S2 E33: Stephanie Parkot's Summer of Progress with Sterling Honor | RRP Trainer Chronicles

S2 E33: Stephanie Parkot's Summer of Progress with Sterling Honor | RRP Trainer Chronicles (Transcript)
[00:00:00]
Welcome back to OTTB on tap. I'm Nev. And I'm Emily. Hey, nev. What's on tap today? Before we jump into this week's episode, I just wanted to personally thank all of our listeners for giving us a break while we took a small hiatus. I think Emily and I both needed it and I've never been this busy this time of year.
Like it just seems crazy everything all at once. So we're just glad that we were able to pump the brakes a little bit and we've got some cool stuff coming up. For our listeners, but today we're checking in with another one of our RRP Trainer Chronicles guests. We're excited to welcome back Stephanie Parco, who has been balancing family life, retraining her OTTB, Sterling Honor, and gearing up for the 2025 RRP makeover.
Stephanie joined us earlier this year and shared her philosophy of flexible consistency and not wanting, not waiting for the perfect moment to go after big goals. So today she's back to tell us how things are going and there's been a lot of progress we [00:01:00] think. So welcome back, Stephanie. Hi. Thank you.
Awesome. Did we already recap the Mounted Police Clinic with you? No. Oh my gosh. Okay. I went back through to see what I had done since the last time I talked to you, and that's one of the things I guess we'll put that in there. It shouldn't be, I was gonna say, okay. Yeah, we'll put that in before the Erie County Fair.
Yeah, but why don't you, why don't you guys chat about the clinic that you both did, but not together? Although it sounds like maybe there were some similar experiences, like we did a little debrief with one another. Yeah. So Stephanie did the same mounted police clinic that I did a week after my clinic here in pa.
And you did it also with your son on last year's RRP horse. So why don't you tell us how that went for you guys? Yeah. That was being held about an hour away from here and definitely looked like something worth doing. It looked. Really fun, a whole two day clinic. I went with my son who's 12 and he rode [00:02:00] my horse from last year.
My makeover horse from last year. Best idea. And yeah, we went up there, we stabled overnight. It was a two day clinic. And the first part was the kind of classroom setting like you said. So learning a lot about the, horse's vision and behavior and that was really interesting. Some of the stuff I knew, but he told a lot of stories, which was really interesting.
And my son got a lot out of it as well. So that was the first part. And then we got on and tried, some things. It was a really big group. I think you had the same experience too, that it was a lot of people. Yeah. In a small area and, at all different levels. So you had, green horses, you had people that, you know.
Have been riding a long time. Somebody had a horse who, they were apologizing ahead of time that they didn't know how this horse was gonna be. The horse ended up being great. Just, it was a real mixed bag. Yeah, it was a mixed bag and you just [00:03:00] don't know what you're gonna get sometimes with things like that.
So yeah, we started out with the drill team. And following his commands and everybody walking together. And that went pretty well. I didn't really have any issues with that. And then, we went into one at a time going over I think he put a piece of plywood down first.
Yeah, yeah. And then, yeah. And then, one at a time and honestly the hardest part for my horses was just waiting their turn. Yeah. Because, some horses had more trouble than others. So then you're just standing there waiting in a group of 18 for your turn to go. Yeah. And so that was a little bit challenging to kind of weight.
One thing that I did get out of it that what was his name? Bill. Bill. Yeah. Bill. Yeah. As soon as Sterling went to step on the plywood, he jumped back and Bill says that's a noise issue. Okay. And I thought that was interesting and it really made me think on, you have had some noise problems with him or some like [00:04:00] sensitivity to noises.
Yeah. Yes. Yes. And that was back when did I do that clinic in June. That was starting to put the pieces together. That noise is a big thing for Sterling. That really rattles him. And then there was a big noise component to the clinic as well. With the police sirens and, whatever other noises he could make with his police car and the flashing lights.
And that was really difficult for Sterling and I don't like that either. I don't like fireworks, I don't like the noise. I'm really sensitive, so I could relate to how Sterling felt about it. That was definitely the hardest thing. Like he walked through the fire, he walked through, people were cheering.
Yeah. Look at the thoroughbreds. Go it was so cool. Oh, that's awesome. Because people were the best Yeah. At that. And people were just amazed. And it was so exciting because, I know that people are gonna go home and think, wow, those thoroughbreds were only four and six years old. Yeah. And look at what they were doing and that kid was riding and, I hope that will change some people's [00:05:00] minds.
For sure. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Some of the spookiest horses in my clinic were horses that looked like tried and true trail horses. They looked like they had a lot of miles under saddle, but were, or sometimes they would approach something a little cocky and then like they'd be okay and then they'd come back to it a second time and they'd be like, absolutely not.
I'm out. And I think. One thing I think you can always count on with thoroughbreds is for them to do something one, one time and then come back and wanna do it a little bit better the next time. Like I, I kind of love when they make a little bit of a mistake because when you bring 'em back around, like their thought process of wanting to solve the puzzle, which I think is cool.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, that was definitely really cool to see them work through it. And they definitely got better the first day as we went along. The second day came around, it was really hot that weekend, remember it was really hot. So hot. It was, that little months was just unreal. Yeah. So we ended up quitting a little bit early the first day and then the second day, [00:06:00] I could tell our horses had just had enough by then.
Yeah. Yeah. And a lot of the other horses did as well. And after lunch. I don't even think we went back out after lunch. My son and I are like, you know what? We're good. Like they're good. Yeah. And we just ended up leaving. So sometimes that's, we still got a lot outta it. I think sometimes that's just, the right decision rather than pushing them. Especially when they've had so much like mental doing mental gymnastics of all this, new experiences and then you push them a little bit too hard and sometimes you get that meltdown. Yeah. And what the meltdown was is Sterling can be a little bit buddy sour to bestie.
Okay. He gets anxious and wants to be with him. But he did really great the first day. Like we could ride them separately in the ring and he wouldn't, didn't look for him in the crowd or call to him, but by the second day he did not wanna be away from Oh, that's tough. Yeah. Know his brother, he was definitely just I'm done.
He was just mentally fried at that point's, actually [00:07:00] something that I think is really interesting. I'm curious, because you have your own farm. How many other horses do you have? Is it just the two of them? I know you have other animals, but, so I have an old Pony. Okay. And he's the babysitter, he's old. So yeah, so that's all I have on the farm right now. So that can be, I'm sure it can be a challenge when you wanna take. They're, the two of them are together all the time. It is definitely a challenge, especially for Sterling. He can be on the anxious side. So I really have to make an effort at home to make sure that I take him, out separately that. I don't just always lead them both together in and out of the pasture that he waits in the pasture while I take just all those little things. Yeah. So he's learning, you're gonna be okay. And I always bring the pony in, to stall next to the one that's left.
And they do fine. If I take one off property or one is being ridden Sterling will call a lot. But generally he's okay. Yeah. We [00:08:00] did, I did take him, there was a little in-house schooling show at the stable where my son and I take lessons and we took both of them and they go there every week.
Bestie and Sterling go there every week for lessons at least once. And Sterling had an absolute. Utter meltdown that day. I could not, I couldn't even ride him. I could not even ride him. Oh no. What was he doing? He was just screaming in the stall. He was worked up into a lather. Oh gosh. Then when I brought him out to try to ride him he was just done.
Yeah. His brain fell out. Yeah. He just couldn't do it. So I didn't even, I did one flat class and it was barely, he was barely rival, but I was like, he gave you a lot of credit for just even getting on, yeah. Yeah. We got on, and then we were just done. Yeah. Bestie could care less.
He did, lead line and walk a walk class with my 6-year-old and he's just what is your problem? I guess that's [00:09:00] good that at least it's not the two of them carrying on one another. But and we spoke to Kyle from Mayor Worthy a little bit about this.
When he went to the makeover the first year, the horse that he brought down it was a marere and he just, he's I couldn't get on her. I just, she, I let her around in the, in inside the covered arena and she bucked the whole time. And he is and I have a big smile on my face. 'cause I was like, this is how this is gonna go for us.
And that's okay. And it's that's that's the thing about horses, right? Yeah. You just, you never know. Yeah. Yeah, I know I could bring bestie, they have a lot of, makeover grad things, but I'm like, I can't, because I was gonna ask you if you were gonna bring, it would be so much, he would be so bad.
Yeah. I definitely think about that too with like horses, how when they travel together, when they overnight together, they just become like best dated on one another. That can be challenging. I know you, you talked about this in our last discussion, but you know that sometimes you have to do things when it's uncomfortable, like it's an uncomfortable time or oh, it's cold and windy and I don't really feel like [00:10:00] doing that or whatever.
And I try to, something a trainer taught me a long time ago was actually Megan Poplar in South Jersey, she, I had this big young OTTB and she's whatever you don't. Do dressage on Monday, hack on Tuesday, have Wednesday off, jump on Thursday and do that every single week. She's that might work for you.
She's it's gonna create a monster. And so she's if that horse knows exactly what's happening every single time you come out to the barn, she's change it up. And so it's it's something that really stuck with me because one, it pushes you out of your own kind of comfort zone of sometimes you get to the barn and you had a plan to do a flat ride, but your horse might need just to go for a little hack or something, right?
But also, it's like you might get to the barn and everyone's getting turned out and they've just had dinner. And what do you do? You still have to ride your horse 'cause it's the only two hours you have. And I think your point of just putting on your big girl pants and getting it done is, it's important for the rider, but I think it's [00:11:00] also important for the horse.
Yeah. Yeah. I always feel like when I go through something difficult with him or any horse okay I checked that box. Like I know Yeah. How I got, we got through that, we've done that the next time will be easier. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And you learn management skills. I talked about this in my last update about Oscar where I was like, I was able to find a silver lining of two weeks of stall rests because you learn stuff about your horse when things go wrong, right?
Yeah. Yeah. And I was telling my husband that. Sometimes I'm grateful that he's messy and just leave stuff around because I don't, I just walk my horses over the hose on the ground. Oh, yeah. Or like around the equipment that's sitting there, because you know what? That might happen when we're at the show.
Yeah. Or my kids might be, needing to walk the horse and they don't care. They're gonna, do whatever. And they'll have already had those experiences and it's gonna be no big [00:12:00] deal. And it makes them safer in the long run. Rather just like you were saying, , if you have a horse get loose or something, you wanna know, at least they're gonna avoid obstacles that are in the play.
Yeah. They're gonna be mindful of somebody's out with doing something in the barn aisle and they're not just in there like a wrecking ball. Yeah. Yeah. I remember when I, so when I was at the makeover in, I think it was 2018, and I had this incredible horse named the Big Rooster. And we were, I feel like we were stabled at that time, they did the dressage, like in the front field.
It wasn't even, it wasn't in the Rolex stadium yet. And we had to hack, all the way across the property to get there. And luckily, my friend Nikki was with us and or our friend Nikki was with us and she was hacking with me, but there was, I think it was a feed truck or it was a big truck and it was idling in the stable area and we had to ride past it and as we're approaching it and my horse was [00:13:00] very green.
This was actually his first show just to show how good my preparation was. That year was my first show, was the makeover. That's fine. But we went, we did it. So he was very green and, the truck is idling and I'm like, this guy is gonna turn that truck on as soon as we get next to it.
Or it's gonna make that big, like p it was one or, yeah, it was one or the other. I can't remember if he turned the engine over or it did that, whatever that big like air leaving. The truck sound. It was one or the other. And it went fine, but it's just like the little things like that, I think when you aren't prepared, like I wasn't that could set things off and we kept our feet on the ground.
We made it, it was okay. But there's so many of those little things that you'll face at a show, like the makeover. You can't control their environment. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Like when we were at the Erie County Fair just this past week or two ago. I was letting him graze by the one ring and they came out to drag and I, and there was nobody around me and I thought, you know what?
I'm gonna stand here by this. I'm not gonna, purposely [00:14:00] not gonna move him away from this tractor dragging. I kinda wanna see what he'll do when this tractor, comes around the fence line towards him. And he was not a fan. He leaped away from it. But I'm like, okay, now I know now it's a teaching moment.
Yeah. That was a teaching moment. I'm like, okay, and next time I'll give a little more space and be a little bit more aware. And now I'll know not to maybe stand there when I'm on him. I'll move away. But I'd rather find out that way in a safe, environment rather than me just being on him and.
Having him leap across the fairgrounds. So also side note, your dogs are cracking me up. They're having like a party. They're sharking around. Oh my gosh. This one, the black, like shepherd looking one is new. We just got her like a month ago. Oh. Oh. So she's having a good time.
She'll probably be there at the makeover. The other one we won't bring. Oh, fun. Nice. Let's transition. Talk a little bit about the Erie County Fair. Tell us a little bit about [00:15:00] it. It's a hundred jumper show. What was your kind of preparation and mindset going into it? Yeah I showed, so the Erie County Fair, I live near Buffalo, so Buffalo's in Erie County here in western New York.
So that's a big fair. I think it's like the second largest, it's in Wow. New York state. It's big. It's a really big one. And they do a really great hunter jumper show. And I went two years ago with my draft cross mayor and then, went last year didn't show, but we go every year. And so I knew it was very similar atmosphere to the makeover.
It's. Huge show. Lots going on, multiple rings, people walking through, you're stabled there for multiple days and so I definitely wanted to get him there, as prep more for me than Yeah. Necessarily him, because I've struggled with figuring out how to best prepare him to go to a show or how to help him relax.
[00:16:00] He is fantastic on the flat, he is, got a great walk truck, canner, solid. But he's four and I feel like he's a very young four and he's really struggled. Just being able to settle and keep his cool in situations. And we went to a local schooling show and we did a couple flat classes and he was really reacting to the announcing.
So again, going back to the noise thing. Yeah. And anticipating the transitions, especially into cantor. Coming into the Erie County Fair Show, I decided we're gonna try earplugs this time. See if that would help him with some of the noise and, just help his brain tune some of that out.
Yeah, we got there and my mindset was really just to have a good experience and just to listen to him, just to listen to what he was saying and, just set him up for success. [00:17:00] And so one of the things that I figured out with him was I've always hand walked him as a way to settle him and we have a really good routine of some groundwork and hand walking.
But I went to do that the first, we got there Wednesday afternoon and I went to a few hours after we got there, I went to walk him and he was just explosive, just rearing on the lunge line and spinning and just, couldn't handle it. So we quickly came back to the stall and, I noticed like in, within the next hour or two that somebody else that we were stabled with was going out with their horse who was older and calmer.
I said, Hey, can I go walk with you? And that worked great. He was so much better being able to walk with a friend that was calm. And so we did that. We walked all around together and he had a really good experience. The second time that I took him out, I didn't even ride him on the first day because it was not gonna happen.
So then the [00:18:00] next morning again, I took him out with a friend. Walked him around. He was a hundred percent different than he was the night before. Got on and he schooled fantastic for me. I was so proud of him. Oh, he really did not mind being in the schooling ring with everyone jumping and going every which way.
Being a little bit anxious and Buddy sour. I think he likes it when there's other horses in there with him. Even if they're doing different things, he's happy that there's friends. When I walked out and went into the quieter schooling area where maybe there was only one other horse, he started to get tense.
Yeah. Go back in to the bigger warmup area. Much happier. That's good feedback for me. Going into the makeover. I did the opposite with bestie. I avoided everything because that stirred him up. Yeah. Getting, I hacked him out alone. All over the Kentucky Horse Park. Oh, wow.
Sterling would not enjoy that. So they're just different. And just figuring that out is such a huge [00:19:00] piece. So we did one class the first morning and he was good. He had a little explosion when we a and I asked for the canner in the one direction, but he, we did it. He was pretty rideable.
Then the second day I had two flat classes later and in the evening, and he was the best he's ever been for that first flat class. The best. Nice. So good. No explosions, no anxiety, just. Went around perfectly. I was so thrilled with him. And then the second flat class was immediately after and I figured he would get worked up again, having to, already done one class and then the second one, usually he gets a little more tense, but I thought let's try it.
Yeah. And yeah, he was a little bit more, but still the best he's been. Yeah. So yeah, so overall, like I was really happy with him and it's gonna help [00:20:00] me in Kentucky for sure. Yeah. I was just gonna ask you like in terms of how they run the hunter. Division at Kentucky? What is the format?
Is it like a flat class and then an over fences class? Or how do they structure that? They, from what I saw, they put everybody in like a group of eight or whatever. And then everybody came in and did their two trips. Okay. And then they all hacked together at the end. Okay. And then the next group, knew to come down to the ring at one 30 or whatever.
Oh, so they're not having 20 or 30 horses in there at once? No. It was like groups of eight or something. That's nice. So they did their trips, they did their flat and then they, oh, that's nice. Okay. It seems like a pretty in efficient way too. So then you're not having to go and come back and go and come back, but you go and get all your stuff done.
Yeah. Go and get your stuff done and then you're done. Oh, that's nice. Yeah. Yeah. And then I think they. I don't know. They must have called, maybe they did a callback. I maybe, but maybe not. I don't. So do they have you strip your tack and do any of that stuff at the [00:21:00] makeover? No. No. Okay. No, I'm saying that I know what that means, but I've just seen it done at Hunter shows and I'm like, oh no, not that I saw.
Not that I saw. I was gonna ask you actually about, so you've noticed, some of the noise issues, the sound issues, and then, some of these more like explosive reactions sometimes. Is there anything that you do in part of your feeding or prep for shows? Do you like to use what's the one that we like Emily, throw me under the bus Daily.
Gold. The Magnesium. Daily Gold. Oh. NPA Feed. NPA Feed. I always wanna say regimen when I think of NPA Feed. NPA Feed is a terrible name 'cause it's doesn't. What does that mean? It sounds like a feed brand. I know. Do you use anything like in terms of just oh, I know I'm going to a show, so I'm gonna give him a tubic astro guard and maybe something else?
Or do you do any of that kind of stuff? I tried Perfect Prep at the little schooling show that I went to before the fair and I [00:22:00] didn't think it made a difference. Yeah, sometimes it actually does the opposite I've found. Yeah. I've honestly, I found that the earplugs worked the best and so just trying one new thing at a time, but I'm definitely interested in maybe some more kind of supplement or something to help him, because he definitely is the type that would probably benefit once I found the right thing for him.
The one thing that I've found to be pretty effective is Sally Cousins actually told me about this years ago. It's called Sin Chill. It's SYN. C-H-I-L-L-I believe. And it's just a little tube. I hate the smell of perfect prep. It like makes me feel sick. 'cause it's like, it smells like cookies, but not in a good way.
It's like it sticks on your clothes. And but anyway, essentials, it's like a small tube and I think it's a game changer. I, whatever it has in it is it's legal to compete on and everything like that. And it's just that's made a big difference. You can get like a five or [00:23:00] six pack from Amazon, certainly worth a try, the NPA feed's amazing as well if you, it's a little bit expensive, but it is one of those things that like can be night and day for horses that are can have those bigger reactive moments. We've both had pretty good luck using that in the past, but yeah, I think it depends if your horse though has a magnesium deficiency and deficiency.
Yeah. The nice thing about magnesium is like they, it just goes through their system if they don't need it. But it would be an expensive thing if they didn't need it, but yeah. Yeah, I'm gonna write those things down because it's definitely, yeah, I'm gonna try to be crying some things for him for sure.
The other thing I really like to do, and I know a lot of people have strong feelings about alfalfa, but I am a big believer in like. When I know I'm gonna put my horse in a stressful situation, giving him soaked alfalfa 30 minutes before I do anything with him. It's messy and annoying, but like it does, help just coat their stomach.
So if they're anticipating a new environment or a trailer ride or, and I actually do it every day at lunchtime for Oscar anyways 'cause the boy's got a metabolism that is just outta control. That's [00:24:00] another thing I like to do, but Yeah. Oh, I did do outlast though. I did give him Oh, okay.
Yeah. Outlast throughout the day, and before I wrote him and stuff like that, because, for the same reason as the yeah. It's hard figuring out, what's gonna, what's gonna make them comfortable. I think the thought process of, him. Finding a buddy to go out with is great.
And I think you're gonna find so many people at the makeover that are gonna have that horse that you can say Hey, can I come out with you again this morning? Yeah. I'm gonna be like, yeah. Yeah. And I'll be there with my friend Alexis, and, yes. Yeah, and her horse Debbie, he knows her and she's super chill.
She's a giant moose. So we can ride around a little bit too, but I'm sure I'll be flagging other people down. You can just look for Oscar and I and his big stuffed animal that now he has to have at all times. So maybe Sterling needs that too. Honestly, it's crazy. He shares a wall with this marere and he and the mayor doesn't get along with anybody, but anytime food would get be involved, he'd go [00:25:00] over to the bars and he'd make faces at her and she'd make faces at him.
So I hung Stanley up in between them and she was a little bit afraid of it. And now I catch him in the afternoons, napping with his head on Stanley. Aw. Like he's just over there in an area where he would typically avoid, now that's like his favorite spot in his stall. And I'm like, okay, I guess that's coming to Kentucky with us.
Oh my gosh. Or it's gonna be like when you have toddlers and you have to buy like three of everything 'cause you're afraid you're gonna lose one on the plane.
Oh my goodness. Have you I'm not sure exactly where the makeover process is, but have you declared your disciplines and all that? Are you just doing hunters or are you gonna do competitive? No, so I'm actually not doing hunters at all, which is silly since I'm went to a hunter show. Because that's what I will be doing.
Okay. With him. That's like my eventual goal. Okay. But we're doing competitive trail and freestyle. Oh, okay. Okay. Oh no, I know. So yeah, I'm going to hunter [00:26:00] shows 'cause that's my. My preferred discipline, but Sure. Gotcha. He's not doing that at the makeover. If I could just piece together more than one day in a row of actually doing something with my horse, we might declare a discipline, yeah. I haven't done my final entry yet. I'm yet freaking out about the freestyle part. Yeah. I'm too, I have a really good theme I think, and , it's actually really nice. They were doing some work in our ring, so they took everything out of the ring and it's like perfect. Right now if I get my props here and can start playing with them a little bit and start putting the choreography together, also I need to actually, put a can on my horse that would be helpful as well.
Just small stuff like that. It's totally fine. Yeah I have my freestyle routine like planned out in my head. I even pick the music, like I have it all down. Yeah. I just have this mental block of starting to actually practice it. I don't know why. Don't know. I have a question for you about it.
The freestyle had, did you have people that I know people have music. Do [00:27:00] anybody have a voiceover component of any of their if it, I think you could do it if it was like prerecorded. Yeah. But you can't like yeah. That's what I was gonna do for mine. 'cause it's yeah. Okay. I just wanted to see as long as it was part of the music, it was fine.
Yes. Yes. Okay. So you can't have that Sure. You just give an audio track phone or anything like that. Yeah, that's what I was gonna, yeah. Yeah. So whatever your audio track is. Okay. I didn't hear anyone do that in last year, but I like how the two of, you're like not gonna tell each other what your routine is because you're both like.
Competitive low key, competitive. And you're like I'm not gonna tell her what I'm doing. So I haven't done any competitive stuff or any competitive trail stuff with Oscar in two months. I'm so behind. That's not true, first of all. Oh, I did play around today with flags with him and I did teach him how to kick a ball today.
'cause that's what I need to be doing. That's all good stuff though. That you could be like hitting a ball with a broom. I've seen them have, pushing a ball. I don't know. Yeah. That's all things that could [00:28:00] come up. Without revealing your routine, are there certain things you've been teaching sterling or need to teach Sterling?
You can reveal your routine if you want, but if you don't want to, are there certain like elements that of it that you need to teach him or you've been working on? No. I've done bits and pieces, but again, I'm having this mental block of putting it all together. I don't know why.
I'm doing it with my son, my 12-year-old. Oh, fun. He'll be 13 by the time we go there. Nice. And he's super excited. There's going to be weapons because he's 13. Okay. Oh, I know what you're, I know what you're doing. You told me. You told me. Okay. And there's gonna be multiple weapons and I'm just really excited to do that.
It's gonna be such a big core memory for him. Yeah. And just such a fun thing to do with him. And again, knowing Sterling's personality and how he can be in new situations. I think having. My son there whom he knows and having a routine that he is familiar with. Yeah. And has [00:29:00] practiced ahead of time.
Yeah. Is going to be perfect for him oh good. Yeah. Yep. I could, I feel like I can talk about mine at this point, but I don't know if it's fair to do that on Stephanie's podcast. But we can talk about yours on your podcast, but No, that's true. Whatever. Whatever you guys wanna do.
Stephanie is like our number one fan, I think. Don't tell Kristen Hansberry. They'll have to duke it out. Oh no. You're just always comment and you always say give us feedback. And we just, we cannot explain how much it means to us to get any kind of feedback from anybody.
It just makes us really happy and we're like, Ugh. Somebody's listening. Yeah. I don't know. I just treat people the way I would wanna be treated. Who wants to talk into the void and not get any feedback? I like, yeah, I think that's what we thought we were doing for a long time.
And then we realized people were listening. I had somebody recognize me out in the wild and I was like, oh, this is so crazy. Fairly early on too. That happened fairly early on. Yeah, we [00:30:00] were, was like, Neve texted me and she was like, oh, someone just recognized me. Somebody took a selfie with me for the podcast.
Really? Somebody took a selfie with you? Yes. Oh, wild. I was like hi. And I'm sure my face was like 10 times redder than it is right now. And I was like, this is wild. Okay. Yeah. Oh my gosh. Anyway, so aside from not practicing your routine, how are you preparing yourself mentally? Is there anything, like, where are you at mentally for the makeover?
I'm fried and burned out personally. Yeah. I did a lot in July. Yeah. Yeah. In June. Yeah. And so I was supposed to do something Sunday and I had a mini breakdown over the weekend and my husband was like, you do not need to go to this. Just you're fine. He's what do you need to practice?
What is the thing that you're having a hard time with? I said, I haven't done [00:31:00] water obstacles. I've only crossed water with him one time and I need to do it. I know it's gonna be on the. On the trail course and he's I got you. So is he building you a water? He, yes. He had borrowed a friend's mini excavator.
He's give me an hour. And oh my God. He goes out and dug me a water obstacle. I cannot wait to meet this man. I'm so he's really funny. He is your boyfriend's coming right? And I was like, yes. Oh gosh. He just wants to hang out with everybody I know. I was like, he'll hang out with you. And he will cook for everybody too.
He's a great cook. I know you said that you guys like had a little thing last year and not very many people came and he was like, yeah, I made all this food. Yes. He like, so wanted everyone to come hang out. Oh. And it never happened. We'll definitely come.
But yeah he fixed the water. He made me a water obstacle. He calmed me down and he dragged my arena and, fixed that all up and gave it a little refresher and [00:32:00] yeah. Amazing. Needs to clone him. Yeah, I know. He's so supportive. Love that. I literally could not do this without him, that's amazing.
All right. Going back to like some training stuff.
You mentioned in your first episode that Sterling was having some trouble standing still for mounting. How's that going? Yeah, really well, I can definitely say that we've overcome that. Okay. Yeah, that's great. 'cause that's part of competitive trail, right? You have to get on and off your horse. Correct?
Yeah. Correct. So I'm actually at the point now where I'm like, I really wanna teach 'em how to come up, swing over thing to the body block, pick you up. Do you know how you see people do that? So I'm gonna see if we can put that together. For, I've started doing that with Oscar, my style also, and he's hilarious because he thinks part of that game is trying to get me off the mounting block.
Oh. He's actually really good at then coming back and getting into the position. He gets like too close. He gets so close and I'm just like, dude, you're on [00:33:00] top of me. He's such a pocket pony. It's ridiculous. Yeah. Yeah. And and what exactly was he doing? Was he just like not wanting to stand still or was he like, Yeah, just not wanting to stand still.
Like I. Get him over the Monty block, he'd wiggle. I'd stand up, you'd do that whole dance where you get down, you adjust it, he moves again, put your foot in, he moves. It's the worst. It was a lot of that. So really all I did to fix is nothing, really difficult, just consistency and treats.
Yeah. I just had just some plain hay pellets because he's super food motivated. So if I had anything more exciting than just dry hay pellets, he would be twisting all around to mug me to, it would totally defeat the purpose. It backfires. Yeah. So just some dry hay pellets and just, a lot of repetition.
Okay. Stand here's, here's a couple hay pellets. Yeah. Okay. Keep doing that. And then I taught him to, when he'd feel me [00:34:00] start to mount, he, I would give him a treat, so he would have to turn his head, to reach back to get it. So then. That kind of kept him more focused on, waiting for his treat than thinking about moving and walking off and, so then I get on, stand there sit there on him, treats get off. Just a lot of repetition. Yeah. , We talked about this, I can't remember which episode recently we talked about like the different motivators for horses and the way, like their love language right?
So for some horses it's verbal hearing you say yes or good boy or whatever. Some of them like touch and I think if you can figure out what your horse's love language is, you can get to the bottom of some of those problems a lot faster by using that as a positive reinforcement tool.
Yeah. Yeah. So he's very food motivated and he also loves to be scratched. Yeah. On his neck and on his butt. My son likes literally take a pitchfork or race. I love when they're like, and [00:35:00] do his butt. He goes crazy. Never. Oh my God, that's so funny. He just loves it. I do think and I'm glad, when you said that this is something you wanted to talk about, because I think to me it's probably one of the most intimidating things for the average horse owner in getting an off track thoroughbred is how the heck do you get on them?
Because they are not used to standing still. Yeah. And it's also like Jimmy Walford is very into me. It's the most dangerous, it's the most dangerous guy riding, I was gonna say it's the most vulnerable time. And I had a really bad fall mounting a horse. And that's actually how I met my husband.
That's like a whole story, but like mount getting on, that's, and the horse just bolted. Wow. Off I went. It's so can be so dangerous, yeah. And you really, it's a safety issue, you really just need them to stand, and not only for the person that's getting on, but for me, with my kids around, my kids do not pay attention in the league. It could, [00:36:00] they're be completely underfoot, full time. And I can't have him, swinging around and moving and doing all of these things you gotta stay still. Yeah. And then you add in going to a show or Right. A property. I was gonna say sometimes they have the mounting block, like on a concrete pad, and then you get on your horse for the first time in that situation, the horse feels its feet go out a little bit and then all hell breaks loose, yeah. And that would be a good piece of advice too, is just mount get on all different things to get on your horse. It doesn't always have to be. Just a three step mounting block. I literally pull over a muck bucket. I'm not that agile, so my son will climb on the horses, like climb up a fence and get on that.
Sure. But whatever I can find. Sometimes I've gotten climbed up on the side of, the truck and off the, the tailgate of the truck, yeah. I think most people have been out on a trail ride and the horse either won't go through the water, won't go through the mud, there's a cow, there's a mailbox, whatever.
You might have to get off and lead them [00:37:00] past something, or maybe you can voluntarily get off and then you've gotta find a rock or a tree limb. I actually, yeah, I dunno if you guys saw one of Jessica Redmond. She has not all Thoroughbreds anymore and she had it more of a trail type horse and her rider had it like walk over a giant log, so it's front feet.
On one side of the giant log and the back feet were on the other side of the giant log, and he climbed up on the log and got on the horse. I was like, that's perfect. That's that's amazing. That's actually genius. Get over it. Like sometimes you can't get them next to it, right? That's actually really genius.
I've never thought of that. Now I wanna go out and practice that and see if we can do something like that. It's, I think the tricky part is I board that knows where feet are, right? Then they're gonna leap maybe over the rest of the log. So you gotta be okay with that. But they're probably gonna stand still a little bit better.
I'm not gonna go anywhere. Do you have so when you first got either of. Your two current horses, do you have a procedure [00:38:00] that you go through before you get on them the first time? I don't think we asked you that in the last episode. If I did, I apologize. But curious about that, since it is a little bit of an area of concern of getting on them and you don't really have a dedicated ground person necessarily.
Yeah. 'cause you obviously have your son, but that can be Yeah. I had my husband though the first time. Oh, that's good. Okay. I got on them. Yeah. I had him hold them and with firm extra instructions to not let them go no matter what. You do not let go. Whatever happens, relationship is over if you let go and yeah.
Then just holding them and then, walking around, yeah. And I think we did that the first time or two. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Good ground person who's not gonna let go is definitely key. And also knows like how not to freak the horse out because the horses don't want somebody with a death grip on the reins.
Or on the lead rope. They want somebody who's they're used to having somebody there, but they're also used to having somebody there that's just like omnipresent. They're not [00:39:00] like letting them move forward. Yeah. Letting them move forward. Let you know, standing at their shoulder, just being like, you can move away, but we're not moving away at, yeah. Yeah. For sure. Mach five. Yeah. Yeah. And I've never had an issue with any of 'em where they did anything dangerous, getting on them, thankfully. Yeah, sure. It's definitely good to play it safe and yeah. I feel like 99 times out of a hundred they're fine. There's just that one time that you get one that's Yep.
A little bit anxious about it, and maybe they're gonna. Take off. Or maybe they plant their feet and don't move and that's actually scary. Oh, I think that's worse. That's worse. And you're like yeah. Can you please breathe? Just breathe. That would be good. Or they lay down or they lay down. Oh gosh.
How'd that happen too? We have stories. You sound like you speak from experience on that. I'm like, wow, the ground is coming up awful quick. Oh my. It Titanic. It's like the Titanic. It's, I can put my feet on either side and touch the ground now. Now what do I do now? What [00:40:00] clients there watching? And we're both like, I dunno what's dumb.
Okay. Okay. Kick.
Never a dull moment. No, never a dull moment. All right. So we did talk about this, I think, the first time around, but one of the things that we just admire and respect about you is your ability to balance everything in your life, how you balance your crazy schedule, motherhood, training, these OTBs, and now, going through all of the preparation for something as big as the makeover, how do you keep everything moving forward especially in this kind of final prep phase?
Yeah. I think my, the biggest thing is I just schedule it and then I do it. There's really no, magic to that. But it just helps me stay consistent and move forward. [00:41:00] And, I keep a training log and I think I said that in the last one. Yeah. Like a journal and I literally write everything out and Yeah.
That's awesome. It's coded and it just, that really helps me stay consistent and see what we've been doing. And often I find, I sell myself really short. I think that I'm doing terribly and I haven't ridden my horse and we haven't done this and we're not making progress. And having this written down to look back on, I can say.
Wow. Look at what we have done. I have done a lot. Yeah. And that really helps me. Yeah, so yeah that's really it. Having a super supportive husband really helps, he is amazing and he, keeps me motivated and, sets me up for success like every day. So That's incredible.
Love it. Emily sat me down, I think at the end of June or the beginning of July and was just like, you gotta stop beating yourself [00:42:00] up you've been doing a lot. And because we're all just like our own worst critic. And it's also really hard when you have stuff that just happens.
It's outta your control, and I think having done this once already too, I know that this is not the end all, be all of everything. Yeah. It's one thing in our journey. So keeping that in mind really calms me down on my days where I feel stressed. But yeah. Yeah. Oh my God, I hear a squeaking in the background.
Oh, sorry. No, it's, with the big summer show behind you, what's next for you and Sterling before the makeover? Actually we're not doing much these last two months. Yeah. I'm really just That's gonna be nice though. I think honing it down. Yeah. I think I've just done a lot for him and I think with him, and I think it's going to be good for him to just mentally just be more at home.
Yeah. This last. Gosh, less than two months now that we [00:43:00] have left. I didn't wanna correct you, but I know less than two months. So the only things I have planned in addition to like our weekly lesson and we usually trailer out twice a week, like a one hack with friends and then like a weekly lesson doing a judge competitive trail event on September 6th.
So I have not done a judge one yet. So I did this one last year with Bestie and I'm really excited to go to it again with Sterling. And then we're just gonna go to fiddlesticks Field, which is a place nearby. Oh, you, that place looks amazing. Water obstacle and all the, some other, trail obstacles and things like that as well.
Gotcha. Yeah, those are really, it. Maybe we'll haul out and do a trail ride at the state park. Yeah. But, to mix things up, that's really it. Yeah. I think that's great and I think you've planned your journey very well in terms of not being, trying to fill that last 6, 5, 6 weeks with I [00:44:00] know, knock it off. Pressure. Pressure and No, but I think that's a very nice arc. You had a really busy June, July, beginning of August, and now you can just polish what you already have. Yeah. I feel like I've done what I can at this point, and it's really just, again, he really hadn't done water, so that's definitely one that we're gonna work on. Sure. Now you can do that at home. So it's great. There was, now I can easily do that. Yeah. So jealous. I'm trying to think. It really was just water and practicing our freestyle and getting that kind of nailed down.
Yeah. So I think you had a pretty specific goal in mind when we talked to you last. Has that changed or what are your goals for the makeover? No. My goal is to be in the top 10 in competitive trail again this year. That's just my personal goal and, I'm hoping we can do it.
And then for the freestyle, I just wanna have a cool experience with my son. Really? Yeah. That's so fun. When do they announce the theme for [00:45:00] the competitive trail? They announced it, I think Monday. 'cause I remember we were driving down there and someone texted me and said, Hey, I'm so curious to know what it's gonna be.
No. Yeah. I didn't know there was a theme. I'm such a newbie to all of this, all these other disciplines. Stephanie, you gotta keep me on track. If there's a deadline coming up and you don't hear me talking about it, please just message me privately and be like, did you do the thing?
'cause you're supposed to do the thing. You guys are competitors and she's gonna knock you out. So she might actually just be like, oh yeah, no, the deadline's like next Monday there's this deadline. No deadline whatsoever. You're fine. And, trip be told I talk a big game. I am not competitive at all.
You're not? We'll see, I like to do well for myself, but I don't have that. I'm gonna go in there and I wanna yeah. I don't know. I think, it's funny 'cause I have this amazing event horse and I'm looking at a shrine right now and it's like everything I've wanted to accomplish with him, I've accomplished.
And I have all these blue ribbons and I have the tiger Neve. Come on. [00:46:00] Stop it. I know, but it, I'm gonna start cracking the whip now. She's, now she's giving away Easter. I have to drive behind. This is like the Taylor Swift Travis Kel podcast I, where she's giving away all of these Easter eggs in the coast.
I have to drive behind you in the car in the winter time with you, running through the snow drifts to keep it up. That's gonna be me. That would be fun actually. Yeah. Wouldn't be the first time. Oh my goodness. You'll be fine on competitive trail. My biggest piece of advice is you have to do it in the time.
If you can't do it in the time you're not gonna, but you can skip an obstacle. If you're like, this isn't happening, you can skip it. You can skip, but you won't be in the top 10 if you skip. Gotcha. Or if you don't make it in the time. So you are gonna need to know your horse and know what they're good at and do those ones fast.
Fast and save a little time. Not fast isn't rushed, if your horse goes over a bridge, get them over the bridge and trot to the [00:47:00] next thing. Yeah. Yeah. And then you'll have time. Have the time for the tricky stuff. Maybe they struggle going in the water. Yeah. 'cause that's what happened to me last year was bestie struggled with the water and we hemmed.
He hemmed and hawed for a little bit at the water obstacle, but I still had time. Yeah. So I was Okay. No, that's good to know. Oh now I'm nervous. All right. We gotta get this bridge down. Neve, I know he's been really good about bridges and then he had a little bit of a, had a little bit of trouble, but I also think it might have been a little bit of tack issue, all right. Anyways, we're gonna get back there and do some stuff down there, so Cool. You can also bring things in practice. I've been planning to make a bridge. I thought the guy who works at our barn was gonna make one, but he is, he's on thin ice, so he's, he might not be employed there for very much longer oh, you can't practice on the actual competitive trail course right there.
But people last year had brought a few things. Yeah. And they set it up by the round. That's what I, that's what I was planning on doing. I was gonna bring some stuff to practice with, yeah. Yeah. I have some ideas. So [00:48:00] if your horse needs a little tuneup over one particular thing.
Yeah. Bring that. Cool. Do you have any advice that you would share with any of the other OTTB retrains heading into their final weeks of prep before the makeover? I think again, it's just remembering that it's just one stop on your journey.
Yeah. And not getting too hung up on, this being, such an event, yeah. It's gonna be okay even if it's doesn't go the way he planned. Yeah. Yeah. Do you, and your plan is to keep Sterling, is that right? Oh yeah. I'm really going through it with Oscar.
Everybody in the barn is just he, how can you possibly sell him? He's so obsessed with you. Yeah. Oh, it's bad. It's bad. It's really bad. And his next door neighbor is on a little fox hunting vacation for two weeks. And so I put my other horse in the stall next to him just 'cause we thought it would be cute.
And [00:49:00] now I've got the two of them staring at me all the time and I'm like, oh my God. Why wouldn't you keep 'em though? Do you think you don't have time to ride two or is it money or It's more money than anything. Yeah. Okay. I have somebody who leases my event horse as well so that helps a little bit.
But it's funny you wouldn't think that having one more would be that much more expensive, but when they want, play roulette with their lives, they both, run up some extra vet bills, let's just say this year, the past two months, which, you know. Yeah. I feel like it was overdue for some vet bills, but it was like, could you guys not do it within one week of it, one another?
That would be cool. Yeah. Oh yeah. That's right. Yeah. It's one thing that's nice about , having a freelance work schedule is that I have a lot of time, I just don't always have all of the extra money, but I think if I could find somebody to do a partial lease on him, I would consider it. 'cause I do think he is just incredibly cool. It was always, yeah. Your plan though, too, was to produce him and sell him. Yeah, I think from the outside perspective, [00:50:00] he's just a really cool horse. He is a really cool horse and there's lots more out there. I sound hearted, but I used to have to do this to eat.
I had no, I've done it all I've done to sell every horse I've ever loved. I've done it, I've done it a lot.
I just, in this particular instance, I didn't expect to have I think it because he was so quirky and weird. I was like, oh, I understand you. Oh,
yeah. But he's gotten a lot better, it seems like he was really Yeah. Gave you a run for your bunny at first, trying to figure him out, right? Yeah, for sure. For sure. Yeah. I don't have, I don't have this I always think about your story of finding Sterling, and I just think it's such a cool romantic.
It's like the thing of like children's books are like young adult books are like made of, is like this girl, finding this one horse and then finding this other horse that's also related to that horse and all this magic that happens, yeah. It's a good story. But they're funny, they're completely opposite.
So opposite, so funny. So it's when people look [00:51:00] for a certain sire line, I'm like, I don't know that it really makes a difference because my two couldn't be any more different. They couldn't be any more different. They don't look alike at all. Although I do see a lot of honor codes that.
Look very similar. He can really stamp them. Yeah, for sure. A lot of 'em that I've seen look more like bestie than sterling. Sterling must take after I gotta keep an eye out for these horses. Its ster. No, it's funny 'cause when you were talking earlier about how different they are, I was thinking that so many people, and we talk about it all the time with the bloodlines and everything and how there are similarities, but it's always just fascinating.
No, but evaluate the horse in front of you. Just because they're by a certain horse doesn't mean that they're going to act or look a certain way. Yeah. So I really think that's fascinating. Yeah. No it is really interesting. It's funny, best's body is his downfall. I just had to take him to the vet because, and my son had to stop riding him because he cannot hold his left [00:52:00] lead anymore.
He was just either falling. Off the lead behind or he would do like a full change and he's always preferred his right lead and he is always had trouble. Sorry, I gotta yell at my dogs. Stop so much wrestling. Come here. They wanna be on tv. I know. They know when you're using a particular kind of voice, if you're on a phone call or something and they just start going buck wild and you're like, you guys have been sleeping for hours.
What is going on? Yes, they never do this. Of course they're doing it now. Stop. So yeah, I just took him to the vet just to make sure there wasn't anything physically going on or a pain issue or anything like that. And she's just Nope. He's just not using his body correctly. He's just, unbalanced and on his forehand.
And I think, just my son riding him all summer, , he's 12. He can't write him correctly, sure. Best in having tending to be that way anyway. Yeah. He's just really fallen into some bad habits and also [00:53:00] just like muscle patterns and things like that yeah. So trying to get his body, back in shape and doing the right things.
Yeah. I've been riding him the last couple days and I'm just like, oh, I'm so glad to ride you again, because his brain just cannot be beat. I love it. He's so chill. That's so nice. He's just cool as a cucumber, like lazy actually, yeah. Y, smart, lazy, he's only gonna put in just as much effort, and that's why he just does what he wants with his body because you know it's hard and he'll gr at you and moan when you like, ask so much effort. Him. Yeah, so much effort, so that's funny. Yeah, my my quarter horse is a bit like that, where you can really like get him lit up and get him really on the aids, but he will, if he knows, he can get you to nag him.
He will. And the girl at least is him. She's lovely. And she's such a nice rider, and she's just he just feels like a little, like stiff [00:54:00] when he starts out. And I'm like, he is literally just making you work hard. Oh. He knows exactly what he's doing. Yes. And Besty is please carry me. Please, hold me up because can't possibly, I can't possibly do this.
Yeah. Yes. Horses. Oh, they're the best. Anything else before we wrap up? Anything else you wanted to add or. Chat through? No, I think we're good. No. All right. Yeah. Stephanie, thank you so much for catching us up.
We really cannot wait to see you and your whole crew. And Sterling at the makeover, if you'd like to follow along with Stephanie's journey, be sure to stay tuned here on OTTB ontap for more updates. As always, you can connect with us on Facebook, Instagram, or TikTok, and get in touch@ottbontap.com with your episode ideas.
If you enjoyed today's conversation, please leave us a review and check out our Patreon for bonus content [00:55:00] and insider episodes. Cheers. Cheers.