S2 E34 | Double the OTTBs, Double the Disciplines: Chelsey O’Brien’s Journey with Peppy & Fuzzy | RRP Trainer Chronicles

S2 E34 | Double the OTTBs, Double the Disciplines: Chelsey O’Brien’s Journey with Peppy & Fuzzy | RRP Trainer Chronicles [Transcript]

[00:00:00]
Welcome back to OTT Beyond Tap. Did you, when did this original series thing come in? Did you write that? It's been this whole se season. It said original series on our art. It says that. Okay. It says it in our episode descriptions. Where have you been? Nev? It's an original series. RRP. Welcome back to OTTV on tap.
I'm Emily and we are here today. Original series, RRP Trainer Chronicles. I'm just cut out of the podcast now. Today we're catching up with Chelsea O'Brien. She's a returning trainer and ambassador for Pastured Place and a fan favorite here on the pod. Last time we talked, she introduced her 2025 makeover horses, peppy and fuzzy, and shared how she balances horses, family and giving back.
Also, I sent you this outline several days ago. Yeah, like I had time to read it. Who didn't read it. Also, there's no outro. I read like I, [00:01:00] I read it for once early, not five minutes before we talked. I know we did a good job. Proud of myself. All right. Since then, Chelsea's been busy figuring out which disciplines each horse will shine in peppy.
Oh, peppy has gone. Hunter showing fuzzy is going a little western, and Chelsea even showed some of her well yearlings that she. I was like, how do I say this? Yearlings that you birthed? Yes.
Fold. I call when lay people. There we go. That's the word. When lay people ask me about what I do for a job, I'm like I don't know how to put this, but I'm like a midwife for horses. That makes a lot of sense. Yeah. Oh gosh. We're off to a great start. Some yearlings that she fold at the Virginia Thoroughbred Association futurity.
So lots of ground to cover today. Let's jump in. So welcome [00:02:00] back. Oh gosh, I've got a lot to say here. Chelsea. Welcome back. Last year you brought Ubi from Pastured Place to the makeover and ran barrels. This year you've got two new horses, peppy and fuzzy. How did you start deciding which direction each one should go?
Big question. Start off. Whoa. Straight to the punch. Coming out the gate fast. Fuzzy was pretty like I already knew. Both of them conformationally is why I decided, for each of their disciplines. Peppy looks like your stereotypical like hunter boy.
And like even before I ever saw him move, I was like, I bet this is a hunter. He is got that big blaze face. He's got three big, tall, white, so stocking someone smaller sock, but he just looks like your quintessential hunter. And lo and behold, I got on him and day one I was like, yep. And then the first time I counted him around, I was like, yep, he's a hunter.
And then fuzzy [00:03:00] is perhaps one of the stockies off track throw thorough words I have ever seen. Really? Yes. Like her chest coming off the track. Her chest was huge. Rival some rope horses that I've seen. Wow. And so I knew that she was suited for the Western discipline. She's very she's got this huge hip, she has a huge booty.
And just, she's overall very well balanced. But I just, I knew that was a barrel horse in the making.
I think he also, if I recall correctly, gave you major side eye when you tried to put a Western song on him.
Yes. Yeah. He was like I don't know about this. And then I talked to the animal communicator and she was like, he was just really confused about this because everybody who's ever seen him was like, this thing was born to jump, this thing was born to be a hunter. That's amazing. He was like, I never considered that there would be any other options.
That's all I've ever thought I wanted to do in my life. That's [00:04:00] amazing. And I was like, Hey, that's pans for him. Him Was that Jana? Yes. Oh, she's so amazing. We have a, an appointment coming up here. On the third to check in with the two before we go Oh. And see. And see what they want.
Oh, leading in. Maybe I should do that before I go to makeover. I know. Wacky, no, I lo I loved it. And Oscar had a lot of interesting things to say when I talked to him, and I'd love to know how he's feeling now, because he's like a miles different than he was back then. Yeah, when I went yeah, last year with ub, we had a check-in before and obviously the year before I had a little PTSD from getting there and then not being able to show and like my concern was like how much concrete there is there and like just walking on the hard ground and then I, put.
Hind shoes on them, on ubi because I was scared that he was gonna get foot sore while we were there. And I like got all this magic cushion and all the things, and I put like porn pads in, [00:05:00] like literally did the most. And then he hated it. Like he hated it. He hated it so much that like he made it one weekend with the hind shoes and the porn pads and we had to cut out the porn pads and we had to take the hind shoes off.
Oh my gosh. And he told Jana that it felt like he had ankle weights on and it was making him really uncomfortable. Oh my God. And I was like, that's so funny. I didn't think about that. I was trying to help you buddy. And he was like, stop doing, you're doing too much. And I was like, you're doing too much.
Okay. Yeah. I tend to do that. So
That is so funny. It would be really interesting to get Oscar red again now. Yeah. 'cause he's come so far. Yeah. I think we're gonna dig into your second. Discipline selection a little bit later, but let's talk about some training and progress updates. So we're gonna start with peppy. He's been out showing in the hunters and what's that been like with him?
I hate to be like, [00:06:00] wow, this has been so easy, but it's been pretty easy. Yeah, based on the photos, he looks like he's just okay. Yeah. Don't get me wrong. He can look at jumps sometimes, like just new things that he hasn't seen or been exposed to. I don't have a lot of filler at home.
I try to make hay jumps and Yeah. But I don't have flower boxes and all the things that somebody should have if they're trying to train a hunter like roll tops and brick walls and all of that. We did have some setbacks in our training because he got a really bad hoof abscess.
Ugh. And so it blew, and then he was still a little off, and then we did magna wave on the foot and that seemed to really help. And since then it's just been like, okay, we gotta catch up here a little bit. We lost a little bit of time. I don't think the last time we talked about like his first horse show.
I took him to the horse show and I was expecting that it was gonna be hard, but he literally went trailer to show ring, we did a little warmup, but he was perfect. Some of them you [00:07:00] get off the trailer and you're like, oh, you need to go for a lunge. Or yeah. Yeah. Am I going to be leaping through the air? No, peppy. Just like literally, am I even getting on today? Yeah. And the first show I ever took him to was a little local hunter open, flat, clashed kind of thing. And so there was like a lot of small kids on ponies that weren't navigating the ring very well.
And I was like, oh my God, why do I do this to myself? And I think like the first class I ever wrote 'em in was like, it was a pretty small arena, I'd say 75 by 1, 25 at best. And there was like 14 of us in it. Oh my god. Wow. And a lot of them were like children. I would say 90% of the class was children and Oh wow.
And they like were running up his butt and, going up, two inches between us passing us and PEPs just whatever. And I was like, I really, oh my God. And like I talked about it the last time, I had concerns [00:08:00] because i'm gonna be honest, like I think I've ridden, trained on raced OTBs, but I'm not sure that I've really done many of them.
I mostly get things that have raced. Yeah, I was just gonna ask you that. Do you feel like there's been advantages or disadvantages or anything different? Because he didn't face, he trained so he did have those, he worked out, he saw things, he worked out of the gate and all that, but he didn't have the brace at atmosphere or anything, so who knows, like maybe that's why he doesn't associate like going somewhere.
Isn't he chaotic? Yeah. He's just the only thing that I'll say that he does is he is pretty stoic. So when I've taken him places, he doesn't get nervous, he doesn't act funny, he doesn't get up, but his dues do get a little loose. But that's literally it. He doesn't spook at anything.
He just he's just like pretty, but he's like more of an internalizer. Yeah. And he's pretty much all business. Until wait till you get to the makeover, he's gonna hear you and be like, oh, it's [00:09:00] on. Yeah, I know that's what happened with you. But yeah. And so that was the first show.
Then we dealt with the hoof abscess and then lost a little bit of time, got him back up and going. And then and then I took him to his first jumper show. So I was thinking like this was gonna be a good lead into things like, 'cause we had been doing small courses at home. And so I was thinking like there wasn't gonna be a lot of filler and there wasn't gonna be a lot of things to look at, but honestly it was mostly like hunter looking jumps, brick walls, stone walls, hay bales roll tops.
And honestly, the only thing that he looked at was the roll top. And I was so unbelievably proud of him because I just, brought him like, did a little tiny warmup and like their little itty bitty. W like, it's hardly bigger than my round pen. Single jump, no filler to be seen. And then you have to go on the right, the schooling rounds, jumper shows.
So you pay $35 per round or whatever, so you don't get a warmup. So I was like, okay, let's [00:10:00] just do it. So we went in and he looked at the roll top, the first jump, but then after that he was like, oh. And then the second round I went in, he was like, oh, I got this. And like through the second round.
That's so awesome. I was like, okay. He's getting it. This is cool. And then the photographer posted the pictures and I was like, oh gosh, I'm gonna be so poor. He literally doesn't take a's so cute a bad photo. Cute. He does not take a bad photo. Yep. Yep. So his little knees are to his eyeballs.
It's so cute. Cute. Oh my gosh. And it doesn't even feel like that, like his jump is. Nice. Somebody could totally equate that because I have one horse who, my personal horse he sees a jump and he, if he jumps with his knees like that, like he's jumping you out of the tack, like and they crack their back over the top of it and you're like, yeah, Pepper's nice and even, and flat and like the cute little hunter knees. Like he was literally to do that. Perfect. He was born to do that job. Ugh. Right now we're, the lead changes are like. There, but like sometimes it's not a hundred [00:11:00] percent and some, so it's just a matter of I'm fine tuning that now.
I'm hitting lessons every week with my hunter trainer. So that he can 'cause the problem is that I'm very wing English. So I really have to tighten up my riding yeah. To get a little more polished. 'Cause anybody can yeehaw around, but I'm just trying to, I need more of your yeehaw in my life, I think.
How do they score the the changes in the makeover? Can you do simple changes or are you supposed to have Yeah, I feel like I read through it and I feel like they prefer you to, if you don't have a change, to do a simple change or something like that. Is that I think so. I guess we'll find out.
That makes me feel better. I feel like there's something like that where it's you think you can do either, but I feel like you can. I don't know. I did read through all of the, it's probably better if you have a flying change, right? Yeah. But I think it's also like a good, I'm hoping, praying, wishing that we get all of our changes over the fences and then I don't have to do [00:12:00] it.
There you go. Perfect. Perfect. Yeah, just do that. Just do that, Chelsea. What? What else would you be doing? Not just I don't have a right, I don't have a right leg. Canner Chelsea.
You should see what I was doing today with my horse. It was really not getting us any closer to the makeover, really, but, oh. Anyway, it's all, Hey, listen, the power I think I even posted something today. The power of the tongue. You have to speak positive into the world. If, because I'm, I am literally the queen of like self-deprecating jokes and.
I'm trying not to do that. Yeah, you have to manifest it. Yeah, because Chelsea manifested her shoulder getting dislocated yesterday at the yearling show. 'cause I said, who's gonna rough up my shoulder the most here? Oh no. Have you dislocated it previously? Oh yeah. This is like number 13 and the third time.
Oh, that's the way I was gonna say, when you've done it a couple of times, I, we have a friend, who his literally comes outta the socket all the time and he'll just pop it back in himself. Oh [00:13:00] yeah. He's just told me stories of just having to do that on his own.
I'm like, Ooh. Y Yeah, that's a third time. This year, prior to this year, I had babied it so much and I hadn't dislocated it in six years. Then a warm blood did it to me. Oh, it wasn't an OTTB, it was a warm blood. Exactly. And I'm really enjoying this very fresh version of Chelsea, by the way.
I'm very punchy. I'm very tired. I love it. Remember when we talked last time and I said oh, I'm so calm and everything's so easy and I'm not gonna stress about it. Now it's the crunch time and now there's a new, it's new job. You did warn us that this would happen.
Oh boy. But yeah, so the, a warm blood dis dislocated my shoulder sometime in the winter. And then and then I folded, like total, we fold 38, but I think I folded 30, at [00:14:00] least 35. No, I did 34. Oh goodness. Yeah. And then, yeah. Wow. Actually the No wonder you're tired. I know that's been months ago, but still actually approach to makeover.
I know everybody complains oh, things happened to their horses, but more things have happened to me than the horses this year from Yeah, I can relate to that. Yeah. I had from like March until now, I've either been sick or injured this entire time I've had, it was like, first I got RSV, then I got a stomach virus.
Oh my God. You did? Yes. And then I got COVID, and then I got Lyme disease and oh my God. I'm not having fun Chelsea. Anyways. They say everything comes in threes. So that seems like more than threes. Yep. So can it stop? Did you get to six yet? Because now you've got, you've restarted clock.
Yeah. You've restarted it. Honestly I'm just gonna bubble wrap myself [00:15:00] until October. There's I'm not, we, I'm not going out and put you in one of those big sumo, can we put on one of those bubbles? One of those like balls bounce around that. Exactly. Can we bring those to the makeover? Oh my God.
I almost change my freestyle. I know. I almost changed my freestyle to literally my horse being like completely wrapped head to toe in bubble wrap. 'cause I was over it. Oh, honestly, that's a brilliant I know. Unwrap him. Just unwrap him. Yeah. Besides some of the moments that you talked about did peppy give you any kind of funny stories or how did he handle the warmups? Like the hunter warmups or bananas? He's just a good boy, God. He just gets in there. And I feel like I owe barrel racers an apology after all the times that I've told you guys. Yeah, the warmup in the barrel racing is insane.
Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Kids running out in front of you, listen to me. It is way scarier to be coming [00:16:00] down a line and a little pony kid cuts in front of you on an OTTV that you're like, oh. Oh, we're cranking down this line. I was trying to get the seven, I don't have a break right now.
I'm gonna jump you Little Pony kid. Oh my God. Yeah, so that was, I went to, a local, Fair Show or whatever it's right down the road. And I did the Low Hunter and I did the Thoroughbred Hunter and Pepe was the champion. There was a class like 14 and we were champion in our division.
And it's literally the second time I've done showing courses on him it was also like a hundred. That's amazing. It was like a hundred degrees out. It felt like it wasn't a hundred degrees, but it was definitely like ninety's. Cracking up is cracking up right now.
This is when I wish that we were actually recording the video because I think we're all really at 11 right now. Yep. Except nobody wants to see this. No. [00:17:00] No. I'm so glad. Maybe next time. I'm so glad we should do that at some point. I know. Literally I'll make sure I don't look like a drowned rat.
That's yeah. Least, at least are clean. Not You got hay everywhere. That's, to be fair that's true. Like my hair is a mess. I look like, I don't even know what you would describe me as, but will we? It's not good. Will we look like Travis and Taylor though? I don't know that we can pull that out.
No, they have glam lighting. It's different. And a glam. Yeah. I have a ring light somewhere. I have a ring light, but it only just fills because otherwise it would be pitch black. It can only do so much. Anyway, we are getting very off track for people who can't see what we're talking about.
Okay. Wait, we've talked about fuzzy. You skipped the whole part. Yeah. What about fuzzy Wuzzy? Yeah, I'm sorry. Okay, go on. And then there's fuzzy. She's a marere, she's spicy, and she's been, has she been doing, this is [00:18:00] derailed.
All right. Tell us about Fuzzy and her evolution and what you've been doing with her. Okay. Obviously because fuzzy is my basically my own horse. My horse is Yeah, awful on the back burner. So anyways, so of course there's been times of consistency and then times of inconsistency and then times of consistency and but obviously we're very consistent now.
And so when we first started it, I. Trying to think of what I was gonna tell you guys last night of what it was like to ride her before and do you know like French bulldogs? Yeah. You know how like they, I know of them. Have you ever held one though? They're like little they're little they're very muscular and yeah.
And there's no bend to their body and Yeah. That's what it felt like. Riding fuzzy the first time because it just felt like everything was muscle bound and she was so tight and she just kept swinging her [00:19:00] head up and down and up and down. So the big thing with her was just getting her to loosen up and stretch and listen.
And I think, I've told you guys before I don't do a lot of showing with the horses when throughout the winter and, or if we start in December then I might hit a few shows towards the end of folding season, but that's takes up my whole life on top of working at the barn and the other training horses and stuff.
So then come basically May, June, July, then it just gets wild. And so with her, I took one time I took her to a barrel race to pony there 'cause I was like I'll just, I'm not sure if she's ready to ride off property yet. But basically where I'm going with this is I just tried to develop like really good strong connection with them and, a sense of trust and stuff. For the first few months of training with me, they don't really go off property that much. I'm just focused on getting them relaxed long and low, trying to improve the quality of their trot and movement in general. And [00:20:00] then then start to slowly add in the other things.
So with her, because she was like a little bulldog it was a little hard to get her to let go, but now she's she's seriously so chill. I don't know if I'm just getting better at training horses or I just keep getting really nice horses or what it is, but both her and peppy have been.
So easy. I mean she That's awesome. She babysits my 17-year-old barrel horse at the barrel races. It's actually insane and Yui that's so cool. Obviously Yui plays a big part in this 'cause I can pony anything off of Yui, so I take him to the barrel races. So her first experience in that, in those crazy warmup pens was ponying off of Yui.
'cause I'm only one person. Oh. So nice. And so he brings a lot of confidence to the horses and stuff. 'cause he just he's not an aggressive horse or bold or mean or anything. He's just I'm here to do my job and you can [00:21:00] stay with me. And he is just very cool. And so I think he transfers that to them.
And yeah, she's just been super good and when I take her places I took her to the Double C ranch show and I really didn't know what to expect because I was like we haven't really worked on all this stuff.
We just started side passing. We did the the test for the makeover was the same test that they, or like for riding pattern. Yeah. For the ranch work For competitive trail or? Oh, ranch work. Oh, for ranch work. Okay. Yeah. So I'm doing ranch with her barrels and ranch.
Okay. So we did the little ranch. Okay. So you've decided on her? Yeah. Her, she's yeah. I took her to the ranch show and then the next weekend I took her to a cutting horse trainer. And we like learned how to do the cattle stuff and that's the only time that she's ever been hot or like.
I felt like I had something under me that could kill me. Yeah. But then once she figured it out 'cause all we, he has this big [00:22:00] round arena and then he has this big Longhorn cow in there. And then he is got a bunch of like little smaller cows. And, she was scared, but all we did was just keep trotting around them.
They stayed in the middle and we just trotted around them. And then that she realized that they weren't that scary. And then it was scary when they moved, but then she was at the end able to cut them off and move one around. And then I realized that's cool where I need what I needed to do and what I needed to work on.
And, yeah. It just, she just blows my mind. When I took her to the ranch show, we were the only people practicing on the ranch course. 'Cause for once in my life I was like the first person there. And so I got on right away 'cause I had two horses with me and I was like, I'll just get her done real quick.
And they had that water feature and so I wasn't sure. I hadn't done water on her and she just went right on in and was perfect. That's awesome. And never did a gate on her. Oh, great. And she was perfect. Did it better than the older horse that I had that was there with me. Yeah, she like, yeah.
The, somebody was asking for some advice today on the [00:23:00] RRP group. I'm not sure if you saw the post, but they're trying to figure out their second discipline and they were like, oh, I was thinking maybe ranch work and people were like, it's hard. Yeah. It's a commitment.
Yeah. It's a commitment. 'cause they're like, , one, you have to be comfortable with cows because if you get through the preliminaries, you have to actually sort the cows, in the finale. But even in the preliminaries, you have to Yeah. Open a gate, walk through the cows, and then close the gate. Yeah.
And it's a full gate. It's not a rope gate. Yeah. It's a regular lock gate. Regular. Which is, yeah. That's way harder. Yeah. So that to me is that, that's to me, that's like up here in terms of yeah and the thing that got me last year was that I wasn't prepared for 'cause I had watched the years before on YouTube you can watch the finale and you can watch different things and other, or find people who posted their trail Yeah. Courses or whatever. And so there were a few things that I wasn't prepared for. Last year they just randomly added , a calf roping dummy. So you had to drag a calf roping dummy. And I had only [00:24:00] dragged logs. Oh, wow. So I was like I don't know.
And they're big. Yeah, really big. So it just looks a big black blob on the ground. And the ranch work is in the coliseum. So there's the big jumbotron. And the jumbotron is like all showing all the listings and the sponsors. And so it's shining onto the black blob and then changing.
Oh my God. And then, so I didn't actually, I couldn't even get UBI to do it. He was so scared. And he's not a scared horse, but it was like visually it was very scary with the lights on it and everything. Yep. And then, usually you just drag it in a circle, but they wanted do to drag it in a figure eight.
So that means that the rope at some point is gonna come behind your horse's thumb cross over. My and you're gonna be dragging it behind your horse's butt. And I was like, oh my gosh. Like, why did I do this as a second discipline? , So one of the things is though, is that you can't skip something you have to try it and then you have to make an attempt and then you can put your hand up and move on to the next thing. 'cause you [00:25:00] only have a certain amount of time. So you know it's one of those things, now I know what to prepare for, right? Yeah. Expect the unexpected.
And but it is one of those things that you really shouldn't, . Add on as a fun. Yeah, no, I feel like that would be your first focused discipline. Yeah. Because everybody was no, if you feel really confident about your first discipline, if you really wanna do a second one, your horse is pretty confirmed on the flat.
Maybe do dressage or do something else that's just a little bit more chill so that you're not just piling it on your horse, and when I was there and I saw the trail course, I half thought about scratching out of it when I was at RRP because I was like, he's doing so good in the barrels.
, Why would I wanna blow him up right now? I don't wanna create a bad situation for him or make him sour for the barrels because we had won the the barrels. Yeah. What was the name of the horsemanship pattern. And so I was like, oh yeah, that's right.
Yeah, we're in a good position with that. [00:26:00] And so then I didn't feel like I did good in my ranch pattern, and then I was like I'm just gonna scratch out of the trail because I feel like this is too much and I am an overthinker. And but I just felt like I was gonna overdo it with him and then he'd be too tired for his barrel run that night.
And then but then I did the ranch pattern and I was in third and I was like I guess I'll keep on going, right? The worst that I could do is tank it and see what happens. And we did kind of tank it. But we still ended up ninth overall. So I was pretty proud of that.
So which this year would have you in the prize money, right? Oh, it was only top five. It was only top five last year. Yeah. Yeah. I just wanted to come back to something that you said about Fuzzy's physical condition and how she was so tight and rigid in her body.
And, I've also dealt with some of those issues with Oscar in terms of either mental or physical things and what's a piece of advice you would give somebody when they, [00:27:00] I would call that sort of a stumbling block of your timeline with a horse. Especially if you have a goal in mind, right?
So how do you factor giving a break or allowing for that in your, trajectory of bringing a young thoroughbred along. The big things that like really helped us were I let my horses live out 24 7. Peppy lives out fuzzy lives out and does it make for the most beautiful coats right now?
No. And this like early summer was really tough. Fuzzy got rain rot and it was a bad summer for rain rot, huh? Yeah, it was really bad. And and then it got sun bleached and there's all of those factors and obviously because I've done this like prep horses and sales prep yearlings and stuff I know, how quickly you can change that.
So I feel pretty confident the horses have now started to come in for preparation because obviously they need to be able to stall and stuff like that, we've [00:28:00] hit the point in this, in our. Journey where they're starting to like stall and, really pump the feed to them and and all of that stuff.
But for her, I felt like turnout was the best thing I could do for her. And then she's had body work and she's really smart and a really fast learner. So I think we've talked about it before about marinating and I don't really, yeah. Honestly, like sometimes I feel 20 minute ride you can get more out of than just.
Drilling and drilling and drilling and, oh, we were just talking about that yesterday. We were making some content for the podcast. And we talk a lot about don't get greedy with these horses, but we really mean is stuff like that where it's like you're teaching them a new concept and they, you get those little light bulb moments and when do you put 'em away and when do you push it too far?
Yeah. Yeah. And that's the big thing is that I'm so grateful that I've had like so many experiences and know that there's a time to push [00:29:00] and there's a time to accept. I think I've talked about it before, is like 1% better every day. So if I'm trying to school.
The side pass or something. If I get one step and I get what I want, I just either go on and do something else or I end for the day. Yeah. Yeah. Obviously there's days where we're working on conditioning and endurance and things like that, but I'm very lucky because the property that I'm at ha like it's 162 acres, and so we have a lot of ride out.
So I do a lot of that with the horses and I feel like that helps their brain. I feel like it helps their body. And I just try to make it like fun for them. And I really don't try to hammer, hammer anything down. It's just I just am looking for responsiveness and, listening and things like that.
And then sometimes I'm just like, Hey, you know what? We've had a rough couple of weeks. Here's a week. Let's see what happens after a week. Yeah. Yeah. [00:30:00] I find so many times though, you give them that time and they come back better. Yeah. 100%. And I just, I feel you have to read your horse as an individual, but I just feel like it's easy to get them sour and for them to look at you as, oh, you're only here for this and Yeah.
The thorough boards are so sensitive that you really have to work on that bond versus versus I demand this of you. 'cause they don't like that. It's interesting that you say that because not to keep bringing up Oscar, but the farm that we were at before, he was in the lower barn, which is not like the boarding barn.
So he was not in the more frequently visited barn. And he was turned out overnight and he was in the stall during the day. And it's a really nice big stall and everything like that. But it's not a place where I would go and hang out. It's where all the mares and fos come in for the, for the day.
And it's just that's their little space. And I realized after moving him and having him front and center [00:31:00] and in, in my face all the time, that there was this big missing piece of the relationship, which was. Really bonding. It wasn't just me showing up, going and collecting and bringing up to the cross ties, doing stuff with him and expecting him to work and then putting him away.
I now had an opportunity to sit on my trunk with a stall guard there. It sounds really stupid and simple. No, but it's no, it's like all of that stuff that really enhances their personality, brings out their inner sparkle. And I don't know, he has transformed since I moved him.
He has transformed personality wise, enormously. Yeah, no, I can totally relate because actually I find it sometimes hard because I live here, I work here and so trying to make it not be like mechanical or methodical or whatever. Can sometimes be really hard. So honestly the most bonding experiences I've had with the horses [00:32:00] is off the property.
And I just feel like we have that moment to , be together. We're waiting and we're just like having nice moments. And then , when we are home, the most beautiful moments that I have with them are actually lived through my child. I was gonna say, it would have to be with Zoe, right?
Yeah. She's just so magical. And the horses just are so like magnetized to her. She's just a ray of light and seeing the childhood wonder and stuff, sparks that in me. And. Then I just it makes me remember okay, this is what the horses want.
The horses don't want somebody who has an agenda. And I find I have a couple horses here right now that sometimes, like I have like teenagers here and stuff, and being a teenager is hard, right? So sometimes all you wanna do is get through the work or rush around or do it as fast as you can because I don't pay, I don't pay by the hour.
I pay by the shift [00:33:00] drop. You know what I mean? Yeah. So if it takes you however long, then that's on you. But if you get it done, in the normal amount of time, you're gonna make $25 an hour. Yeah. But so if you don't. If you're not like present and your goal is just to get things done in rush and you're working with OTBs, some of them just aren't gonna tolerate that.
And I have one like that right now. And she will spin around in circles in the stall for 10 minutes and then if I go in there and just take a deep breath and I'm like, Hey, we're just gonna go outside right now. And it's not Hey, we're gonna go outside right now and you need to put your halter on right now.
And I understand where the kids are coming from, but as a mom or, or just as an adult. I just realized nobody likes that. Nobody wants to feel rushed and they don't know why you're rushed. Yeah. They just pick up on your energy. So I do try to be very mindful of my energy and I know I know as soon as my horses, [00:34:00] if I'm having a day, I know as soon as I start to get that frustrated feeling, I'm like, this is not them.
This is me. I need to be done. Yeah. And to go do something else, then go do something else because take breath. There's no nothing positive is gonna come from that. And we do, we all have our days, and there's nothing wrong with saying oh, I'm having a really bad day.
And I'm like, you have to leave your baggage at the door. And so that's a big thing, you just, yeah, for sure. Sorry, so I didn't know. No, you're fine. I didn't know if there was a No, I'll just keep talking. Conclusion. I'll just keep talking. Just make me land the plane already. All right, so ladies, speaking of landing the plane, this is August 25th.
How many days out from the making For our week? It's five weeks or so. Yeah, it's 45 days or it's probably less than that. Probably less than that. It's October 8th, right? [00:35:00] Is officially seven. Officially the competition. 14, 21, 28. I can't do math. Okay. Can I, that's why I asked you guys what comes after 28.
I don't even know what you're doing. 35 call. I went for fine arts and 35, 42. Yep. Heard. I think you're in good company there. You know what though? 42 days. 42. Okay. Okay. Till the actual competition. So almost six weeks go. It could be more. Wait and this will air next week, so it'll be closer.
Wait, Chelsea. Anyway. Chelsea, I wanna make you feel slightly better because the girl that Lisa's my event horse is so lovely and so kind. And I found out today that she went to Harvard. I went to art school. We are not the same people. And you know what's the great thing about [00:36:00] horses? They just care if you have cookies or not.
They just, it's the great equalizer. We were joking about it. She was like, he doesn't care that I went to Harvard. I was like, I know, but I'm very impressed. I am intimidated. I think we know the answer to this question, but have you put in your final entries yet and then we wanna hear about your final chosen disciplines.
We know fuzzy, but what about peppy? We know you haven't put your entry in. Yeah. So whatcha waffling between it's all typed out. It's all ready to roll, but I just haven't pressed send, which honestly, that's a really big deal for me. Everybody should be clapping because typically at 5:00 PM ones that do the 29th Friday at 5:00 PM yeah.
I'm gonna circle back to you on Friday at four 30 and be like, you just have a little like tapping foot emoji. I know what's happening. I'm so bad. But but like this year it's mostly just because I really [00:37:00] haven't decided. So obviously I've made my decision with fuzzy and that was hard for her, but I just felt like she really enjoyed the cow thing and she seems to really enjoy doing the like when we went to the double C thing, she did really good on the pattern and she had never done it before that we're gonna do at the makeover.
What else? Yeah, it just seemed like a good second fit. Obviously. I love barrel racing, so that's why, I chose that and she seemed like a good fit for it. But, so for the second it was like, do I do Western dressage or I do that because I think she's a really nice mover too. But. I think I'm gonna definitely stick to the ranch, but who knows? I might change my mind. You've got a couple days. Also I read, I heard that the Western dressage is actually kept in the same group as regular dressage. There's no difference between, yeah.
Yeah. Which I don't think is really fair because I feel like there's so many entries for [00:38:00] dressage, classical dressage. Yeah. It feels like they should have a Western dressage division, but maybe they don't get enough entries. Yeah. I'm not sure if it's because of the entry thing, but I do feel like it should be different.
I know there have been Western dressage riders who have won the entire thing. Yeah. Which is really cool. Oh, really? Yeah. I wanna say two or three years ago the Western or the dressage was won by a western dressage rider.
And that's lovely. But to me it seems very daunting to show against, Yeah. 150 other people. Yeah. I just feel like how can you differentiate the two? Yeah. And I know that it's based on scores, right? So it's, they're looking at each horse as an individual and then they're scoring it.
So obviously it must have the same amount of points and all of that. So that must be how, but like to me it's, I don't know, it just seems a little Yeah. Odd, daunting to, yeah. Yeah. I don't know. It just doesn't feel like, equal. [00:39:00] Yeah. And then also like people around here will be like, oh, like I'm gonna go try and do a Western dressage test.
And they're like, oh that's so good. They score that so easy. And I'm like, why? Like, why is that an insult? Should I not be, it seems harder to me, but I don't know. I don't know anything. So where are you at with peppy then? Okay, so Peppy, obviously he's the hunter Prince so but now I keep going back and forth should I do Western dressage on him?
Obviously he's a really cute jumper. Do the show jumping? Then I was like, should I do competitive trail? And then I was like, Ooh, no. Should I do freestyle? And then no, but the big thing that's holding me back from doing the freestyle is that that takes a lot of preparation and that's not something that you can do by the seat of your pants.
And like you have to, it's not like I'm just gonna be [00:40:00] crying and I'm gonna feel like I'm, like when you're a kid, or at least this was my childhood you had to make up a dance to get a sleepover. No. What? No. Who did you have to dance for? We would be like, oh my God, if we make up a dance and put it on for you guys, can we, can my cousin sleep over? Oh my God, that's so funny. But that was really just a ploy so that we would just stay busy and leave everybody alone. Now that I'm a mom, I'm like, oh, you guys didn't wanna see our dance?
Now you get it. Yeah. You just wanted us to, you to get outta my hair for 10 minutes. I think it's funny that. I suggested maybe you try venting with her. I know. And you're like, oh no I couldn't do that. I'm not brave enough. I'm like have you seen barrel racing? I'm sorry. I know. Seen barrel racing.
Come on. Then you can combine all of the fun things. Yeah. No, she's no. She's no. The nice thing about show jumping, I'm a little sad that they took out the grid portion of the show [00:41:00] jumping. 'cause I feel like for green horses, that would really just show you like their potential.
But I guess you have to do a flat, you have to do a flat portion and then a uber fences portion for jumpers. Chelsea's I don't know. I thought, I didn't think there was, see, I didn't think I actually read the real book. Yeah. I think there, they might be like combined. It might be you go in and so I wanna say, so if you had to, because I didn't put your entry in today.
Emily's trying to wrangle us. I'm hurting, I'm trying to her the cats, I got told I need to. Heard cats, so I could do that. So if you had to put, if you had to press send right now after we stop recording. No. Yes. Right now what would be on Pepe's discipline list? Oh, Western Hunters Western Massage.
Oh yeah. Okay. Yeah. 'cause I just, I thought you were gonna say jumpers for sure. The thing for me was like, is it really fair to do, ask him to jump so much? Is that gonna be a lot? And I [00:42:00] do feel like, the jumps at at the makeover are like very flowery, very, there's a lot of filler in there.
And he jumps really hard and tries his little heart out. And I'll be honest with you, like it's been many years for me before since I've been like competing. In the hunter jumper world. So I just am hoping that I'm gonna be accurate. So like, why would I put myself through another, like accuracy?
Yeah. And also I don't, I just don't wanna I don't think it's like whipping and turning and doing the jumpers like crazy and stuff, but yeah, he, yeah. You have two horses. You need to have his best interest in mind, yeah. And so it gonna be a lot going on.
Yeah, definitely. A lot of jumping in a couple of days. Yeah. So anyways, so I think where we lost some time with the hoof abscess and stuff I just wanna focus on the hunters and then I feel like the Western dressage he can do a training level test, and [00:43:00] yeah. And then a part of me is still I wanna do the freestyle though.
'cause like I can drag my, my daughter's little kitty pool around and it's unicorns. And I was like, maybe we do something about unicorns and we bring the little pool and Oh my gosh. But that would be so fun. I'm so organized that I feel like it'll give me like I. I'm just not good at preparing things.
Like I'm very good. I was the kid who stayed up , and did crunch time for my art finals and stuff and I was up until four. Oh yeah. I think you're preaching to the choir right now. Yeah. I can't do that at the makeover. 'cause I also still live in Show World where I'm like, I gotta be at the show by five o'clock in the morning.
And I go out there and I do night check at certain, at nine or 10 o'clock at night. And then and then I, and then I have to worry about the other stuff. So I'm like, if I add putting on a routine that isn't made up for me, that's gonna literally push me over the edge and I'm gonna be crying, trying to set up, like I'm building [00:44:00] something outside as I'm supposed to go in, that's gonna.
Emily's like you are slowly dismantling neve's confidence over here. No, I'm just picturing us all there and I know I'm gonna be the mom. I'm gonna have two moms there. I'm gonna have you and Katie and it's gonna be great because you're, it's yeah we're gonna be momming. It is gonna be a lot of momming.
Alright, so let's switch gears and talk about the yearlings that you fold that you just got to show at the Virginia BR Association. Futurity. How was that? Other than dislocating your shoulder, other than dislocating my shoulder, I'll get into that story next. But no, it was really cool, I don't work full-time for that farm anymore.
I do the folding there in the winter but last year I worked there full-time before I took the position here at the 1789. And, so I had fold all those babies. I think we did 25 babies last year. And so the Virginia bred program [00:45:00] is growing exponentially. There's so many benefits to breeding thoroughbreds in in Virginia.
And so one of the ways that they're also including that is this Virginia Thoroughbred Association yearling futurity. There's four classes. There's the Virginia Bread Cult, Virginia Bread Phillies, then there's Virginia Certified Cult. And a certification program in Virginia is you send your out-of-state bread horse here for six months and it makes them eligible for different races and purses here in Virginia.
And then there's the Virginia Certified Phillies. So I showed a Virginia Bread cult. And we won that class. It was wow. His half-sister, same mayor won the Virginia Thoroughbred yearling, futurity last year. I did not show her, but I helped, my husband actually does a lot of the prep and things this year he did almost all of the prep.
And he's the [00:46:00] reason for how well everything went yesterday because the cults were wild about a month ago. And so he did all of the prep, which includes handling them daily. They round pen, they walk they bathe, they clip, they, do all of those things. But obviously the round penning and the walking is the most important parts.
And getting not feral. So I was just lucky enough to just show up and show them yesterday. Yeah, but it was still really cool because so the Virginia Bread cult we had two in that class that I fold both of them. And the cult that I showed he was born on Easter morning and she called me at six o'clock in the morning and was like the full alerts going off.
So I drove over there as fast as I could and, 'cause I was only living eight minutes from there before I get there, help pull baby out. And and it was so beautiful because I'll send you the picture, but it was so cool because the sun was literally coming up and through the stall [00:47:00] door and the baby is just on the ground and it was just one of those miracle of birth moments. Yeah, this is so beautiful. It was like an easy falling and it was like, it was just really an Easter and it was Easter and it was perfect. Yeah. And it was like, and it was like a nice hour. It wasn't like wasn't it three o'clock, 3:30 AM yeah.
So yeah, so it was really nice. And he like, was perfect. He got up and he nursed. And I just remember saying to my boss, Patricia wow, he is beautiful. He is perfect. I like this cult a lot. So anyways, I was lucky enough to show him. And then we had another so he's by Oscar performance out of jump and Nancy, who's a jumpstart mayor.
And then and then the other cult is, by Frosted. And he was actually like the opposite. He did not have a nice story. His dam was wild. She was a maiden mare. She was really difficult. He could not figure out how to nurse. I think I was out there with him for [00:48:00] 10 hours or something.
And when I left first thing in the morning and swapped shifts, he still had not nursed, I was bottle feeding him. Wow. He was yelling to me. Yeah, , he did not care about his mom. He was like literally would hear me moving and then yell to me. I'm like, no, I'm not the mommy. Anyway, so he was in the class too.
So in the Virginia Bread cult class I won with the Oscar Performance Cult. And then the the Frosted Cult was second. And then That's amazing. Yeah. And then I showed a Philly that I fold. There were two Phil, or actually there was four Phillies in the class. The Virginia Bread Phillies class was huge.
There was like, I wanna say 16 in it. And Wow. We fold two for Amy Moore and she bred Forte. And she asked me to show the one, one of the ones that I fold who was a Jackie's warrior Philly. And she was we got third in the class, which is still, that's still [00:49:00] huge. It was a big class.
Yeah. And she was really pretty, really classy. Philly. They did a great job prepping her. Armenia did not prep those ones 'cause they just live locally. And then the other Philly that I had bred, Amy showed herself and she. First in the class and then That's amazing. We didn't have any Virginia certified cults, but then I showed a Virginia certified Philly by McKenzie.
And I love the McKenzie's and she won it. And then I had to turn around. I had, you just went in everything. I know. God. Yeah. And then I handed off to one of the girls who she also preps, she prepped the Phillies and stuff. And so she took her in the ring and I had to show the Oscar Oscar performance cult.
And as we were walking in the ring, obviously he's still a cult, so showing with the Phillies and stuff, he was like. A little more horse as we were going in and as we were going in, he like reared up and yanked my shoulder and then it popped out and then I popped it back in real quick.[00:50:00]
Oh God. And I was in so much pain, but it was in the grand Champion class, so they take the top two of each oh man class and then you have to show them all together. And so obviously they're looking for things like, a big athletic walk, good confirmation. Yeah. And so anyways, so I wasn't sure how it was gonna go and but he was big and rangey and has a super athletic walk and just getting him to stretch his neck out and like really show off his big shoulder and everything was great.
And then we won it and the shoulder dis, the shoulder dislocation was not for nothing. Oh boy. But I was like, I'm shocked. I'm shocked they put the cults and phillies together. I feel like they do plenty with that. Yeah. Where they're just kinda they're young enough that somebody should be able to keep a hold of em.
Yeah. Hold on tight everybody.
Oh, he's my kid. I was just looking up [00:51:00] Oscar performance. I hadn't heard of him before, but he's by kitten's Joy. Oh, nice. I have a theatric. I have a theatrical mayor, wow. Yeah. That makes a lot of sense. Yeah. I'll take one of those, please. Yeah, we'll just keep 'em on hold for you guys. Yeah, just bookmark that one for you.
Work that one for when he is done racing. The mayor throws really nice babies. She's a jumpstart. Oh, so I know Jumpstarts are so athletic. Wow. It's gonna be really cool for you because you've. Hinted towards this on Facebook a lot, when you see these horses come back around, they start racing, they start, having success on the track and everything.
Do you feel like when you're in this situation with them for these yearling shows and things like that, do you feel like you know I think this one's gonna be really special, not just like from a confirmation standpoint, but for the horse that has all of the components?
Yes. Yeah. I feel like there's been ones that came out and the minute they came out I was like, you just knew. Yeah. Yep. This one. Yeah. [00:52:00] And then there's some that I just love to death, but I know they're never gonna be a racehorse. You're like, you're gonna be such a good score horse. I can't wait to see you again.
Honestly, the other I have one that i've reached out to the assistant trainer and been like, Hey, because, okay, so this was my first year of showing yearlings that I actually fold. And I never thought anybody would ask me, 'cause I was just like little old barn because who cares about Chelsea O'Brien?
That's nobody that, nobody's just, no, but I just feel in, in articles and oh my gosh, you need to stop it. But I just, I don't know. Sometimes, I don't know. I just didn't think anybody would want me to show them and I didn't even think I was qualified to do that. So I did like I reached out to the assistant trainer and I was like, I'm really interested in this one because I just love her.
Dream horse except not a race horse. And she she wrote back and said, okay, I'll let the owners know just in case. And obviously [00:53:00] she like, will never have to worry about anything in her life. She has fabulous owners that would keep her for the rest of her life. But part of me is I hope that they'll just sell her to me so I can take her to RRP, so that, that could be like my full circle moment.
Like now. That would be so incredible. I wanna RRP on something that I fold. That would be unreal. That's just, that's the pipe dream. That's the dream, right? Yeah. Yeah. I don't know. I'm big on the manifestation stuff. Cool. Okay. Yeah. Maybe manifest for you too. I think it's a new move.
Maybe they'll even just keep her and you can train her and ride her too. I don't know. Yeah, no. Oh yeah. Even if RRP, if we didn't go to RRP, I would I would literally love that thing. We had such a weird bond with her. It was like the first year that Armenia fold and it was the first baby that like, she's the only baby that stayed with us the entire season because the mom was never getting bred back.
So we got to, handle her every single [00:54:00] day. And she was tough and cool. When she was born, we named her pistol because she was such a pistol. But then but then we just started calling her baby. 'cause every time we'd get go to the paddock, she'd come she'd leave her mother and come screaming for us.
I think that would just be like such an incredible full circle moment if that could ever happen for you. That would be very cool. Certainly, we've all experienced the this and to some degree where you had this horse in training and it went up to the upper levels or whatever the case might be.
It is really beautiful to be connected to their journey however long that might be. Yeah. And I like it is just mind blowing because some of the babies that have fold. Or have worked with have gone on to do such amazing things. I think, I don't even know how many stakes waste races have been won this year by babies that have fold, but it's been insane.
And then, like mind frame, who I yearling prepped he's gonna go to Breeder's Cup and I think he's running in the Gold Cup. Cool. I think like they keep changing it. He was supposed to run in something else. And I can't remember off the [00:55:00] top of my head what it was, but they scratched him the day of because his owner also owns Fierceness and I think they didn't want them to race against each other or something, but okay. But I think they are gonna race against from, what they're saying on the interwebs is that he's slated for Gold Cup.
But anyhow, so it's just cool. Like it is just really cool. Gosh. And then a mayor that I've folded the last two years, I didn't full her three years ago, but my boss did. And that one just won a big race in Saratoga and was like on the TDN rising Star list. Oh, nice. So that's amazing.
So it's just cool. I'm looking up. There's a lot of cool stuff. He's run seven times and he is won five of those times and he's done second the other two times. That's outrageous. That's amazing. What are his earnings? 1.8 million. Dang. Good boy. That's amazing. That's my God. He gave him some.
Oh God. I wanna tell you something. It was the easiest. He gave him some of your good juju. He, [00:56:00] but he was the easiest. He was the easiest yearling we had to prep, but he had this Wait, I have a question. Did Z have anything to do with this baby? Mind frame? Yeah. Or the one that I want? Like the, no.
Did she like touch the baby? Did she, because maybe she's the magic component. Oh, it's very possible. It's very possible. She did break them all of strollers because she was in a stroller while, and I just walked the aisle and stuff with her in the stroller. Like Parker in the, just learning how to walk and like running down the aisle with god feed buckets and stuff, or, so cute. But yeah, no, actually he was probably the easiest yearling ever. He was so good. I remember braiding his little mane, I taught him how to bathe. He was so easy. I remember putting little pompom like a little unicorn ponytail in his, and we really weren't expecting him to, he sold for 600,000 at Keeneland.
And [00:57:00] like when we were watching the sale it just kept going up and we're like, what? What? Oh yeah. The breeding is there, right? Yeah. Constitution. And and his mom is fabulous and comes from a great family, but man, it was just shocking. We had no idea like. Honestly had no idea.
So that's so cool. And even, his owner breeder was absolutely shocked. We weren't expecting that, but, and then he's, and almost no inbreeding then. And almost no inbreeding, which is Emily's favorite. Then it's, and then it's wild when, they go on and they do things because sometimes they sell for that much money and then never make nothing.
Yeah, they do nothing. You get 'em for free. You get 'em for free and you look up their auction records and you're like, whoa, somebody had high expectations for this horse on the track. But guess what? I think he'll make a nice pleasure horse. And yeah, my old boss didn't like it very much. One time we were [00:58:00] out and we had this gun runner cult that I had fold, but there was a big puddle in front of the running shed.
And I don't know, we were doing something and my boss was out there and the gun runner cult. Out of a really nice, like multiple graded stakes winning there, jumped the puddle. Like it was like, oh my God, the knees like up to three, feel like a proper like Grand Prix show jump.
Yeah. It was fabulous. And I'm like Larry, if he got a race, have a different career. Yeah. Yeah. He was like, I don't like when you say these things and Right. And then there's one point like, yeah, can he make a racehorse first? Then we can talk about that. So then I've followed his racing career and stuff and his first few starts were like, really unimpressive?
And I was like, oh no. And then he, I think he won a stakes race like two weeks ago or randomly Yeah. He got it together and maybe ran one stakes race or ran something and then he ran an allowance and was [00:59:00] good in it like the other day. Anyhow, he's fine now. I guess he's a racehorse, but but there's other ones that I'm like, oh, Larry, this will make a great barrel prospect.
He's can you please stop? He is knock, it off's a lot of money on these things. Yeah, I know. It's w it's wild. Like this cycle of racehorses is really interesting to me. For sure. We're gonna move on here to your training philosophy and tips that you might wanna share with some of our listeners.
You started so many thoroughbreds and do you have a single training tip or exercise that you swear by that every OTTB owner should know?
So it's not necessarily a training tip or something that I do with my horses, but it's something that I do because I ride wing wing English, and Western. So the a big thing that I have trouble with people is that they worry so much about their head, but then they don't really understand riding through the outside rain and they try to turn them too much off the inside hand [01:00:00] and and they try to hold their heads up and stuff and you just can't do that.
You have to find that fine line of giving And I like the kids that I have that ride with me. I'm like, you gotta ride like a monkey right now. Because I need you to ride off of your weight and your seat and I want you to turn. Yeah. But you just have to think about from a racehorse perspective, if they want them to turn, they're not yanking them in the direction they want them to go. You know what I mean? There's walk No, they're shifting a little weight. Yeah. And so I try to explain to people that's a big thing. And that's where I find people struggle the most is that like they want 'em to go in the direction, so they pull in that direction, but then it they drop out their shoulder and then the horse is going sideways and then they're mad and start pulling that, the re that they want them to go to. Yeah. Even more. And then they're popping the shoulder even harder. Yeah. The biggest thing that I work on is straightness. I will work horses on a 20 meter circle forever.
And I find that to be a good way to do transitions and things. , When I was growing up I had a trainer who had [01:01:00] me work on the circle constantly, but think of it as a clock. So at 12 o'clock we're gonna do this, and at six o'clock we're gonna do this, and at three o'clock we're gonna do this.
And be very . Concise about what you want and really work on that clock and make a plan and then just focusing. I like that analogy. Of a 20 meter circle. Emily can attest to setting up flower pots on a 20 meter circle for me and try to get me to ride it. And every time I knocked over a flower pot, it was one margarita, it was negative one.
Margarita. I think I still need to collect on this margaritas. I think you do too, that you speak that, because I don't know that you made it around a single time, but I do like the idea of I think about that a lot when I'm riding where I'm like, okay, I'm gonna pick a point to make a transition.
I'm gonna prepare for the transition. I'm gonna make it deliberate. And I think those types of, focus points are so good when you're working with a young horse and Emily's taught me a of this, okay, you wanna [01:02:00] prepare for a downward transition?
What's your brain thinking? How do you prepare for that transition? What is your body doing? How are you gonna set your horse up for it? There's a lot of stuff don't fall in. Don't fall into a heap. Don't fall into a heap. Oh my God, that is, yeah. It's not it's not R into me. Yeah.
And sometimes you're like, okay, at this spot you're gonna walk and then instead of like prepar for, you're just like, yeah. And just, yeah. And I. I find your analogy of the ride like a monkey. Very timely because we've actually been trying to put together a little vi video series where I'm riding Neve horse Oscar and teach you about contact.
And about how to move off the leg. You go from inside leg to outside range. And sometimes you have to not look very pretty while you're doing that. It's very unpredictable, you have to move a lot. Yes. Because you're trying to get him to understand to step over.
Yeah. And that's the big thing in my training, especially coming from like now like I wouldn't even call myself a Western trained rider, but from riding Western for so long, I find that actually my English [01:03:00] riding is more effective now. My leg might not be as tight as it used to be.
But what I find is that I can be more dynamic in the saddle where I, like when I'm trying to teach people Western and I'm like, and they're coming from English. Backgrounds inventors who wanna try barrel racing. Those type of personalities go very well together. So they could, yeah, I can imagine.
But the problem is that, when you're writing English, I feel like we're taught to lock our hips down and lock our heels down, Uhhuh. And we don't get the movement. And so I'm like, honestly you gotta be like butter. You gotta just move with it. And like people don't realize how much their legs play a role in it, or like where their hips are, or just the movement over your shoulders can change so much about them.
And so I feel yeah, the more you can become dynamic in the saddle versus like stagnant and locked down, the more the, at least for me, I find my training can progress much faster. Yeah. And I am not a pretty rider. I'm not gonna [01:04:00] lie to anybody and say oh wow. I'm like, I have never been a pretty rider.
My sister growing up, she was the kid who could go and not ride for a month and I school her horses for her. She'd go to summer camp and she'd meet us at the horse show on the weekend and go win everything because she had such beautiful equitation, but she was so ineffective. Yeah.
Yeah, no, I'd rather be effective than pretty. Yeah. And at the end of the day doing the like ranch stuff has also changed a lot for me. I don't know if it's just like becoming an adult or, just not getting frustrated by these things anymore and learning to enjoy the technical aspects of things, but.
I just think it's really cool to think about maneuvers and how they can work in the real world. Whereas yeah, when I was doing the hunter jumper stuff consistently, I was like, why? But like, why are we doing this? Yeah. Yeah. Where like I feel like, oh, we're doing this and it's for a job and a purpose and this is why the horse has to do this.
And like for me, I [01:05:00] need that kind of why, but also I feel like the horses understand and and doing the technical stuff helps their brain too. Those are the big things, that I've found recently. I don't know if that's gonna help anybody or if it makes sense.
I don't know how telling people ride like a monkey is gonna help. So when I did that clinic with Emily Greenfield, I was asked, I asked her, she's what do you wanna work? And I was like there's some obvious holes in our training. And I was like, but also I was like, one of the things I know we're gonna have to do with the makeover is we're gonna have to side pass over a pole at some point in competitive trail.
And she's okay. She's and I was like, and he just doesn't really get the concept of moving over. He'll do it in hand, but he like doesn't really understand it under saddle. So that's when she taught me this drift, which was like stepping into your outside leg and scooping them over with your hip and actually moving their shoulders and it, and she's that's the start of the side pass, right?
So if you can get them to [01:06:00] do that and then you can turn them to towards. The rail, you can start to ask them those baby steps of it. And I have used that technique between Oscar and Gem, so much, it's so useful. But the thing it does for me is it makes me loosen up the part of my body that's always the tensest, which is like my hip area, my hip joint.
Yeah. So if I just get on and I start my warmup and I start thinking about shift his shoulders this way, go back the other way, go straight for a little while, it's amazing. What that actually does for me as a rider as well as loosening up and straightening up the horse, and another thing like that 'cause I've been doing a lot of teaching lately is I find that something that helps, and I don't know if, I don't even know if I'm right or wrong on this, but I just try to tell people like. Your shoulders are their shoulders and your hips are their hips.
So if you want the shoulders to come around [01:07:00] like this, you gotta bring your shoulders around like this and follow. Yeah. And yeah. I and then if you want their hip hips to roll underneath them, roll your hip underneath you and then Yeah. And then bring everything around.
But you have to think about how your body relates to their body because they mirror things and Yeah. They say horses are the great mirrors and they're just trying to mirror or mimic kind of what you're doing. And, we have to help that. And anyways. I don't know if that's helpful either, but I think for some people that can help, like it's, we're just gonna throw this whole podcast in the, throw it out.
There's nothing good in here. Who's Chelsea O'Brien? Anyways, honestly, I was such, stop it. No, I think that was very relatable and I think both Neve and I have been doing very similar things. Yeah. So that's actually very cool to hear. I think we wanted to look ahead a little bit to any next big milestones or prep for peppy [01:08:00] and Fuzzy in our countdown to the makeover.
Anything coming up. So yes. But Chelsea gets real serious. Yeah. She got real, real serious. She got called into the headmaster office. She's, I know. She's like the fun's over, mom's here. Yeah. No, I am, basically I have been showing almost. Every single week, sometimes three times a week or going to my truck has been hooked to my trailer more than it's been off of the trailer.
Yeah, and right now like I took fuzzy to a barrel race this past weekend. That was fabulous. Pepe's going to a le so every week on Tuesdays from now until the makeover, I'll be taking peppy to to a lesson. And then what else do we have? There, sometimes I feel like I'm sure other people relate to this, but sometimes I'm like, I'm not meant to do that because I'll be like, ah, the one horse show that I'm thinking about bringing to [01:09:00] peppy two there's a couple little local hunter shows, but then there's it's still local, but it's like at the upperville.
Horse show. But it's not oh, you should go there. That's a great, because it's a great location. You should abso can you imagine? The photos come? I know. I'm like, you're gonna do it for the party. And they have so many different rings. It's not like you have to be in like, some big scary ring.
All the rings are beautiful there. What? Better prep. And it's and I actually only live like 30 minutes from Upperville. Yeah. I think we're gonna do it, but I just like I was gonna do. Yay. Unfortunately his ha fabs coincided with the upperville the actual upperville horse show.
The one And they have a whole Yeah, they have a whole thorough Right afternoon. Yeah. And so I was gonna do the two. We were only gonna go and do the too slow to go class. But I thought it would be cool to do anyways, but but so I still have the opportunity to go show at the showgrounds and it's a bucket list thing yeah.
It's such beautiful place. You really should. Yeah. So we're gonna do that September 1st. I have another [01:10:00] lesson with the cutting trainer for fuzzy. I've gotta get fuzzy doing the rope. I gotta. Do roping and dragging, and I've gotta work on my gate stuff and I've gotta work on dragging things.
But I'm feeling pretty confident not confident, but I'm feeling like good about where we're at in the barrel racing thing, right? We have a horsemanship clinic that's gonna come here to the farm and like also Oh, that's awesome. Also, yeah, when I said I would like manifest things, I really believed that because so I grew up like in the early two thousands, like horse show, hunter jumper world, and so the trainers are like really harsh, and, but I like crave that still. I want somebody to be mean to me. And I don't want somebody to pet me on the back and say oh no I get it one more time. You want criticism that's gonna make you better. Yes. And so it was really weird because I have these neighbors who come and rent the arena.
They'll come once a week or so. And [01:11:00] they showed up and they're like, oh, our trainer's coming. But he's from outta state and I hope you don't mind. I'm like, okay, a little late now, but okay. And so anyway, but anyways, so he came and, I recognized him from Facebook and I was like, oh, like I, yeah, we have mutual friends and stuff.
And anyways, he was like why don't you come down here and ride with us? And so then I got on Yui and then he, and then I was riding and I was preparing for Yi's first rodeo, which is like on, little tiny dirt pen that's two strides between first and second Barrel. And so anyways, he, so he said to me, can I get on that horse?
And I said, yeah, why? And he's I can't stand to watch you ride him. Oh, manifestation.
Whoa. But he did, he got after me and then the next day he came out and he helped me with fuzzy and stuff. And I got so much out of that and I just needed somebody to push me [01:12:00] like to the next. Level. Yeah, that's fair. Sometimes maybe I could put ask a little bit more.
Sometimes without frying them out, I can still ask for things without not getting aggressive but expecting a little bit more. Yeah. So anyway. What's the horsemanship clinic? He just does like ranch work type things, western dressage get the horses bending and flexing like in the western way and get them working off your leg a little bit better and helping me fine tune some of that stuff.
So he's gonna come and do that and, teach some other people in the area. Cool. And they do roping too, so we'll probably. Try your hand at some roping too. Not on live cattle, but they have the sled with the four wheeler. Yeah. So we'll do that and then yeah, hit a couple shows with Peppy and keep on going to our lessons and it's Hail Mary time, right?
Yeah, it is. And it's too late to turn back now. It's too late to turn back now. And [01:13:00] also I'm just excited, regardless I, I feel really and I'm sure you feel this way about your guys too the journey that you go on with these horses in a short period of time and the kind of mental gymnastics as Emily would put it, that put yourself through with what you think would be ideal and what's not, and all of the things that happen in between.
It's really special. I'm getting it now. Yeah, I'm getting the experience that I, after inter interviewing, you guys last year and being a part of your journey being on that journey myself is definitely it's giving me a lot of perspective and it's also just making me feel really proud of my own journey, but yeah, and I just think, in my experience this now being the third year that I've done it and pushing myself to the max by taking two but I just feel like it's given me really cool confidence because when people send me horses to train, often it's for 90 days max or something. Sure. If I'm, you put the store on them or, and so then it's okay, so I got them walk, trot, cantering, and [01:14:00] doing little jumps or, but in 90 days, like I can do it on my terms and on my pace and I don't have to, explain why I'm doing one thing or I can feel it out and I don't have to have I have the pressure of the long-term goal, but yeah, I can take it how I want.
I'm so blessed that pasture place trusts me to feel it out and trust me fullheartedly with what I do. 'cause it is. It is woo. And, but I feel like the journey itself, and also sometimes you have to take sometimes you have to take a break.
Yeah. Sometimes they get a hoof abscess. Sometimes Chelsea gets Lyme disease. And and so I just I just love what the makeover has done for me, as a person, I feel so empowered by this journey. Yeah. I feel wow, I can accomplish something and I can see it through from beginning to end.
It's like training a horse is like making art, and every single one is gonna be completely different. Sure. And it's like [01:15:00] molding them and shaping them into, your, your own version of what you want. And it's gonna speak to some people. It's not gonna speak to other people.
It's and the journey's gonna not be what somebody else wanted. But at the end it's oh my gosh, we started with this and now we're here And for me, no matter what happens, I'm just proud of like how far we've come. And Absolutely. I think it makes it that much better when you can look at it with that perspective and you're not like, I don't know, I, it's just different, yeah. And everybody's on the same playing field, so it's not like you're like, oh, this person has a six figure horse and I'm not gonna, yeah. We're all the same playing field. It's so funny, Chelsea, because I, and I'm sure Emily can say the same, but every time we talk to you on the podcast, you say these things that I think give us chills.
And I've written down these five or [01:16:00] six things that I just took a picture of them with my phone. 'cause I, we keep notes while we're interviewing just to just have like little talking points or whatever. And then I think I have all of the good things that you've said.
And then you say one thing that just blows me away. And Emily and I both have the same reaction to you saying training a horse is like making art. 'cause we're all artists, the three of us are all artists, which is really special. That we all have both horses and art in common.
But yeah that's really beautiful. Thank you. Don't make me cry on here. I literally was gonna be like, nev, make sure you take a note of what the timestamp on that, to pull that quote out.
No very cool. I also have a full page of things I've written down that you've said oh my gosh. Stop it. Yeah. So you can see my notes are like a mess, but Yeah. And seriously you'll make me cry because I literally don't think that anybody should want to listen to what I have to say.[01:17:00]
Stop.
So after the makeover, here's a nice smooth segue. Are peppy and fuzzy going to be available for adoption or sale, or are they gonna be able to be tried at the makeover? Peppy. Yes. Peppy is available for adoption through Pasture Place. So that's obviously something I have to work on this week is his ad for the A.
I don't think you have to have that finished for, I don't think you have to have that finished for your final entry. I don't know. 'cause last year, because they put together, they just said like, when I filled out my final entry, it was like, are you planning on selling or are you planning on putting 'em in the marketplace?
And I said, yes. And they were like, which ad? Because, and it was this ad or this ad. Oh, because was your ad or a regular ad? Oh, recently, in my memories, a picture of Yui showed up. His sale ad picture that I did last year showed up. And it was like, oh, got this in by five o'clock, like [01:18:00] 4 59, thank God.
Oh. And so I was like, oh my gosh, did I miss it? All right, maybe Ill look into that. Because I remember you got that photo in under the wire. I do know they print the program Yes. So you may, alright, I'll look into it. Yeah, that's a good point. Anyway, so yeah, pep is available through Pasture Place.
Yeah, he's available through Pasture Place. He'll have a little listing at the rp. So they do the jumbotron and stuff. So he'll have a nice picture. I gotta pick one of his cute little jumping pictures, I think. 'Cause those are always really catchy. ' I did a confirmation picture of BIE last year and then when I got there I was like all these jumping horses look so cool.
So an action shot. Yeah. So I think I'll do the action shot of peppy this time and that makes my life easier 'cause then I don't have to plan a whole photo shoot. But but anyways, yeah, so peppy will be available and fuzzy will not be. And then I'm not sure we haven't really discussed like peppy can be tried at the makeover or if [01:19:00] somebody was interested in him now and wanted to reserve him for after the makeover.
I've had a couple people reach out about that for him. He has like a lot of interest. I'm sure, oh God, how many parts is this thing gonna be?
Probably two. Probably two. Shit. No, I looked at the time, I was like, oh my gosh. I just don't shut up. It doesn't feel that when we're talking to you. No, I don't feel like we're very close to the end. Yeah. Yeah. We're close to the end. Don't worry. No. But anyway, wrap it up Chelsea. Wrap it up.
Okay. Peppy Tryable fuzzy. So I co-own her with my neighbor and, Oh, that's right. Yeah. Yeah. I think, when we get done, she'll, either go back I think eventually they'd like to breed her. Okay. And, but in the meantime, I'm hoping to still continue to compete on her and actually she's so lovely.
I would love to keep her as a lesson horse 'cause she's so easy. Anybody could [01:20:00] ride her. She's just a dolley. That'll be amazing. Yeah. Yeah, that would be really cool. Awesome. I've taken her on Fox Hunt trail rides like the. Not hound walking. I'm not I live here in Fox hunt territory, but I don't dunno anything about, are you okay?
Fox hunting? I live in fox hunt territory. It's like the wild frontier, right? The northwest territory coming from New England, there's bears. It does seem like a big thing. We just have houses. It's okay. It's funny not to derail, but earlier when you were talking about disciplines, so you don't just add on.
I feel like fox hunting would be not an add-on. Now you have to prove that you're a part of a hunt. They tightened up the rules. I think, 'cause I feel like a lot of people were just , I'll just try blah, blah, blah. But also the hounds and there's, a lot of.
Potentially scary slash Yeah. Honestly, wild things going on [01:21:00] would've, I think Peppy would do amazing in that, but I'm not, yeah. I'm not a fox hunter. And nobody's gonna vouch for me. And you already had to, you already had to have that in you had to have that for your application. Exactly.
Okay, so I have a fun question for you, Chelsea, as we wrap up this episode, which is, if peppy and Fuzzy could talk right now, what do you think they'd say about their new jobs? I think fuzzy, I think is just a workhorse. She's just happy go lucky, ready to go out and do anything.
And she really she's really start getting into chasing the cows and I think she really likes that, but she's just game to do anything. I call her the female bie, they're just, oh, they're so cool, both of them. And they're just so game to do anything. And I just love a horse that I can send them balls to the wall at the end of a barrel racing run and then just sit up and say, whoa.
[01:22:00] And they just kinda walk out. They're fine, yeah. And then I'm drawing a picture of her right now with a towel. Hold on. Here's the picture. Hold on. There's the picture right there. That's a great picture. Oh, is it Now? I see it. Is that, wait, is that a cow?
It's a cow. It's like a dragon. That's a dragon. Oh my gosh. It's got horns. I love it. That's, I love it. Oh my gosh. So I think that I, that'll be the cover art for your episode. I love it. Please. Okay. And then for peppy, what would he say? And then peppy. I think that he would just be like, I don't know why you wanna put this western saddle on me.
All I'm supposed to do is jump. But I guess I'm willing to try it if I must. But no he's just. I'm not kidding. He was born to do this, be a hunter. I hope somebody's listening is I want my next tip hunter, because this [01:23:00] guy, he's gonna be somebody's tip hunter champion.
He could go and win the whole like go to championships and do so well. It's just what he was born to do. Not be a racehorse. You heard it here first guys. So looking for you. 2026. I'm pretty good at picking winners and manifesting. Oh, wait and manifesting. Hold on. Now you're picking winners. Yep.
I love it.
Chelsea, it is always so much fun catching up with you. Thank you for sharing your updates. And we will also, of course, post your contact info and pass your places contact info so people can reach out about trying peppy the Future Hunter Champion. And don't forget, for more behind the scenes updates and bonus episodes, come hang out with us on Patreon.
And if you like what you heard today, please leave us a five star review on Apple Podcast. It [01:24:00] really helps other people find our podcast. And you can find us on all social media. We're on Instagram, Facebook, and you can send us an email at www.otbontap.com. We love hearing from you. Cheers. I love to punk Neve by leaving not leaving a actual outro.