive trail seems like something that I can get easily frustrated with. So let's try it. No, just, it's interesting though because I know talking to you obviously take the time and the slow time to put that foundation on them, but I guess you switch into high gear as you get closer to the date and then slow.
Yeah. Or I just try to like slow, I try to tell myself don't think about it. Don't think about it. Don't think about it. And then when I got to Kentucky last year, he was just a lot different on warmup day than I was expecting and then as you get closer to every day you have results because barrels you compete in the morning and then at night and then the next [00:24:00] night. You have to talk yourself into being a rational human being and not getting too ahead of yourself and not pushing your horse too much to a point where they're gonna fry out there.
But then also the competitive side of you is I should just do it. It'll be interesting to watch you. If so, you've got one in the hunters. As one in barrels. There can't be two more different disciplines there, truly.
And peppy better be ready for some really fast hunter rounds. I think you guys like, fastest time they're gonna be like this isn't timed. I know. It's gonna be going back to like when I was a kid and we're singing row, row your boat because you're like, stop leaving out strides.
Yes. Three. That was a six, not a three. Oh my God. Thankfully he's he's the one who's no, I think I'm just gonna loop belong. Yeah. Yeah. How does it feel going into this year as a returning RRP trainer, do you have any lessons from the past [00:25:00] years that are shaping your approach now? I think you've touched on this a little bit.
Yeah, I think I'm just stay the course. I just, I've been. Slow to, partially because of my crazy schedule, but I've been slow to start taking them many places. Just because I wanna get that real solid foundation and good communication at home so that I can be like, okay, here's, this is what we work on at home and see it's not that different somewhere else.
And I think developing a really strong, communication line with them is really important. And I think that thorough bridges are so intuitive and sensitive, and I don't mean that in a sensitive, like light 'em up and they're gonna run around and, be crazy.
But sensitive in the way that I think that they're very in tune to. [00:26:00] Us and what what we're thinking and things like that. I try to obviously in daily life and things, there's gonna be chaos. I'm super chaotic, so I think I try to listen to a lot of motivational stuff and I think sometimes when you look within and you ha or having an issue, sometimes I think is this me or is this them?
And then I try to take the deep breath, calm myself, and it's almost meditative, yeah, okay. Am I taking stuff from outside in? And then I try to just connect and be in the moment when I'm riding. And I think that makes the biggest difference, in training and stuff, because, when I was a teenager I was just like go.
And I'm just looking to make really well-rounded horses. And, give them the opportunity to try different things and put them in a lot of situations that are, different and, give them all different [00:27:00] types of experiences. But, at the end of the day, I just try to provide really good management to them.
As far as nutrition and body work and healthcare and being on top of all of those things, like throughout and not letting them get too far I try to be very in tune with what their needs are. I've done the animal communication with Peppy, I still gotta do fuzzy, but I just like to stay in tune.
Yeah. And it's very easy, to get distracted now and, there's so much going on and, this needs attention here and this and that and everything. But like I said, trying to stay on top of the management, trying to stay on top of all of our mental states. Yeah. And those are the big things.
Exposure, Foundation, and breathing. I think what you're talking about is really interesting and I just noticed something today when I was working with [00:28:00] Oscar. He's obviously in a new environment and so every conversation is a test of the relationship so far because it's like every place I take him on the farm is brand new for him, and he was a little frazzled by some stuff today and I noticed where I was like, if I got upset about something that was going on, I realized very quickly he was getting.
Upset because he didn't know what to do. And so I think there are horses like him that then decide they're gonna take over and start making decisions. It's not mean-spirited, it's not naughty. It's him sensing that I'm feeling a little frazzled. And then he's I'll just make a decision then.
And then you realize he's counting on me to tell him what to do and where to be. And so it was really interesting for me to see that in real time where when left to his own devices, when I started unraveling a little bit, even if it was just because I needed five minutes to think about something.
He was like, then I'll make a decision. And I was like, oh no, that's a bad idea. [00:29:00] So I think it's interesting how they really are tuned into you dying to learn more about this. You can see it in action at the farm someday.
We were gonna talk about a little bit of your training philosophy and any tips you have because you've had not specifically your RP horses, but you've had so many OTBs come through your hands. Is there anything in specific, or I think you did just talk about this with your RP horses, but anything you've learned about setting them up for long-term success?
I'm huge on the groundwork. I, 'cause I believe it's the first line of communication, I try to. Establish a good form of communication with them because I just feel like if they don't care about me and then I just go and sit on their back I don't know, I guess maybe it's 'cause I'm old now and I have had, a lot of trauma or whatever, and I wanna know [00:30:00] that like they're with me.
You know what I mean? I wanna know that. Yeah. Just a little ruffle of something is not going to ruin their whole day and just off us both. So Yeah. I like to start off with Yeah. Groundwork. Even if it's just just walking them. I find a lot of, not all, but a lot of horses that come off the track can be pushy and I want them to Sure.
Walk with me. I don't wanna lead you. I don't wanna drag the horses around and I don't want them to drag me. So I expect that we have a partnership when I stop, you stop. If I walk like a little granny walk in, like tiny little steps. Yes. Then you're gonna walk tiny little steps.
And those are the things that I start with at first. And they're very, trusting animals. And so my big things are creating a calm, quiet environment for the most part, except for, my daughter should be on the payroll as far as like desensitizing the horses.
So it's this great combination of, not only are we creating a calm environment, but there's also chaos going on. But [00:31:00] teaching them that yeah, you don't have to react to the child who's on the tricycle and going Mach 40 in the car aisle screaming while she's coming down a hill.
You just don't know what you're gonna encounter. When you go places like RFP yeah. Or barrel races, kids ride around on those little hoverboards or whatever, they are now. Oh yeah. And that's terrifying. Yeah. Z is, should be on the payroll, like I said.
I think the big things that I'm trying to work on when I first get them is number one, getting the diet right so that it's supporting the gut and low starch, low sugar, high fiber, lots of forage. Getting them to acclimated to turn out.
Whether that be, did they just come from the track? Do they need a little bit of round pen time? Do we start in a smaller field? Are they ready to just get kicked out? Do they want to live out? Do they not want to live out? And everybody's such a individual. It's hard to say exactly what the recipe is because you have to take it day by day with them.
But, strong boundaries [00:32:00] is a thing. And I'm not saying get after them. I just mean your spaces, your space and my space, and we are together. However, you're not on top of me and you're also not running away from me. And yeah. Then we do the lunging and, when I do my first rides, occasionally I have somebody on the ground or I do them in the round pen, and then we just go from there and, evaluate do we have breaks?
Can we try, is there anxiety here? And if there is anxiety I had one recently who I'm sure she hasn't done the mounting block thing, but I was just like if this is all we're gonna work on for t today, and I'm not even gonna sit on you and you figure out that this is the mounting block and I'm gonna go up and down it and stand next to you.
And it might have taken 30 minutes and then that was it. And then I just end it. 'cause yeah, I also don't drill horses. I feel like horses are really smart and they need time to process things, so if 20 minutes gets the point across, then it's 20 minutes. If it's an hour and [00:33:00] that's all, and it took a while or obviously there's conditioning and exercising and things like that.
But when I'm working on things like neuro pathways and things, they say people learn people and the horses learn best in shorter spurts of training. And so I believe in that. Yeah. And I don't overdo it. I just want to get to the point and call it a day.
And I feel like that gets them going. Faster than saying Okay. And I don't go in with any goals whatsoever other than calm and relaxation and if we can do 1% better than yesterday is all I care about. Yeah. Yeah. Now something we talk about a lot is, and I think it comes with practice and experience with these horses, but it can be very hard, but you can't get greedy.
You've gotta be able to say, let's not push for that again, or push one more time an extra bit. Oh, he did this, so let's do a little bit more, put them [00:34:00] away and bring them out tomorrow and they're gonna be better at it. Yeah. I'm on the page from what's really think, know that from learning the hard way and I've learned everything in life the hard way.
Yes. I do think thoroughbreds have a way of taking new information and letting it marinate, whether that's overnight or over, we've had horses where, you took them out for their first couple of events and then you gave them the winter off, so two months or something, and then you bring them back out in the spring and they were like a trained horse that like understood its new job.
How did that happen? It just baked in over the winter. Yeah. So I think they're great for that. I think they're very mindful and and I do think you can fry their brains by overloading them. Yeah. And I think there's a threshold. Yeah, there's a threshold and you can't pass the threshold.
Yeah. And I don't ever believe in starting fights with horses. I just believe in if it's too much buddy, we're gonna just go somewhere else. Get one good thing out of it. And I'm getting down. [00:35:00] I don't push the envelope. And I think sometimes like you said, you can take it too far. And once they hit that threshold, I think they lose trust with you. For sure. Yeah. Yeah, definitely. One of the reasons we're so excited to have you back is the work that you're doing to make OTBs more accessible. How do you think organizations like Pasture Place are helping to expand the pipeline?
I just think that it's amazing that, they're giving opportunities to. All different types of people like me. And I've been passionate about Thoroughbreds for so long. And I think it's amazing that they're giving people and horses opportunities and then showing people just how amazing and versatile they are, I think we have a junior on our team this year Allie's coming back for a second year, and then the two gals who ride full-time Amy and Kirsten. And I just feel like [00:36:00] there's such a cool array of people going and doing different things like it's, and the fact that they're giving these horses who, again.
Wouldn't be easily adopted out for whatever reasons, whether it's the horses going to RRP or the horses who went down to Aiken. That's just so cool. I think that's so different than what a lot of the other models are. And it's just, broadening the horizons of different horses coming off the track.
And I'm also an ambassador for the Western Thoroughbred which that page has been going on for about 10 years. Around the same time, RRP and things started getting up and going. I think it's just incredible. To show there the difference between 10 years ago.
'cause I've had my one of my OTBs that I've barrel raced and [00:37:00] rodeoed on. Back then, people used to make fun of me at barrel races and things because of the thoroughbred thing. And I caught a lot of flack and I think sometimes it still happens. But like it's becoming more and more common.
I used to be the only person running a thoroughbred or maybe there was one other one, but I think the other day at the barrel race that I went to was a smaller barrel race, but there was like five or six thoroughbreds there. Oh, that's awesome. And that's a huge difference. And so to me that means that the script is flipped and yeah. More people are saying, okay, I'll give a thoroughbred a chance, especially considering the quarter horse industry right now. To get a good barrel prospect that's bred for barrel racing, you're looking at on the cheap side.
Like the low five figures as wow. As babies unbroke.
Wow. And the industry is grown to horses selling for six figures and [00:38:00] things like that. And that's your open rodeo or big, super show winning horses and things. So I just love the fact that some people are willing to give them a shot because,
any industry, whether it be the, English disciplines and things horses who are being specifically bred for those sports are becoming unattainable for the regular person. And off track thoroughbreds are, in a price bracket nowadays they're not free and they're not $500 like back when I, was in college
and so their value has gone up. But, the type of people who are buying them are able, or not that I'm sure plenty of upper level people are interested in thoroughbreds too, but I just mean that they're much more accessible to a wide variety of people as far as their price bracket than going and buying a big, imported warm blood or purposefully bred quarter horse for whatever discipline.
[00:39:00] So I think, pasture place, giving the opportunity to for me to train some western ones or even the hunters. And the Western Thoroughbred showing over the years how many thoroughbreds are actually competitive in different disciplines like barrel racing and sorting and ranch work and all different events.
I just think those two things, those two organizations are so near and dear to my heart because I've seen it grow throughout all these Yeah. The last decade. Yeah, absolutely. Are there ways that you hope that the industry continues to improve for horses, trainers, or adult amateurs?
It's hard to say because the world is just so expensive right now. But I would just love Yeah. Particularly the big thing for me why I got into riding Western events is that I was a broke college kid and I absolutely could not afford [00:40:00] showing hunter jumper shows, between the Yusef memberships and fees.
It's so expensive. Fees on tops of fees. On tops of fees and, all of that. Where now, in 2025, I can go to I went to the barrel race the other day and I ran, for one horse to run in to do two warmups, two runs and a side pot, it was $60. Wow. That's amazing.
And then you can actually win money too. Win money. Did I win any money? No. But you also don't care because you didn't pay that much money to enter. Exactly. Exactly. So then it makes me feel better about providing those experiences, whereas sometimes I just feel I don't to be like, oh, it's so elitist.
But sometimes I feel like the, industry can be that way and it's going that way because of the economy and things like that. So I would love to see, this probably doesn't have anything to do with thorough reds, but I would just love for. Horses to be [00:41:00] accessible and not drive out the little guy.
How do we do it because it's so expensive. To feed the horses and take care of them properly and everything like that. But I don't know how we fix that. I don't know how we're gonna save the world
one horse at a time. Chelsey. I was gonna say one OTB at a time. Chelsey, thank you so much for joining us. Before we go, where can people follow your journey and support the work that you're doing? I'm a big facebooker so you can find me on Facebook. My name is Chelsey O'Brien. You can add me as a friend or follow me on Facebook, and I post a lot of.
Videos and reels and nonsense on there and then cute stuff. Yeah, cute stuff with my kid. And then on Instagram I have at CKOB, because that's like the millennial thing, that's my regular, [00:42:00] so I spelled out my initials and I've had that since forever. So CKOB is my regular account, and then I link all my other, RRP accounts with that.
If you're still interested in my journey with UB from last year, he's at rp, unbeknownst to the number to me. And then, peppy is at rp, the Pepin Show. And then I have a Instagram for fuzzy wuzzy, but all my personal horses always fall on the back burner, so I haven't been very good about, posting on that one.
I actually don't even know that I've posted her at all on her own page. You can just send us links and we'll be sure to post them. Cool. Alright. Yeah, so that's how you get ahold of me. Awesome. And how can people find out more about PE Place and also the Western Thoroughbred and help support them in their missions?
So the website [00:43:00] is pasture place.org and on there you can view the other adoptable horses. They post on their Facebook page, at Pasture Place. They're active on Instagram. There's a lot of activity this year between, RP horses and then, the other adoptable horses who are not, road to Kentucky.
But they have a lot of really nice horses. Really impressive and yeah, they really do. The girls are doing a great job. Yeah. And then as far as the Western Thoroughbred goes, their Instagram handle is at TTB Western. And then, on Facebook, it's just the Western thoroughbred and they're active on both.
On Facebook you'll get a lot of a lot more historical contact because there's a lot of interesting things about the A QHA deleting history or changing, the breeding of horses that were thoroughbreds. Because there's a lot of foundational , [00:44:00] who are huge in the development of the quarter horse and they tried to sweep that under the rug.
Caitlin does a great job of exposing that stuff, and she'd be like, who? You? The Quarterhorse world was so full of drama, so savage. I know. Learning so much. Yeah. And they're the ones who put this mark on the thoroughbred oh, thoroughbreds. I don't want my quarterhorse built like a thoroughbred.
But really the quarterhorses are built like thoroughbreds because they're, if you look at the NFR, the horses that run, barrels at the NFR, some of these horses are 75 to, I think I saw , one was like 82% thoroughbred, the barrel horses. Oh wow. That's how much, that's how it's like the warm bloods, yeah. I know A lot of warm bloods are, have a huge percentage of thoroughbred. You just don't know. Exactly. Awesome. All right. All right. Thank you, Chelsey. If you enjoyed today's episode, we'd love it if you left as a five star review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Facebook. And don't forget, if you leave as a review, we'll send you some OTTB [00:45:00] on top stickers.
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